On the Munger Trail

Linda has been bicycling regularly at our lake cabin in an attempt to pedal 2000 miles during 2012.  I suggested that we drive over to Minnesota this weekend and get in a little mileage on the Munger Trail.  She was enthusiastic about the idea.  We covered about ten or twelve miles of it last year from Barnum down to Sturgeon Lake.

So this time we started at Barnum and headed north toward Duluth.


The Munger trail covers seventy miles between Hickley and Duluth.


It is paved and lies on the roadbed of the old Skally Line railroad that first connected St. Paul and Duluth back in about 1871.  It is generally a nice flat ride from Hinckley to Carlton.


We left the trail parking lot in Barnum and found lots of markers along the route.


The first town we encountered was Matowah and that deserves its own blog post.  Linda pressed on well beyond Carlton completing 42 miles on her round trip.  I prefer to stop and smell the roses so I only got in 26 miles.


Well, they weren't actually roses, this week, but some very pretty yellow flowers.  I have always wondered how Gold Finches survive when they are so visible at our home feeder.  When I saw one dart into these yellow flowers along the trail, the bird completely disappeared and I understood how they fit into the big picture.


In addition to Mahtowa. I only traveled far enough on the trail to see one other town, Atkinson.  It isn't very big compared to the thriving Mahtowa but the sign and a former church along the road make a nice picture.