Day in the Life of an Idiot

 I was feeling restless today, so I stuck my finger down on a random page in a new hiking book that Shawn bought me, 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles of Minneapolis/St. Paul.  The hike that fate picked for me was the Cannon Valley Trail. I decided to not even really read up on it, but just go. So, I plugged the name of it into my GPS and off I went. 

The drive down was really quite lovely. The Cannon Valley Trail is south of the Twin Cities and stretches between Cannon Falls and Red Wing. There is a halfway point, a way station at Welch, which is where the GPS figured I must have wanted to go. The GPS also thought there was a lot of construction and so I was wound around Hastings and down several county roads I'd never been to before. 

The way station at Welch had a lot of amenities, so far as I could tell, especially if you were on bicycle--which this trail was really designed for. 


Image: A paved trail stretching out into the distance, It is surrounded on all sides by woodland. (Leaves are on the ground because of the severe drought conditions.)

According to the hiking book, the trail was developed on a railroad bedway. On my walk, I passed on of the old rail mile markers for the old Chicago Great Western line (mile marker 83.). I was mostly alone on this stretch. Or, rather, my companions were only with me for a few seconds as they whizzed by on their bikes. I could tell that at least one biker was very confused why I was walking the trail as, after calling out hello and thanking me for having stepped off the path as soon as I heard his wheels behind me, he said, "Nice day for a... well, hike, I guess?" and I was like, "Yes?" 

So, it wasn't actually 100% congenial to the hiker.

That being said, I did find a few things to enjoy on my random hike. I mean, I'd feel bad about having picked a dud, but I really did just decide to go with the first thing my finger landed on. The trail from Welch follows a stretch of Cannon River on which I could hear inner tubers having the time of their lives. I was a little regretful that I didn't pack a swimsuit. I might have considered renting a tube, myself.


Image: A view of Cannon River through the trees

Otherwise, the trail was straight and long and flat. As I have mentioned before, I am not against hikes that take you nowhere, but I am much more satisfied with a "destination" hike. I like to get to some sight or other and then turn around. As it was, I kind of felt like I was just marching along.  I did, at least, remember to stop and enjoy the flowers. There were several interesting flowers spotted on this hike. I've been noticing wild  purple bergamot all over and I caught a nice picture of a bumblebee inspecting a stand of them on this trail.


 A bee clinging to the petals of a pinkish wild bergamot.

I probably shouldn't have hiked at all today, however. The air-quality is the worst it has been in decades, thanks to the Canadian wildfires. I am kind of tempted to try this again tomorrow, as Shawn has to go into work. I also have a planned outing with some new friends to finally officially do the Pike Island Hike for the MN Hiking Club miles on Sunday.

If you're wondering what's up with all this hiking, it's not an exercise thing, so much as me trying out an empty-nest hobby. Mason is gone this week, visiting his best friend who lives in St. Louis, and so we have a small taste of what it's going to be like once he's gone and out of the house. Since I got so into hiking when we were up at Bearskin, I started wondering if I could do the Superior Hiking Trail some day, the way some people have an aspiration to do the Appalachian Trail. Shawn and I decided to aim for retirement. Her plan is to "glamp" (glamour camp) her way along the trail, either in an actual camper or at various hotels and lodges. She'll drop me off at the start of the day and pick me up at the end. I like this, because, even though it's probably considered cheating, I would much rather have access to a shower at the end of the day and, at my age, someone to check in and make sure I'm ALIVE.  


Image: Another native wild flower, the grey-headed coneflower on the trail.

So, that's the plan for empty-nesting.  At least so far.