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Date: Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Time: 5:45-7:30PM (leave at 6PM promptly)
Start/End: Fridley Northstar Station west side – East River Rd. & 61st Ave.
Route options: 5 miles (or less), 10 miles (route map)

As part of Bike/Walk Week Twin Cities, I’m organizing an evening ride on the Mississippi River Trail in Fridley. This trail advertises “10 states, 1 river” as it goes from the Mississippi headwaters at Lake Itasca near Bemidji, Minnesota all the way down to the Mississippi delta and the Gulf of Mexico in Louisiana.

It will be a family friendly, leisurely ride. I will probably have my 3 year-old son in tow. The grade is pretty easy the whole way, minus some short dips down to the water line and back.

We’ll leave from Fridley Station on the west side by East River Rd. & 61st Ave. If it’s more convenient for you to arrive on the east side by University Ave. & 61st Ave., don’t fret! There’s a convenient underground pedestrian tunnel that goes under the railroad tracks between the east and west parking lots.

We’ll head out promptly at 6PM and go south along the MRT towards the Minneapolis Water Treatment Plant. Riders can turn around at any time if they’d like to ride less than 5 miles as the first part of our ride is simply out-and-back.

Then we’ll head back to Fridley Station to complete the 5 mile route, so those riders disembark. For those who want to continue on the 10 mile loop, we’ll continue north on the MRT.

We’ll turn west on Osborne Rd. and maybe stop for an ice cream cone. Then it will be south on University until we hook up with the Rice Creek West Regional trail which will bring us back where we started.

Update

We had a good turnout of 10 riders for the first (annual?) Fridley Bike Tour.

Riders had questions about certain landmarks which I wasn’t fully prepared to answer at the time, but I thought I’d cover them after-the-fact.

Landmarks

• Riedel Farm
• Minneapolis Water Treatment – someone asked if they do tours. This website indicates they are set up to, but doesn’t provide any details.
• Islands of Peace

Alternate Route

Instead of following the Mississippi River Trail up East River Road to Osborne, our riders opted to ride the more scenic & secluded Rice Creek Trail.  You can see our actual route from our GPS track.

Let me know what you thought and hopefully we can make this recurring event!