Southeast Minnesota: Root River State Trail – October 2020

It had been a bucket list item for me and Leah to bike the Root River State Trail in southeast Minnesota. It’s 42 miles end-to-end of paved rails-to-trails bliss. The trail runs from the town of Fountain in the west to Houston in the East with Lanesboro being the most prominent town that it passes through. We had been kicking around the idea of biking the trail this autumn in order to see the fall colors. I was able to find us some lodging on the trail in the town of Rushford (all of the places I found in Lanesboro were booked for the weekend, and so was pretty much everywhere else that I looked along the trail).

The plan was to drive down Saturday morning and park the car in Fountain. From there we’d bike to the other end of the trail in Houston. Then we’d double back about a dozen miles and spend the night at a motel in Rushford. On Sunday we’d bike back to the car—with optional detours on the Harmony-Preston Valley State Trail to add some extra mileage.

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Day 1

We got up early(ish) on Saturday, had breakfast, and packed the car. It was about a two hour drive from our house to Fountain where we would be getting on the trail. We arrived at the Root River State Trail parking lot at about 10:30 AM and there weren’t many other cars—maybe ten at most. The DNR website had warned that because of the nice weather and the great time of year for fall colors the trail may be crowded. In Fountain that really didn’t seem like the case.

We unloaded the bikes from the car and then loaded all of our gear into the panniers strapped to our bike racks. We were technically bike touring. But only for one night. And we were staying at a motel. Definitely a more glamorous trip than a standard bike tour. But since it was just one night and we weren’t really conditioned to spending days on the road I decided that it would be more comfortable (and dare I say romantic?) to travel light and in style.

The first section of the trail from Fountain to the junction with the Harmony-Preston Valley State Trail was slightly downhill (though it wasn’t very noticeable until we were biking the other direction while coming back). We also weren’t following the Root Rover yet. Here’s a photo I snapped while we stopped so Leah could shed a layer as the sun was heating up the crisp October day.

We continued riding to Lanesboro. There happened to be a farmers market that was just about to end when we got to town so we decided to check it out. It wasn’t very big—just a few stands (and half of them were selling honey). Leah forgot to bring lip balm so she thankfully was able to purchase a bee balm from one of the vendors. Divine timing it would seem.

Next we walked the main street through Lanesboro and peeked at the stores and restaurants. The pandemic had obviously put a damper on some of the charm and quaintness of the town, but nevertheless there were people out and about. I noted the ice cream place that I was planning to have us stop at on our way back the next day.

We then walked up to the top of the hill in town where there were a couple of churches that we had spotted from below at the farmers market. We found a bench to sit on and we ate our packed lunch while looking down on the southern section of Lanesboro. There were also two Corvette enthusiasts from Iowa that had driven their cars to the top of the hill and posed them for dramatic photos. Here’s a photo that I took of the view (Corvettes not included).

Next we got back on our bikes and rode down the hill back to the trail. Well, I rode and Leah walked. Leah isn’t a big fan of steep downhills while riding a bike. We quickly came upon the town of Whalan (population 63) but continued riding without stopping to check it out. I did note that the sign for Whalan called it the home of the “stand still parade”. I guess that’s cool.

We passed a shirtless middle-aged white man riding a recumbent bike. He must have been trying to get some rays on one of the last hot and sunny days of the year. We stopped for a bathroom break just on the edge of Peterson (the next town along the trail). Some stranger asked us if we saw the shirtless guy riding the recumbent. I said we had. He said that guy’s out there every day riding the trail with his gut hanging out. It was an unpleasant thought.

We got back on our bikes and continued riding to the next town on the trail. We stopped in Rushford for an ice cream break at Creamery Pizza and Ice Cream. We also happened to be in the town where we would be sleeping that night, but we first had to bike another 13 miles in order to reach the end of the trail and then bike that same section back. Coincidentally, I had planned for us to get takeout pizza from Creamery Pizza and Ice Cream for dinner that night. They really had the market cornered on some of my favorite foods.

We rode out of Rushford and headed towards Houston, the final stop on the Root River State Trail. Along the way we crossed the river and stopped to take photos. Here’s Leah standing with the bikes.

And here’s one of me looking the other direction.

We didn’t hit peak fall colors on the trip (we were a little too late for that), but there were definitely still a lot of beautiful colors to see. The trail was mostly flat and followed the relative bends of the Root River. They call southeast Minnesota bluff country and it truly is spectacular to see hills and bluffs covered in reds, oranges, yellows, and greens. We may have missed peak colors, but we were lucky to be able to coordinate the trip with some amazing weather and still pretty darn good colors. Here’s another photo from the bridge.

We continued riding into the section that the map labels as having “relatively steep hills”. A little up and down but it wasn’t too bad. Pretty soon we made it to the town of Houston. We stopped at the trailhead and never actually rode into town and possibly missed out on the (presumably closed) International Owl Center. We did stop at the Houston Nature Center which was located next to the trailhead parking lot. There was a decent collection of trinkets and taxidermy animals. We purchased a used field guide of Minnesota reptiles and amphibians for $2. Quite the deal.

Our our way out of Houston I noticed something on the side of the trail. It was an analemmatic sundial which I guess is just a fancy way of saying a sundial that works based on different positions of the thing casting the shadow. This particular one used the shadow from a person standing on a corresponding month marker. In this photo, Leah is standing on “October”. And if you can read the sundial using her shadow, the time was approximately 3:50 PM. Pretty cool.

We made our way back to Rushford and checked into the motel. It was a decent place (we’ve definitely stayed in worse) but was a little pricey due to the demand in the area. The person working the front desk told me that in the last hour he had to turn away six people who had called to try to make last minute reservations. I guess I was pretty lucky to find a place to stay.

We parked our bikes in the room, unloaded our gear, and took showers. We had ridden about 55 miles that day. Nothing crazy, but we were glad to have a shower and a nice dinner coming up. We placed an order at Creamery Pizza and Ice Cream and walked to an off sale liquor store to get drinks. They didn’t have any single-serve beer options and I didn’t really want to buy a 4-pack. We bought a bottle of wine and brought it back to the motel.

Then we had the idea to check out the beer selection at the Kwik Trip in town. They had those massive cans of Bud and Bud Light and I decided to really treat myself and got the King of Beers. We also brought that back to the motel and stored it in the fridge (it tastes best cold). Then we headed to Creamery Pizza and Ice Cream to pick up our pizza. When we returned to the motel, Leah wanted to capture the moment so here’s me on the motel bed with the pizza and my oversized Bud.

We finished the pizza (though we both needed a break in the middle) and I was able to drink all of my beer. We watched a little football and then a bunch of episodes of Hidden Potential on HGTV. Eventually we also finished the bottle of wine and went to bed.

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Day 2

We woke up and had our pre-packed breakfast of Pop-Tarts. We loaded everything back up and hit the trail again. Our butts were feeling very sore. It reminded me of the good old days of bike touring with a constantly sore butt.

On the way back through Peterson we took a quick detour along the main road. Nothing seemed to be open on a Sunday morning. Before too long we were back in Whalan. This time through town we stopped and read some signs that were posted near the rest stop. We learned that for the stand still parade the participants sit (or stand) along one block in town and the parade attendees walk around and enjoy the non-moving parade.

An older couple (they said they were almost 85) stopped to chat with us for a little bit. They were from Green Bay, Wisconsin and were riding the trail in chunks over three days. One of them couldn’t believe how even though we were riding upstream he had been coasting for miles. He also told us that they were riding E-bikes, so maybe he just had forgotten to turn his off.

Next we rode to Lanesboro and stopped for a snack. Unfortunately, I wasn’t really interested in getting ice cream which kind of made a mess of my whole perfect plan to stop and get ice cream in Lanesboro. Oh well.

We had decided to ride the Harmony-Preston Valley State Trail as far as Preston and then turn back. Our butts were sore and my back was also feeling a little sore so we decided that we didn’t need to ride the entire Harmony-Preston Valley State Trail which would have made the whole day about 65 miles. Riding to Preston and turning around made the ride about 42 miles which seemed long enough. While in Lanesboro we looked up lunch options in Preston. We found out that the local sandwich shop in town was closed, possibly due to COVID. We decided to get a packed lunch from a restaurant in Lanesboro and take it with us to eat in Preston.

We continued on from Lanesboro and at the junction with the Harmony-Preston Valley State Trail we turned towards Preston. The Harmony-Preston Valley State Trail follows the south branch of the Root River from the trail junction until Preston. The trail was also very pretty.

We arrived in Preston and had lunch in a park by the trailhead. When we got back on our bikes to ride towards Fountain, our decision to cut the ride a little short was reaffirmed by how sore our butts were. We biked back the same section to the trail junction and this time turned towards Fountain. The ride to Fountain felt like one long shallow uphill. Not the most fun way to end the day.

We stopped at a cool section of the trail that was carved between two rock outcroppings and took photos of each other.

We got to Fountain and loaded our gear and bikes back into the car. The parking lot was again mostly empty. The Root River State Trail was kind of busy in sections, but mostly just the areas closest to Lanesboro. As we got closer to Lanesboro there seemed to be more and more people on the trail. And inversely, as we got further from Lanesboro there appeared to be fewer and fewer people on the trail. But all-in-all we didn’t have any issues with trail crowding and it seemed like we were there at a peak time.

We made a decision to detour slightly on the way home to stop at one of our favorite apple orchards—Whistling Well Farm. We bought some local maple syrup and cider and got a bag of Zestar! (an apple developed by the University of Minnesota). Leah also took my photo. Mask up.

It was a great weekend of bike riding and sightseeing made even better by the perfect fall weather. It also reminded me how much I enjoy bike touring. Minus the butt soreness part.