Hearts in Hawai'i
Our 2024 Minnesota State Parks Trip--Day 2
6/11/2024
Our State Park Exploration Begins with State Park #10--Afton State Park
I'm learning how to read Avenza Maps but ignorance was bliss today. Had I read the map correctly, we wouldn't have hiked the trail we did. I will explain.
The breakfast buffet here is good, not great. I would rate it slightly superior to that at the American and not quite as good as we found at the Best Western Plus we stayed at in Rapid City. The star today was the bacon. The scrambled eggs, nearly runny in texture, should have been thrown out.
The plan for today was initially to hike around Afton State Park and then drive north to William O'Brien State Park. The driving would be a slight pain in the buns at 210 miles total, roughly the same as we drove yesterday. After checking out the maps I realized that it would be easier to combine William O'Brien with a visit to Interstate State Park as part of a day trip from Duluth. So William O'Brien came off the list for this trip, leaving only a 74 mile drive each way to Afton.
Afton State Park has 20 miles of hiking trails and the two toughest are the 5.7 mile Trout Brook Loop and the 3.5 mile Deer Valley Loop. We decided to check out the South River Trail. It's rated as "flat" and this is true yet also misleading because, while the trail itself is flat, wide and easy, you have to walk down a long expanse of steps to get to the trail on the north end or climb back up a difficult, eroded trail on the south end.
Start of our hike!
St. Croix River
Another look at the St. Croix
On the South River Trail
Patty on the South River Trail
Patty climbing up that nasty grade at the south end of the trail
Almost done!
With Siri, finding these State Parks was easier and this held true with one notable exception which I'll explain on a future blog. With Avenza Maps, finding our way around these parks was simple. We always knew where we were, roughly how far we had left to hike and what elevation changes we might expect to find. The South River Trail would take us down close to the St. Croix River. There were a lot of steps as we descended toward this trail and logic should have told us that what went down would at some point have to go up! But the South River Trail was a fun one with beautiful views of the woods and the St. Croix River. Being a weekday, we only encountered one other person while hiking. Good if you like solitude, maybe not so good if you're concerned about coming across a sketchy person which in such an isolated location. Luckily, we found no such people during this trip or on our trip.
This trail runs south along the river and eventually does roughly a 180 and then starts to climb. And climb. I should have noticed this when looking at the Map. I didn't. Due to water runoff there was erosion in the middle of this trail so we had to stay to one side or the other while climbing up this steepness and over various branches along the way. It was a hell of a workout! I would have fared much better maybe a decade ago when I was in much better cardio shape. I kept thinking "Shit, I left my Nitrostat at home!" but with taking a few breaks along the way (no benches to be found here!) we eventually made it to the "summit" and fairly level ground. From here we still had about a mile and a half to walk--tired by the time we got back to our car! But worth it. The scenery in this park is wonderful.
The drive back to Rochester was easy other than a 5-mile stretch of construction which reduced traffic to one lane in each direction.
Patty and I had researched many of Rochester's restaurants prior to taking this trip, but you never really know what a given place is like; the ambience, the food, all that stuff. All you have to go on are the opinions of others and those (especially on Yelp) can by iffy with respect to their voracity. So we weren't sure what the Canadian Honker, just south of our hotel, was going to turn out to be.
It turned out to be one of our favorite restaurants in Rochester. It was already very busy when we arrived at 4:30 (which is generally a good indication of the quality of a restaurant) but were seated promptly. Our server, Katie, was very enthusiastic! They had a special on Lasagna as part of a Throwback To 1984 menu, apparently a bunch of menu items which they once served and had brought back for a limited time. When I saw Lasagna on the menu, I knew I must have it  . Patty's eyes caught the Vegetable Beef soup offered and she was similarly interested. Both items were excellent but Patty wasn't done; she wanted a Hot Fudge Sundae! Likewise, excellent. And their prices were very fair for what we got at only $45 pre-tip. If you're familiar with how restaurant prices have increased since COVID, you'll understand what a deal this is.
This restaurant was good enough that more than once we considered going back there over the next several days rather than try a new restaurant every evening.
My Lasagna at the Canadian Honker
Patty's soup
Previous: 6/10/2024--Our 2024 Minnesota State Parks Trip--Day 1
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