2020 09 13 - State Park, Minnesota Valley

We were going to stop for 'fair food' on our way, but they are gone for the season. Ended up at Smash Burger instead. They have closed the two closest to us so it was nice to have a change to get one again.

The picture above is the whole parking lot. If there is some where to buy a park pass here it is somewhere else. This spot has one shelter/building and two out houses. (Much better than the last place.)

As we were looking at the sign on which way to go, a couple of people on motorized unicycles came past. That was the first time I had seen one and I had to look it up just now to see what it was called.

They didn't get too far past us and we saw the girl, who was in the lead kind of wobble. Then the guy behind her lost balance as he went through the mud. They walked ahead a little and then started walk back toward us.

This place has always been muddy, or trails closed because of high water, but we keep coming back. The only people that seemed to be having fun were the kids who were wearing boots.

We walked a ways around the puddles but our shoes kept getting heavier from the mud. Finally we got to a point where the culvert was almost washed out and the trail beyond was getting worse.

And this was the trail that was open. One of them was closed. And we have been here before when this whole area was closed.

We got back to the start of the path and took a more 'inland' path. We told two groups that were getting ready to head out what to expect and they decided to take the inland route also.

We walked to where our return walk would equal our 45 minutes and turned around. We had been here before when the sign at this point said 'trail to river closed' and the trail was under water. This time we could see the trail but didn't take it.

At this point another couple walked up and started talking. Both had lost their spouses and had known each other in school, 50 years ago. Now they have reconnected and are planning on hitting a couple of state parks every week. Not sure we will be that aggressive.

When we got back to the parking area, I had picked up a stick and spent the next few minutes digging the mud out of my shoes. It looked like a pile of mud in the grass until I tried to take a picture of it.

Shortly after we pulled out of the parking lot, I could see a large tractor and disk coming down the road. It's a narrow road there so I was looking for a place to pull over and was able to make it to the next driveway before meeting the tractor. I did notice that they were throwing a lot of mud for as long being on the road as long as I could see him.

As he got close, I could see that the disk was down, rolling on the backtop. So I put my arm out the window and am motioning to him, up, up, up. He is staring at me as he goes by. Then in my rear view, I can see him stop and then go again ... with the disk up.

He had headphones on and likely couldn't hear all the noise of the disks on the blacktop. Weak hydraulics. Next time he comes down this road, he will still be able to see his disk marks on the road for miles ... pay attention. He at the least should have been looking back to see if cars were behind him.

On the way home we picked up Buca's to go. So we bought and ate a lot more food today than we burned off.