I'm out in the evening, with maybe an hour and a half or two before sunset, and I'm in the mood for pure exercise/mediation. I have to run an errand first, though. I need to peddle by the East Lake Library and return a book. That has me cycling up the bike lane on Minnehaha, so I take the opportunity to grab a couple of long overdue shots (there is one more I wanted, as well, but the activity in front of the store made me think this was not the most opportune time).
As I said, I want exercise and mediation, so after I accomplish these tasks, I zip the camera away in the back trunk and settle in for a ride. It seems like a good day to try my old Downtown Loop. This is my favorite "mixed ride" – it's a mix of urban and green space, long stretches of clipped-in trail peddling and unclipped stop-and-go street riding.
The ride has 6 distinct stages, not counting the segments getting to and back from the trails:
1. Down the LRT (Light Rail Trail). This is always a fun cruise through light industrial spaces and behind those biker bars (the other kind of biker), next to the light rail stations at Franklin and Cedar/Riverside. I usually see African kids playing soccer on the tennis courts by the freeway and it's fun to weave slowly between the African ladies who are usually walking on the next stretch of trail in their multiple layers of fetching, brightly colored and pattered wraps and scarves.
2. Hang a left at the Metrodome on 11th Ave. Here it's good to have at least one foot unclipped as this starts the part of the ride where you sometimes have to deal with heavy car traffic. Today, though, it's like a ghost town, and it makes for easy sneaking (cheating the red lights if there is no cross traffic). Snake down the sidewalk through Elliot Park, where some of the local fellas are usually playing basketball (and they are today, too!) Head up 9th Street – here is where you really need to watch it as you'll probably get caught at one red light after another ... even when there is no cross traffic, the usual MPLS scheme applies – lots of stop and go for no apparent reason. For this reason it's tempting to sneak, but this means concentrating carefully ... I once hesitated at a red light, thinking I was going to sneak, then thinking better of it as a car sped up a one-way street out of nowhere; I couldn't get unclipped in time, crashed to the pavement and gashed my knee open. Yes, a nasty accident at 0 mph. Nothing like that today though – thanks to Easter Sunday there's next to no traffic and I'm able to sneak effortlessly through one light after another.
3. Hang another left and ride up Nicollet Mall. It's always fun to bike up this street as 'regular' cars aren't allowed – just buses, taxis, and cops. Strangely they limit the hours that bikes are allowed here; I never understood that. I also always thought it would be better to make this a complete pedestrian-only zone and run the buses up the two parallel streets on either side. It would be a lot more pleasant to dine outside or have a drink at one of the many sidewalk cafes here without the roar (and diesel fumes) of buses. But, as I said, it's always fun to bike up here, especially in summer when there are lots of folks sitting outside drinking and dining. Lots of good people-watching (and lots of people watching the bikers) and that almost carnival atmosphere of crowds and freedom.
4. Go right up onto the Loring Greenway, a surprisingly under-known and under-appreciated urban passageway for peds and bikes. It's a shady, pleasantly landscaped, almost European space, and I just love coasting down, slaloming slowly down to Loring Park, a gem in its own right. Here you can fly down the hill and grab the curves ... just watch out for unaware peds, dog-walkers, lovers, etc. – there are typically plenty of them here. But not today; it's relatively abandoned, just one middle-aged woman who gives me a pained look, as though it is just too difficult to get her dog, on a long leash, off of my side of the trail, even though she sees me coming from the top of the hill and has plenty of time to tug him over if she wants to. I love this park, though; the mixture of urban and nature is truly remarkable. I even once saw a bittern in the reeds along one of the ponds – just once, but that was enough. After snaking across the semi-gated bridge, it's up and across the heavily-trafficked Lyndale Ave. It's important to wait your turn here -- do not try to sneak! Still :Keep an eye out for wacky drivers here! Just because you have a green light and a ped crossing signal does not mean that some car-bound jacktronaut will not force you out of your lane or onto the sidewalk. Today it's no problem, though, stress--free and mellow. When I get across I break with my plan of just riding and not photographing. I've been so critical of the new Guthrie that I decide to stop and grab a few quick shots of the old one – or the spot where it once stood anyway.
Isn't it nice to know that the fine, old Ralph Rapson-designed building was erased from the landscape so that passersby could admire this bare hillside? I'm sure they have some plans for this space, and it will, eventually, be put to better use. But for now, we have this patchwork of mismatched sod to contemplate, and the new Guthrie to admire, with all the charm of a lurid slaughterhouse. Not to be overly critical.
5. Anyway, it's great day to be on the bike and swing around tiny Spring Lake, then sneak under I-94 to grab the "bicycle highway," the wonderful Cedar Lake Trail. This is a great stretch of divided trail, interstate highway style, with posted exits, on-ramps and all, that takes one from heaping scrapyards and remnant snow-heaps into a lovely green corridor. It's great chance to clip in and stretch out – a great opportunity for exercise and/or pure meditative riding. The trail takes you all the way uptown, with only a couple of road crossings where (most) of the cars yield to bikers. Today is sublime, quiet, and wonderful – the trails slips back up between Cedar Lake and Lake of the Isles, taking me to the last segment of the ride.
6. The last segment also provides a good, long stretch of clipped-in riding: the Midtown Greenway in all its glory. There is usually great people-watching along this stretch as well. Typically I just fly back to Midtown on this arrow-straight ribbon of trail that sits in an old railway bed down below the streets, but today there is a bit of a headwind, and there is some labor required. But, no worry, I just go steadily, in deep mediation, with no desire for speed today. By the time I make it to my trail exit at Hiawatha I realize I have gotten a bit of a workout. And I've seen a good bit of the city. And I've meditated. I'm calm and at peace. Easter is my new favorite holiday.
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