Century #8: Central Lakes Trail

(Click on the image to see the full route.)

Finished up a great century today. It was actually 130 miles in total so I got 30 bonus miles out of the trip. The plan was to ride from Alexandria, Minn to St. Cloud, Minn which would have been 140, but I'll get to that later.

The Central Lakes Trail is a "Rails to Trails" route that cuts through Minnesota. Because it originally was used for trains, the route is relatively flat. No sudden hills, just a lot of gradual stuff. On the plus side, there were no hills to climb. On the other side, there were no downhills which means I was pedalling the entire time. No coasting on this route.

I was delayed by an hour in the morning due to rain. Once it cleared up I was out the door. The path is fantastic. This is probably one of the best overall routes that I have been on. It's not perfect. There are a few flaws in the path, but you can't argue with a trail that is 14 ft across with plenty of room to share the space with walkers, runners and other bikers.

The majority of the towns that the path passes through has made the immediate area really nice. Picnic tables, benches, garbage cans, bike racks and other simple amenities really make the area look nice. Kudos to everyone who has bought into the concept of a large bike path to make the communities look good.

In case you can't see the map, the towns that I passed through were:
Alexandria (starting point)
Osakis
West Union
Sauk Center
Melrose
Freeport
Albany
Avon
St. Joseph

I had originally planned to finish up in St. Cloud before turning around, but the path came to an abrupt end in the St. Joseph. I could have hopped on the Hwy 75 (which has some nice shoulders for riding), but I was happy with where I was at the time. So I grabbed some lunch at a Subway and turned around to head home.

The most ironic thing when comparing Minnesota to Indiana is that Minnesota has better developed trails than Indiana, but has a riding season that is at least two months shorter in a large part of the state. It is obvious that bike riding has far more support in this state than Indiana, which is pretty disappointing because there is a lot of potential there.

I'll get the pictures up later in the week.