Saturday, June 13, I rode in the Spring Bike Fling bike ride from Walker to Hackensack and back. My back and hip was a little achy in the morning. I did some stretching and rode my bike a little and pushed on. I met my brothers Mike & Scott at Scott’s cabin. Scott was moving a little slow. We loaded up our bikes on the carrier on my truck and I drove to Walker. It wasn’t too busy and we found a place to park by the city park. We unloaded the bikes and got ready. We went to the park, signed a waiver, got our t-shirts, and some riding instructions. After dropping off our t-shirts, we were on the Paul Bunyon Trail towards Hackensack. Near the beginning of the ride, there is a spot were we needed to cross highway 371. Fortunately, there was an officer there stopping traffic, so we did not have to stop. The rest of the ride was very pleasant. It was a paved trail the whole way. We got away from the highway and went through the woods. There was some wind, but we were mostly protected by the trees. We stopped one time at a water stop. We did not need water, but they were giving away tokens for a dollar off beer at Rendezvous Brewing. Our ride from Walker to Hackensack was just over 13 miles and just under an hour and ten minutes. The trail lead us right to Rendezvous Brewing. The street was blocked off and there were food trucks, tables and live music. I went to get some eggrolls and Mike & Scott went to get beer. We sat outside, listened to the music and enjoyed our beer and food.

We didn’t want to get too comfortable so once we finished our beer, we got back on our bikes and headed north. We made the ride back with only a short stop at highway 371. There was not an officer there controlling the traffic, but we had less than a minute wait for an opening. We felt the wind a little more on the way back and there were a couple hills towards the end that took some effort to ascend. We made it back to the truck and we loaded up the bikes. From there it was a very short dive to Portage Brewing. We went inside and got a round of beers.

We sat on the porch and we could here some music from the driveway below. We were not supposed to take our glasses down, so we finished our beers and then went down. They had a couple beers available and we got a round in plastic cups. We sat and listened to the music. We met a man who had grown up in St. Cloud and knew the people and places we knew from our lives.

Before leaving Walker we made a stop at the Meat Boutique for some supplies and headed back to Widow Lake. We unloaded the bikes and I went to my place. I took a shower and relaxed for a while. That evening the family got together for grilling, beer, wine and conversation.