The Long Way Home

Traffic Jam at Lake Harriet
Originally uploaded by Snak Shak

After surviving a long and difficult week, and perched on the leading edge of what promises to be a really nice Memorial Day weekend, I nosed my bike out of the IDS Center ramp resolved to take the long way home...

I have two obvious options when I want to take the long way. The East Passage involves a ride north to the Mississippi River and then down the River Road to Minnihaha Falls and on to the house. Option 2, the West Passage, is a ride south to 10th Street and then west to the Cedar Lake Trail for about 4 miles, then hooking on to the Greenway east for a mile or so, and poking around Lakes Calhoun and Harriet to the Parkway. The Parkway east then brings me home.

Today I opted for the Western Passage. The Cedar Lake Trail heading out of downtown is kind of a hell hole; MN DOT uses a lot of the area for dumping broken concrete and piles of suspicious looking soil. It gets better, though, and the rest of the ride is pretty nice, really. The last part of this segment, you get to look up at those people in Kenwood (figuratively and literally)

No stopping today except to snap a photo; more typically I just take a shot from the bike, such as the one above. Still, it was nice to take a slow meandering ride to end the week and avoid the speed, heat and noise of Portland Ave.