Lake of the Woods

For our first trip we decided to visit the easiest, shortest biking trail; you can read a short description here. It's only 6.6 miles, and appeared to be downhill most of the way both directions, however that works. We didn't plan ahead very well, so we had to get some supplies before taking off Saturday morning. First, we went to Meijer, but it didn't have the right size tube for my bike, so we had to make a trip to the bike shop, and while at Meijer we were supposed to get sunscreen and Off, but for some reason when we discovered we couldn't get the bike tubes we just left. So we had to go to Meijer again. In the end it took us and hour and a half to get flat fixing equipment, Off, and sunscreen. Finally, we were on the road.

When the author of our book said the hardest part about the trail was finding it, he was not joking. The entrance to the parking lot is unmarked and the driveway butts up against the bike path which has a no motorized vehicle sign visible from the road. We only passed it twice. Once there I had to tighten my bicycle seat, so I got my wrenches out and set to work. I had to set my wrench down several times while adjusting the seat and every single time it would take me about 5 minutes to figure out where I put it. Every time it was Ginnie's fault. She is very distracting. So we loaded our supplies onto my bike and we got going.

The ride was smooth, well shaded by lots of trees and, for the first half of the trail, almost empty due to a light shower. We worried the rain would end our day early, but when it stopped after a short while, we were wishing it would come back to cool us off. Fifteen minutes into the ride, I see some deer right next to the path and stop. I motion Ginnie to stop and tell her to be quiet, and she screams, "Is there a snake?!" Luckily, the deer must be used to people doing that because they didn't seem to care.

Here be the deer.










Next up, there was a cool covered bridge.


Off of the bicycle trail is a nifty little botanical garden. Ginnie took the reins on the camera which she treats like an automatic weapon. Rather than blowing our Picasa quota on our first trip, we picked a handful of pictures to show off.














Unfortunately, we didn't get a picture of the water monster. There was a large raised pool in the gardens, and several times we noticed movement in the water that made the level of the water rise for a moment and overflow. I expected at any moment for giant tentacles to reach and grab Ginnie, and all I could think about was how she had the camera so I would miss an awesome photo.

So ends our first biking trip, injury free, and no snakes.