Hike 30 - Minneopa State Park

My company continues to impress me with what they do for their employees. That has been extra clear through the COVID-19 pandemic and now George Floyd’s death and the resulting protests. It’s been a stressful time and they have found multiple ways to support all of us. On Thursday, my boss called and let me know they were giving me Friday off paid. It was a simple gesture, but greatly appreciated.

We decided to use it to get away - at least farther than we’ve been in awhile. We drove about an hour and a half to Mankato to explore Minneopa State Park. Minneopa is known for it’s waterfall, bison and more. Minneopa is a Dakota word meaning "follows the water, two waterfalls."

We started with the loop around the bison (they are fenced in) where we were able to stop at the Seppmman windmill overlook to see the bison from above and read about the mill history. The trail was fairly flat and partly shaded, but there were large patches in full sun so make sure to bring a hat and sunscreen. We were able to see the bison and their babies at the far end of the loop, from the overlook, and from our car when we drove through on the bison road.

Hike #: 30

Trail: Minneopa State Park

Location: Mankato, MN

Trail surface: dirt, grass

Date: May 29th, 2020

Jo: ★★★★

Jesse: ★★★★

Riley: ★★★★

We’ve been doing a lot of 2 - 3 miles trails so this one was nice as it ended up being just over 5 miles. Riley was a trooper and didn’t complain once. I overheat easily and might have complained more about this trail with the open sun, but it was a windy day which made it much more enjoyable.

From this trail, we hopped in the car and drove over to the water falls. This trail is less than a mile (although I understand that there were some off shoot trails that were closed off), but worth it. Things are still a bit closed down to COVID-19, but there were multiple buildings, shelters, open space, walkways, and of course the falls, to explore.

Hike 29 - Lake Phalen

I’m sort of embarrassed at how many local trails I haven’t explored in my 48 years, but luckily this hiking challenge is putting an end to that. I’d heard of Lake Phalen, knew it was on the other side of the river (for non-Minnesota folks, that would be on the St. Paul side while I’m on the Minneapolis side of the Mississippi), but never found a reason to venture there. Due to COVID-19, a lot of businesses are still closed which has forced us to either stay home or find something outside to entertain ourselves with. We live close to a couple lakes on the Minneapolis side that get quite crowded so I hoped that this lake would have less people to run into.

Turns out it was a good gamble. Plus, it had been a little wet recently so I selected a trail that was paved to avoid a muddy hike. This park had plenty of places to picnic, fish, a beach and beach house (currently closed), and a Chinese garden.

Hike #: 28

Trail: Lake Phalen

Location: St. Paul and Maplewood, MN

Trail surface: paved

Date: May 10th, 2020

Jo: ★★★

Jesse: ★★★

Riley: ★★★★★

Riley made up a story based on the name of the lake and deemed this a great place to boost your imagination hence her high score. I liked it well enough for a city, paved trail and would like to go back when more of the plants and flowers are in bloom.

Hike 28 - Murphy-Hanrehan

I think back to last spring and all the hikes we attempted, but were foiled with flooded trails and rainy weather and I am grateful for better conditions. Especially, since our ‘leave the house’ activities are limited by the COVID-19 stay at home order. Hopefully, we can make hiking more of a weekly thing now that we don’t have a bunch of other obligations (some of which I miss, of course).

The week before this, my in-laws called my husband and mentioned this trail close to them. They talked it up quite a bit so my husband suggested we check this one out. We headed out early as we tend to do, but were a little apprehensive by a fairly full parking lot. These things bring extra concern when you are supposed to be social distancing, but we noticed that most of the vehicles had bike racks and that most people were mountain biking and not hiking. We saw a number of people on the hiking trail, but it was far from crowded.

Hike #: 28

Trail: Murphy-Hanrehan Park Reserve

Location: Savage, MN

Trail surface: dirt

Date: May 2nd, 2020

Jo: ★★★★

Jesse: ★★★

Riley: ★★★★

This trail is also used as a cross country trail in the winter and we took the route that is opposite of the winter route. There were plenty of fairly flat areas, but also a number of inclines (and far fewer declines) which meant my glutes got a nice workout. It was a wide trail (for those cross country folks), but still had a nice nature-y feel to it.

We had a little confusion over if we were going to follow the 4 mile or 2 mile trail and ended up putting in about 2.5 miles which was fine. I’d totally go back to this trail - expecially after all the trees have bloomed. It was a bug free trail this time of year so I wonder what it will be like farther into the season. Maybe we’ll meet the in-laws here this summer to find out.