Cannon Valley Trail – Valerie's Voice

A Library and Cat Yoga

My friend and I spent a day in Cannon Falls, a small-town east of Northfield with about 4,400 people. The town has a trailhead for the Cannon Valley Bike Trail so we are very familiar with the town. We have been there often. After bike rides, one tends to look around the surrounding towns, and occasionally go out to eat, or out for ice cream!

On this winter day we were just exploring the town itself. There were two shops in particular we wanted to check out, but they happened to be closed on Monday and Tuesday. However, we found two other fun stores we had not been to, and there are two great antique shops to browse around in.

A pretty wreath hanging on the door to the library, to invite you in.

While walking up and down main street I mentioned to my friend that the library was really nice. I had been in it a few times. (I like libraries and tend to check them out.) It’s a wonderful library for a small town. This library is unique in that it has a fireplace which makes a cozy place to sit and read a book, or just sit a spell. We decided to go in and take a look.

The lovely sitting area by the fireplace in the Cannon Falls Library.

After enjoying the fire, we looked around. There is creative children’s area, and every time I’ve been in, there is a simple kid’s craft, in a baggie, to take home.

In the community room I noticed a guy rearranging chairs. On the big screen a gal sat poised on a chair with the title Chair Yoga. So I asked about it and he told me chair yoga was a weekly occurrence, about 30 minutes in length, and it was about to start. I looked at my friend and we smiled and nodded in agreement that we’d join in on this chair yoga session.

With the two of us, we made a group of six. We practiced with some friendly women. They explained the not-so-good quality video was taken of the regular instructor who was out on medical leave, so they just taped her leading the practice. You really couldn’t hear her, but we could follow along by watching her.

I didn’t get a photo from the video of the cat, but I dug up this one of our playful, family pet kitty from years ago.

And it was comical. The instructor’s cat was very much a part of the scene. He was very active and fun to watch. He’d jump up on her, crawl over her shoulder and down her leg, jump back down, pounce around the room, and jump back up on her, and then back down to the floor, batting his paws at her feet. This went on the entire time, and she continued to do yoga. It added a special, humorous dimension to this chair yoga practice.

Thirty minutes later we said good-bye to our new friends, who gather at the library three times a week for some form of exercise…a great idea for a library we thought.

We headed off to lunch, smiling all the way…what a serendipitous moment at the Cannon Falls Library…we’re so glad we went with “the flow.”

Still A Favorite

Cannon Valley Trail is a favorite bike trail that we ride several times a season.

The CVT is a sanctuary for me. A canopy of trees welcomes me and I feel I’m entering a special space. The trail is mostly shaded, and a lot of it follows the Cannon River, which adds to the ambiance of the trail.

When out of tree cover, the Cannon Valley Trail passes fields of wild flowers. I like that it was an old railroad line and therefore fairly flat, and it’s paved. And… it is close to home. After traveling to other trails to ride in new territory, it is always good to come home to this sanctuary trail.

Recently we discovered another trail that we really enjoyed. It’s the Trout Run Trail in Decorah, Iowa. Although it’s not very convenient location-wise, it is very scenic and now another favorite.

The route is only eleven miles but seems longer because there are many hills on half of the trail. It makes a loop around Decorah and travels through a farmer’s field, rolling hills, and city parks. The vistas at the top of the hills are breathtaking…beautiful landscapes, small farms and fields, winding roads, and green forests.

At the top of the first hill we climbed on the Trout Run Trail.

Through corn fields, on both sides of the trail.

This loop also passes Decorah’s Fish Hatchery where the well-known eagle cam is but we couldn’t spot the eagle’s nest. The rainbow trout in the tanks were fun to watch…several tanks filled with hundreds of trout in one tank, all swimming and splashing about. We didn’t see an eagle at the hatchery, although they are often seen hanging out there we’re told.

However, on our ride through a city park, along the Root River, we spotted an eagle in a field eating, what looked to be, a rabbit, and a vulture was close by waiting for leftovers I guess.

We watched this eagle eating his prey…In this photo the eagle took flight for a short distance.

At the end of our ride on a very hot and humid day, we drove into town and bought ourselves some ice cream from the Whippy Dip, a popular local ice cream place in Decorah.

Ice cream and bike rides go together. It’s a fun treat to look forward to at the end of a ride.

Don’t Leave Home Without It

The Cannon Valley Trail (CVT) is a “rails to trails” bike path near Cannon Falls, Minnesota. It is a favorite of mine, but we had not ridden it yet this season. One lovely, sunny afternoon, after errands and such, we decided to go for a bike ride. I was excited to go and ride on the CVT with my new electric bike.

We loaded the bikes on the bike carrier, grabbed our helmets, filled our water bottles and off we drove…15 miles to Cannon Falls, to the trailhead. When we were about three-quarters of the way to Cannon Falls I realized I forgot my bike battery! That’s an important piece of an electric bike. And, although you can ride the bike without the battery, the bike itself is extra heavy so it would have been difficult. Besides I was looking forward to trying my new bike on the trail.

Me and my bike, with the battery. The trail from Cannon Falls to Red Wing is 20 miles. We ride half way to Welsh, 10 miles, and turn around which makes it a 20 mile ride.

So we turned around and went home to get the battery then headed back. Once on the trail it felt good to be there.

It’s a bit of a sanctuary…the asphalt trail goes through some fields but mostly trees, and is very green with spring wild flowers blooming this time of year.

Sunshine dapples through the trees, and on one side the Cannon River flows for a good portion making for a beautiful trail.

The Cannon River runs along the Cannon Valley Trail.

It was a wonderful ride and hopefully I have learned a lesson…do not leave home without my bike battery!

iPhone

Sometimes I purposely leave my phone at home because I don’t want to be dependent on it. However, I forget it’s also my camera and I like to take a lot of photos.

So when we went for a bike ride on the Cannon Valley Trail last Friday (an unseasonably warm day in MN) I left my phone in the car, but soon realized I missed having it to take photos. We had pedaled just far enough that I did not want to turn around to go back and get it.

As we rode along I wanted to take a picture of the green grass/moss that lined the edge of the bike trail. It looked so bright and inviting and was such a contrast to the dried, leaf-laden woodlands that surround the trail.

I wanted to take a picture of the cloudless, deep blue sky reflecting in the calm waters of the Cannon River, making the river look blue instead of grey.

I wanted to try to get a picture of an eagle soaring low over the river along side us for several seconds while we were pedaling down the trail on our bicycles. (I probably wouldn’t have been able to capture that scene anyhow…)

I wanted to take a picture of the ridge-line and terrain that we don’t normally see in the summer when the leaves are on the trees.

I wanted to take a picture of the many trees beavers have gnawed. We wondered: where are the beavers, and why have the decided to build their homes in this area now?

I didn’t capture the scenes with my camera phone but they are pictured in my mind.

We had a good ride and passed a few others on the trail, out to get in one more bike ride before winter.