MN Sierra Club Outings

Park: Mississippi River Gorge

Meeting location: Loons Coffee’s outdoor patio: 4848 East Lake Street, Minneapolis, Minnesota

I will have a grey Specialized bike and a bright blue helmet. Be ready with your bike on the patio at 8:50 AM. If you come by car, there are several side streets to park and ride your bike over these.

Fees:
No parking fees. Yet if you are driving as a courtesy to the restaurant and store clients, we should park on the Minneapolis streets.

Outing Description:
This is an 8-mile bike tour along Minneapolis’s West River Parkway beginning and ending at Loon Coffee stopping at the Horace Cleveland Scenic overlook and biking across the Ford Parkway bridge continuing on St Paul ‘s Mississippi River Boulevard and then stopping at the Summit Avenue scenic overlook. We will then continue biking on Mississippi Boulevard over the Marshall-Lake Street Bridge and up to Franklin Bridge on West River Parkway returning to Loon Coffee. When we stop, we will also be looking and listening for signs of spring, like bird sounds and tree leaves. We will use an app on the phone to identify sounds of birds when we stop.

Optional After Meet Up: Loons Coffee outdoor patio after the bike tour.

Bike Rating:
Moderate paced around 8 miles per hour, some steeper trails going across the river and on the St Paul side. Paved but has some divots, three crossings of streets .