This past weekend we had the fun of going on a little biking trip on the Paul Bunyan Trail. A had wedding flowers to do on Saturday and we were having trouble finding campgrounds so we didn't leave until after church on Sunday. My sister Keren took us down South of Walker and dropped us off. At the drop off place their was a pond that the kids had fun exploring around.
I did find a campsite for Sunday night (For $50 a night!!!) so we were all packed up to go hiking. Jonathan is using a bigger bike this year so I had to make him new pannier bags (The brown ones in the photo below) and Aaron got his old ones. This is the first year that he has had a rack and pannier bags.
We were running late getting started and so we didn't actually get on the trail until around 3:30 pm. We also hadn't researched the trail or the options of starting places very well so we ended up having 21 miles to go to reach the campground. 8 of those miles consisted of big hills as well. It was a very pretty, winding and hilly trail in that area. We enjoyed it but it did wear us out.
Jonathan was needing to rest after some big hills. |
Aaron and Mara on a flatter stretch. |
The next morning I went to check out the bay we were camping on. It was on Leech lake but from their campground it just looks pretty weedy. It was pretty anyway.
Getting packed up on Monday morning. |
Sumac. We collected some of this and are looking forward to making something similar to lemonade with this. |
We we surprised to find a bunch of wild grapes. Mara picked quite a few and we plan on making jelly. |
Wild plums. These aren't ripe yet but I am hoping maybe we can ride back to get some when they are. |
Echinnacia. I collected some leaves to use for tea. |
We also saw quite a bit of Wild Asparagus which off course is not in season right now but we are hoping to go find it next spring. We also saw other herbs and greens, wild chokecherries that could be picked right now, a few hazelnuts, and strawberry and raspberry plants. I am sure there was a lot we missed as well.
Here is Megan out of the trailer to stretch her legs on Monday. We rode 37 miles on Monday.
Once we got back to our town we had fun eating supper at a yummy Mexican restaurant. We had packed all our other food and we could have made it home to eat but we enjoyed filling up on food with out doing any more work that night.
It was another fun bike trip and now we are thinking about our next one.
2 comments:
How fun! I hope to do things like that at some point. My kids love biking and my daughter rode (on her tag along) behind my husband last week for 11 kilometres there and back to a town 2 towns over. They had so much fun and she did great even though its very hilly. I cannot go right now as I am too dizzy. My girls love biking!
I had to laugh at "Leech lake" I am not sure it would be the best place for swimming! :)
It looks like you had a wonderful time. I love that you do so much bike riding. What a fun family adventure.
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