A long walk

I took a long walk today, far longer than I had intended.  Since I have been here, I have been intrigued by the Lake Wobegon Trail, a 45 mile long rail-to-trail that starts in St Joe.  I have always wondered what it was like--while it is supposed to be a nice trail, I was having a hard time imagining where it went and what you might see.  It was as I imagined, flat and straight.  It runs through farms and fields, and some third-cut forests, though they are more woodlots than forests.

Still, I wanted a long walk, and this was a 45 mile long trail.  I wasn't aiming for that distance but I thought that I could get five miles out of it.  I was alone, so I wasn't heading to another destination. The the plan was to walk out the trail, and then simply turn around and head back.  Not the most exciting jaunt, but it was what I could do.  I started out at 10AM, and got back to my car at 1:45.  I guess that was a long enough walk, though it mainly turned out that long because I was hoping I would see something exciting a little further along, jsut a bit further.  That didn't happen though I kept walking and hoping.  By the time I gave up on that idea,  I was about 4.7 miles from St Joe.  Great.  I was feeling fine, and could have happily jumped in the car and headed back home, but that car was 4.7 miles away.  Let's just say it was a LONG walk back to the car.  Total, if my math is correct, my walk was 9.4 miles.  I plodded that route at my stately, lumbering rate of around 2.74623 or so miles per hour.  Oh well, slow and steady wins the race.  Or something.

At first, or for the first three or four miles, I was disappointed by the scenery.  My last jaunts like this were along the ocean and and in the mountains--this was pretty different and I judged it harshly.  Then I realized that I actually was seeing some of the best and most representative "things" of Minnesota.  It was green and pretty lush--the drought that has slammed most of the Midwest has skipped this area.  Green and red tractors danced and roared in green and yellowing fields.  The sky was blue, it was hot and humid, the mosquitos were out and though I only strayed from the black-topped path twice for photos, I had to brush wood ticks off both times.  The people further demonstrated that it was truly  Minnesota.  Every biker, roller-blader, runner or walker I saw on the trail greeted me with at least a "hello, how you doing," and most asked a polite question about either the weather or whether or not I was "out here taking picture?"  Clever folks, these Minnesotans, but I think the three cameras I was carrying might tipped them off.

This is Minnesota.  Nothing flashy, but nice, and a good place to be.  I was pretty tired and more than a bit sore and sweat-stained by the time I saw the trailhead, but I was also happy.  I had done something substantial, and (re)discovered a bit of Minnesota along the Lake Wobegon Trail.

All in all, it was an above average day.

PS:  My readers are a bunch of Haiku slackers...by the counter, 33 people looked at this blog since yesterday.  And I have yet to receive one fall related poem of any kind.