Do It Now: Spring
Miles to ride
Chances are, there's a great new bicycle trail near you.
In spring, bicyclists start looking for a good trail — and it’s always most fun to try a new one.
In Iowa, that would be the 25-mile High Trestle Trail north of Des Moines, which is holding its grand opening Saturday. In northeast Iowa, there’s the new Trout Run Trail.
We rode that last October, and it’s a stunner. The eight-mile paved trail (soon to be 12) circles Decorah along the Upper Iowa River and Trout Run Creek, lined with art works. It passes the Fish Hatchery and its famous bald eagles (now with three fluffy, quite large eaglets), then uses switchbacks to climb hills.
In northwest Wisconsin, the 14-mile
Stower Seven Lakes State Trail from Amery is wooded and
passes seven lakes, one with a sand swimming beach. It’s crushed limestone but packed for skinny tires. In Madison, the
Badger State Trail now connects to the Capital City State Trail, and in Milwaukee, the Hank Aaron (pictured) is longer.
A new trail and two state parks
A variety of scenery makes for a great day in southeast Minnesota.
Ah, the smell of creosote in spring.
On a gorgeous day in May, it’s hard to resist checking out a new bicycle trail, especially when the neighborhood includes two state parks famous for their wildflowers.
That’s how we found ourselves in southeast Minnesota on the brand-new Great River Ridge State Trail, riding over a maniacally winding creek on dozens of freshly timbered bridges.
First, we drove to little Carley State Park, where white pines line a sunken bowl in the middle of farmland. Thousands of bluebells and clouds of false rue anemone covered an oxbow in the North Branch of the Whitewater River, but we were the only ones on the trails.
The mushrooms are coming
The search is on for the wily morel.
This year, nothing is normal about the advance of morel mushrooms.
Usually, they appear in Iowa in late April and peak on Mother's Day in southeast Minnesota, southwest Wisconsin and southern
Michigan.
But this spring, nearly all of the Upper Midwest was cool, then freakishly warm. Parts have been soaked, and other parts are dry. So morels have popped up in patches, grays and blacks first, depending on which areas have had rain.
It's tough to know where to hunt, but you'll find clues at the Morels.com message boards and on Facebook pages for Michigan, Iowa and Minnesota.
Work for food (and lodgings)
In spring, do chores or clear a trail and get a free or cheap trip.
Have you ever wondered who keeps your favorite hiking trail open?
It's not Mother Nature. She's the one downing trees and making brush grow over the path.
By helping maintain and build trail, you can do good and also get a free or cheap trip, and sometimes donated goodies. Lodges and nature centers also could use a hand. It's win-win for everyone.
Here are some of the opportunities in May.
The season's first ship
For a free trip to Duluth, guess when the first saltie will arrive.
In Duluth, the first ocean-going vessel to pass under the Aerial Lift Bridge marks the arrival of spring — on Lake
Superior, anyway.
Every year, the city and the Duluth Seaway Port Authority sponsor the First Ship Contest, with the person who most closely guesses the exact arrival time of the first ocean-going vessel winning an all-expenses-paid trip to the port town.
Oceangoing ships can enter the St. Lawrence Seaway on March 25, when the Welland Canal opens. Inter-Great Lakes shipping starts when the Soo Locks in Sault Ste. Marie open — usually March 25, but March 21 in 2010.
In 2011, the Cyprus-flagged Federal Leda arrived April 11, just a day shy of the record for late arrival. It was picking up a
load of pasta wheat to take to Italy.
Without reservation
If there's a big festival in your future, stake out space as soon as possible.
In summer, only the foolhardy travel without reservations.
Big events can eat up every room and campsite in an entire region, especially if the event is in a small town.
In central Iowa, more than 100,000 people go to Pella Tulip Time in May
(pictured), which the American Bus Association regularly chooses as one of the Top 100 Events in North America.
In northeast Iowa, 75,000 people go to Decorah for Nordic Fest in July, filling rooms between Lanesboro and La Crosse.
Finally, the Bunyan is done
Last stretch of paving creates a 106-mile trail between Bemidji and Brainerd.
In Minnesota lakes country, the last stretch of the Paul Bunyan State Trail between Bemidji and Walker was paved this week, creating the biggest, brawniest trail system in the north woods.
The Bunyan now stretches 106 miles from Lake Bemidji State Park to Brainerd-Baxter.
Add the Heartland State Trail from Park Rapids and the Migizi Trail around Cass Lake, and bicyclists now can ride 162 miles without getting off a paved bicycle trail, except for three miles of city streets in Bemidji and Cass Lake.
“It’s going to be quite the system,’’ says Tony Walzer of the DNR’s Bemidji office, who shepherded the northern half of the trail through interminable construction and a property owner’s unsuccessful appeal to the Minnesota Supreme Court. “It’s about time.’’
Good deals
Grab a Deals in the Dells card at Culver's.
If you're planning a trip to the Wisconsin Dells with kids, the free Deals in the Dells card from Culver's restaurants will save you a ton of money.
One adult can get up to four free admissions for kids 11 and under to the Kalahari, Mount Olympus and Chula Vista water parks, the Upper and Lower Dells boat tours, two Ducks tours (pictured), two jet-boat adventures, the new BigFoot zip line, the Tommy Bartlett Show and five rides at Noah's Ark Waterpark.
It's also good for free kids' admissions at the nearby International Crane Foundation, Circus World in Baraboo and and House on the Rock in Spring Green.
Lodgings also are discounted with the card, and campers get a free bundle of firewood. Deals are good through Labor Day. Pick up the card at your local Culver's, but call first to make sure it's in stock.
Work for food (and lodgings)
In spring, do chores or clear a trail and get a free or cheap trip.
Have you ever wondered who keeps your favorite hiking trail open?
It's not Mother Nature. She's the one downing trees and making brush grow over the path.
By helping maintain and build trail, you can do good and also get a free or cheap trip, and sometimes donated goodies. Lodges and nature centers also could use a hand. It's win-win for everyone.
Here are some of the opportunities in May.
Gotta have a twist cone
When the mom-and-pop ice-cream stands open, happy days are here again.
April may be for lovers in Paris, but around here, it’s for lovers of soft-serve ice cream.
The best-loved drive-ins and stands have opened for the season, to the delight of their fans. In the Wisconsin town of Stevens Point, they pitched tents March 3 so they could be first in line when Belt’s Soft-Serve opened at 11 a.m. March 5.
Belt's is a find, for sure. When I stumbled on it one warm April day, it was mobbed. I got a $1.25 junior twist cone the size of an Olympic torch and watched people feeding free Puppy Cups to their dogs and eating flurries topped with peanut-butter cups the size of a brownie.
I look for these mom-and-pop spots everywhere I go; they were common, before the arrival of a certain franchise.
Planning ahead
Tour a tall ship, reserve a campsite, find the mother lode.
If you want to go to one of the big tall-ship festivals this summer, make your plans now.
Tickets for the Duluth tall-ship festival go on sale at 10 a.m. tomorrow. See eight ships in Duluth (pictured, the German ship Roald Amundsen), 12 in Green Bay (tickets go on sale May 10) and 18 in Chicago (sailing tours go on sale May 3).
If you haven't made camping reservations, you're not too late at state parks in Iowa, which accepts them three months in advance (Backbone is a great one), and South Dakota, which takes them 90 days in advance for both campsites and for air-conditioned camper cabins, which rent for $35-$45 and are very popular.
Like wildflowers, morel
mushrooms are early and should be popping up soon wherever a soaking rain is followed by warm temperatures. Check the
message boards at Morels.com (take some of the "tips'' with a grain of salt) and the
Morel Mushrooms Facebook page.
Road Trip/Wildflowers in bluff country
On two sides of the Mississippi, see thousands of lovely blooms in one day.
In May, the shady forests and sunny hillsides of southeast Minnesota and southwest Wisconsin erupt into blooms.
The varied terrain of bluff country provides the region's best and widest array of wildflowers, all within a 50-mile radius. Here's a road trip on which you can see them all.
Start in Carley State Park, four miles south of Plainview, Minn., to see masses of Virginia bluebells. Then drive east to the woodland canopies of Whitewater State Park, where you'll find the full array of ephemerals: trout lilies, spring beauties (pictured), hepatica, bloodroot, false rue anemone, bellwort, marsh marigolds and Dutchman's breeches.
From Whitewater, drive southeast to Mound Prairie, a state
natural area between Houston and Hokah, just north of the Root River.
Culinary getaways
On artisan farms, help pick your own dinner, then dine alfresco.
These days, cooking classes have forsaken the classroom for the great outdoors — because that's where good food comes from.
In Minnesota, Scott Pampuch of the Corner Table restaurant in Minneapolis has founded Tour de Farm, which celebrates artisan farmers with a series of outdoors, family-style dinners, each with four or five courses and wine pairings, $150.
On June 27, Pampuch and Michelle Gayer of the Salty Tart will cook at Tangletown Gardens Farm in Plato, just west of the Twin Cities, near Glencoe.
On July 18, John Radle of Grand Cafe in Minneapolis will cook at Cedar Summit Farm in New Prague. On Oct. 10, Scott Graden of
Duluth's New Scenic Cafe will cook.
Snap up copy of new biking guide
In Wisconsin, new trails await bicycle tourists.
In Wisconsin, the best guide to bicycling is free.
Destination bicycling began in Wisconsin, which became the pioneer of rail trails when it opened the Elroy-Sparta State Trail in 1967. It's still the leader, and every year, it gives away 50,000 to 75,000 copies of its excellent Wisconsin Biking Guides.
The seventh edition came out in 2008, and avid cyclist Phil Van Valkenberg has included a fresh batch of trails and routes in his biennial guide, which spotlights 10 touring trails, 10 mountain-bike trails and 10 on-road tours.
He's featured the new Badger State Trail, 34 miles from the Madison exurb of Fitchburg to the Illinois state line, where it connects with the Jane Addams Trail and continues 13 miles to Freeport, Ill.
Friend us on Facebook
Watch for cool events and new picture galleries.
Check out MidwestWeekends’ new page on Facebook. We’ve posted a gallery of spring wildflowers, from the mid-April pasqueflowers to early-June orchids, with tips on where to find them. Coming up: galleries of roadside concrete folk art and giant mascots.
We’ll also post one-of-a-kind events as soon as we hear about them. Right now, you'll want to order the Minnesota state parks' Special Events Guide to find out about summer programs. Many fill quickly, such as Lake Bemidji’s free pontoon-boat tour on June 24.
And in Wisconsin, the River Alliance of Wisconsin has released its list of summer excursions, which also fill; one to watch for is its Milky Moonlight paddle through Milwaukee on Aug. 5.
A room in the Zona Romantica
In a Puerto Vallarta neighborhood, a B&B fosters friendships.
In Mexico, few vacationing Midwesterners overlook the beach. But they may overlook something just as nice.
Mexico has beach resorts, but it also has B&Bs — lots of them. They were there long before high-rise, all-inclusive, American-style resorts brought in crowds of sun-starved Midwesterners on package tours.
And in Mexico, B&Bs tend to be self-selecting: Guests are there because they don't want to be at a resort. At least, that was true of the ones staying at Puerto Vallarta's Casa Andrea, where I had more fun hobnobbing with other travelers than I've had since I was 19 and traveling around Europe, staying in hostels.
We were all gringos — Americans, Canadians, Norwegians — but we wanted a more authentic Mexican experience, and we liked meeting other people. In the flower-filled courtyard, we traded stories and information over morning pastries and evening mojitos. Larry and Kathleen of Ottawa had just finished their fifth long driving tour of Mexico and gave us tips on renting cars and good places to stay. We told them about a good place to spend the day at the nearby beach.
Guest List/Andrew Slade's Top 5 North Shore campgrounds
Guest list.
Andrew Slade of Duluth has camped in 27 states and five provinces and is the author of the new "Camping the North Shore''
(There and Back Books, $14.95). His book includes descriptions of campsites on inland lakes and rivers as well as Lake
Superior and suggestions on what to do while there: swim the Baptism River, hike the "Lake District,'' paddle Crescent Lake.
If you'd like to try something new on the North Shore, this is the book to have.
"Camping is the best way to experience the North Shore," Slade says. Here are his top five campsites for North Shore adventures:
Split Rock Lighthouse State Park. Cart-in sites are an adventure on their own, but the trails and beaches in the park are great for exploring.
Baker Lake. It's a tiny, free campground literally on the edge of the BWCA, with a fun day trip for the beginning wilderness paddler.
© Beth Gauper, 2007 - 2012 all rights reserved
