Today was the first real day of riding, starting in Albany, MN, about 90 minutes west of Minneapolis. We stayed in a motel there last night, and this morning we packed up our panniers for four days of riding and headed out! We’ve planned this trip ourselves this year, and it was quite the ordeal figuring everything out, booking places to stay, etc.
We’re riding parts of three different longer rails-to-trails options, starting with today’s combo of a portion of the Lake Wobegon Trail, linked up with the first section of the Central Lakes Trail. When we were first planning the trip, we initially thought we’d do the entirety of the three different trails, but when we realized that meant we’d have to ride 60-65 miles a day, when we’ve never ridden more than about 45 miles in one day on any of our other adventures. After sleeping on it for a day or so, we decided that we would cut the trails short by staring farther along, so that we didn’t ride more than 45 miles/day. And man are we glad we made that change.
Today was a beautiful day, but it was only in the 50’s when we started out, and quickly realized we’d be riding into a fairly strong, cool headwind all day! We persevered though, and it was so worth it. Here’s a selection of photos from the day…
Tomorrow, it’s on to Fergus Falls!
