Lake Wobegon Trail (Grand Forks ND Trip, Day 2)

Today we push on across Wisconsin into Minnesota, through lush farmland under perfect driving conditions: 70 degrees, blue skies, and a good road (I-94). For lunch, we find a good rest stop with a shaded picnic table.

Marcia leading the way on a
Minnesota Rails to Trail bike ride

Just west of St. Cloud, at Avon, we pull off to bike a piece of the Lake Wobegon Trail, a rails-to-trails biking and walking trail.  At the trailhead, we meet a couple on recumbent bikes, who recommend we drive to Holdingford, about 10 miles North (where there is a covered bridge) and pedal about 7 miles to Bowlus for dinner at Jordie’s Trail Side Café. 

We take the couple’s advice and drive to Holdingford. Late on this perfect summer day, we ride through forests, wetlands and farmland on well-graded asphalt and over wooden bridges.  At Jordie’s, in a former hotel across from the train station, we eat good barbequed ribs, sitting at a wooden glider with a table and canopy, set in the owner’s garden.

It is after 9:00pm but still light when we pull into Prairie Cove Campground in Ashby, Minnesota, halfway between Minneapolis and Fargo on Route 94.  The campground, on a rise overlooking two lakes and a cornfield, is clean and well-maintained, but only half full.  Sadly, the couple who owns it expect this might be their last year in business.