Skip to the ride racap

When: Saturday June 6th, 2015 – Departing around 2:15PM, other activities before (see below)
Where: Islands of Peace Park, Fridley, MN
Route: 7.5 miles – Mississippi River Trailer down to Reidel Farm, then over to Main St. and up to Banfill-Locke Center for the Arts – Route Map

After very mild first and second bike tours, Fridley is starting to get behind the bike tour idea… It’s at least on the official Fridley website calendar this year 😎

Path

Fridley was recently awarded the Blue Star Award. As part of the celebration, an event that coincides with National Trails Day will be held on June 6th. There will be kids events at Banfill-Locke Center for the Arts starting at 10 in the morning and then the celebration continues at Islands of Peace Park.

At 1PM, the Mayor will give a national trails proclamation. Then the community band will be playing an hour long concert. The bike tour is set to depart around 2:15PM, after the band concert.

This will be a family friendly, leisurely ride. I’ll probably have at least one kid in-tow, so feel free to bring your kids along!

We’ll head south on the Mississippi River Trail towards Reidel Farm. I’m hoping to brush up on my history before the ride in case anyone asks about the farm’s significance. Then we’ll cross over the Northtown Yard via the 44th Ave. bridge. We’ll cross into Columbia Heights briefly on the other side of the bridge before getting back into Fridley proper via Main St.

We’ll continue north on the Mississippi River Trail to Locke Lake. We’ll make a short stop at Banfill-Locke Center for the Arts. Then we’ll head back south to Islands of Peace.

Update

After shaking hands with the Mayor during the National Trails Day Proclamation, we listened to the Fridley City Band play some “water music.” One tune was an 80s medley which I believe contained the Police Academy march. I certainly had the tune my head the rest of the day, so I thought I’d share this earworm:

After the concert, it turned out that it would be just myself, a city employee and commissioner on the bike tour. I had contemplated choosing a more friendly and scenic route (having ridden my original route 2 days before). But now was my chance to show city staffers the good, the bad, and the ugly.

The Mississippi River Trail (MRT) for the most part is good.

The bad 44th Ave. bridge was revisited. This time we crossed paths with a pedestrian going the other way on the bridge. He had to stand on top of the jersey barrier while I walked my bike (with trailer) past him because the space is so narrow.

Then we went back north on the ugly part of Main St. It is supposed to have a bike lane the whole length of it, but Anoka County wouldn’t have anything of it. So instead we’re left with the “World’s Shortest Bike Lane” – 4 blocks from 57th to 61st. The part of Main St. that is not a county road. 🙁

Hopefully we can get some of these things remedied by next year!

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