Saturday bike ride

I keep thinking every bike ride of the season will be my last.  See here and here for rides for the past couple weeks.  I got out for a bike ride really late today.  I left around 3:00 and the sun sets around 5:00.  I tried a different route today along the river.  The route is new for biking but definitely old hat for running.  I did what the locals call the Franklin Ford loop.  Part of this route is also known as "miles 17-21 of the Twin Cities Marathon". 

This route takes me past Lake Hiawatha, which was gorgeous with the sun over it.  I wasn't the only one out admiring it.  This picture was taken from the street, not the running trail I'm normally using. 

 
I took the Minnehaha Creek trail to the Hiawatha Trail (which I was on for about three seconds) before getting dumped onto the river parkway.  There were lots of bikes out, but not so many that it was annoying.   All the bikers were of good humor, probably also enjoying what they think will be their last rides.

The river parkway in Minneapolis is one of my favorite trails for riding.  It helps that it has been repaved fairly recently so it's a super smooth beautiful ride.  This is the first time I've gone over the Franklin bridge on a bike.  The bike lane is great for riders continuing east on Franklin Ave but a little exciting for riders like me who are trying to take a right onto the river parkway.

The river parkway on the east side of the river (mostly in St Paul) is not so well paved and was less fun to ride.  There's a shared bike/running trail and a bike lane on the street.  Neither one is super smooth or well paved so I tried to get through St Paul as fast as I could.  I did snap one picture of the river on my way.  Most of the river views are obstructed by trees but there was a clear spot here by Lake Street.

I took the Ford Parkway bridge back into Minneapolis and snapped one last picture of the Mississippi River.  I've been told the water level is still very low, a stark contrast to this summer when the river was so high. This is looking north, the bridge in the distance is Lake Street, about 1.5 miles away.