Rice Marsh Lake Loop (Edin Prairie, MN) 10-Mar-2023

Since we returned from Texas a week ago, we’ve had one sunny day (the day we got our taxes done 😥) but mostly days of gloom and snow and (wait for it) more snow. ❄ And more snow is coming this weekend! ❄❄ All this frozen sky water is giving our local weather forecasters split personalities.

The Rant

On one hand, the forecasters are practically giddy with the possibility that this will be one of the Top 10 snowiest winters in the Twin Cities Metro (since 1938)! We’re at almost at 80 inches (203 cm) and the record is 98.6 inches (250 cm). Let’s break that snowfall record! Yeah! Or not. 🤨

On the other, they have to empathize with the rest of us being tired, real tired, of shoveling snow – so enough is enough! Let Duluth take the record! With 103 inches (261 cm) already on the ground, they deserve it. If it doesn’t stop snowing in the Metro soon, we’ll likely be wearing snowshoes to the state fair in August! 😒

Aside from generous portions of snow, this winter (our first here) hasn’t been as challenging as we were lead to expect by all the “it’s so cold in Minnesota” horror stories we were fed by people who don’t actually live in Minnesota. But all good things must end. So, it would be nice if the weather would stop snowing and start doing some melting. Soon.

It’s also getting harder and harder to find different ways to photograph white snow on dark, bare branches or bare, dark branches holding white snow or dark, bare branches against a snow white sky or a snow white sky bracketed by bare, dark branches. Time to exit the monochrome. We’re ready for an early wildflower… 🌼

The Hike

We managed a few exercise walks around the neighborhood as the snow fell – dodging ice patches, snowplows, and winter-crazed squirrels as we went. But we wanted to do some semblance of a real hike. Which lead us to the (new to us) paved loop around Rice Marsh Lake Park, which is split between Eden Prairie and Chanhassen.

There was one car in the parking lot off Dell Road when we arrived not too early in the morning. The person from that car passed us as we rounded the lake and our car was all alone when we got back. So not even close to a crowded day on the trail.

Rice Marsh Lake Park is split almost evenly in half by the boundaries between the cites of Eden Prairie and Chanhassen and the counties of Carver and Hennepin. Eden Prairie had already plowed their half of the trail, while Chanhassen had not (at least not yet). This wasn’t a problem as our most recent snowfall hadn’t been too big and the fresh snow took the slickness out of the icy patches. 🙂

Riley Creek is one of those small streamlets that weaves across the landscape west of Eden Prairie. It rises in Lakes Lucy and Ann, then passes through Lakes Susan, Rice Marsh, Riley, and Grass before emptying into the Minnesota River. We first encountered it (mostly frozen) on a walk in the Riley Creek Conservation Area earlier this winter.

It’s long been a running bit of irony (or a source of torment) that any hike we do under mostly overcast and gloomy skies will almost assuredly come into blue skies and sunshine just as we return to the trailhead. Not always, but too often. Just one of Nature’s little jokes… 😖 And so, today, we got a few spots of clearing – and a ray of sunshine 😎 – just before the car came into view.

This loop is an essentially level 3.2 miles (5.1 km), all on a paved surface – a pleasant, easy walk through a nice piece of Nature out in the western suburbs. That teasing patch of blue sky disappeared almost before we left the parking lot. Then the sky got back to the gloomy business of preparing to make more snow. ❄❄❄ Hopefully, if the current forecast holds, we’ll see warmer temperatures and the sun again next Tuesday… 😎😁

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