Our Little Local Hike (Eden Prairie, MN) 05-Oct-2022

When we lived in Oregon, we did a lot of hiking. But on those days when we wanted a walk, but didn’t want to drive anywhere, we had an out-the-front-door favorite. Basically various loops around our neighborhood (which seemed to add a new house each time we went for a walk). It took some map gazing, but we finally found a similar – maybe even better – no-drive option outside the door of our new home here. 😀

We’re a short walk from Lone Lake Community Park, managed by the City of Minnetonka. From there we can walk paved (and some dirt) trails down to Bryant Lake Regional Park in Eden Prairie (managed by the Three Rivers Park District).

This can be a 6 to 8 mile (9.6 to 12.8 km) walk depending on how far we want to go and which trails we use near Bryant Lake. Although neither rigorous nor lengthy, it has the virtues of being quite pretty, reasonably peaceful (despite being wedged-in between major highways), and a zero carbon activity.

Today we caught the multi-hued morning light on Lone Lake, commiserated with the commuters flying over us on Highway 62, and got a glimpse of downtown Minneapolis from the soaring heights of the disc golf hill above Bryant Lake.

Along here, my peripheral vision caught a fluff of white in a tree. At first I thought it was a seed pod – like a milkweed – about to cast its tufted seeds on the wind. But, no, it was an albino squirrel! There are white squirrels – those have dark eyes – but this one had the red eyes of an albino. Seeing this rare squirrel is supposed to be an omen of good fortune. Here’s hoping that’s true… 👍

Today we did just 6 miles (9.6 km) which got us back in time for lunch at home! 🥪😋 We got a pretty good dose of Fall colors on this hike. Next week is a family reunion (the first in 2 years!) out-of-state. But we hope to get in one more hike through Minnesota’s palette of strong Fall colors before we go. Maybe one last shot of Nature before the fleece comes out of storage. 🥶😁

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