Minnesota – Central Lakes Bike Trail – Lake Wobegon Trail – Soo Line Trail – Day 2 & 3

Little did we know, we were in for a real treat at breakfast at the Cedar Rose Inn. We considered skipping breakfast at the inn in order to get an early start on our ride. We are early risers, and enjoy riding in the early morning before the temperatures climb too high and the trails are more crowded. Actually neither of those reasons has been a concern on this trip. We’ve had great, low humidity weather for the most part and the trails are not crowded.

The innkeeper told us she’d serve breakfast at 9:00 am, which is later than we are accustomed to, but after much deliberation, we decided to wait for breakfast, and we’re glad we did! We walked downstairs to a table fully set with fine china and the beginnings of a great breakfast. We were joined by a couple from Ohio and enjoyed the breakfast conversation.

As we enjoyed our breakfast, the innkeeper asked if we’d like to hear more about the house. Of course we would! She shared the history of the home, built in 1903 and a little about the families that lived in it. The walls in the downstairs portion of the home are a textured plaster with watercolor stenciling in the acorn and trailing vine motif and have never been painted since original installation in 1920. She said the house remains largely unchanged since it was built. Thankfully no one tried to modernize it by painting over the lovely oak woodwork, plaster walls or by covering the maple floors.

The innkeeper said the only real update had been to the kitchen, for which she was thankful because she does much cooking for the B&B. But even then, the original kitchen cabinets, with original stenciling from 1903, were saved and are now installed in the garage for storage. She said I could see them when we retrieved our bikes from the garage. And I did! I loved them!

Speaking of the garage, it was added to the side of the house when one of the previous owners thought it would be a good idea to turn the lovely old home into a funeral parlor. The garage was built to be large enough for a hearse to easily back in and unload the body into the basement for the embalming process.

The neighbors did not think this was a good idea at all. The house was located right across the street from the hospital and it was thought to be in very poor taste to have a funeral parlor across from the hospital. The funeral parlor operated for 2 years in the home. And then, only because the legal process took that long for the Minnesota Supreme Court to rule in favor of the neighborhood, and the funeral parlor had to be moved to a different location.

Fully fortified after a wonderful breakfast, we said goodbye to the innkeeper and the other guests and headed out. Today our ride continues along the Central Lakes Trail, and will seamlessly transition in Osakis, to the Lake Wobegon Trail, where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average (not the trail but the town, lol). These were Garrrison Keillor’s famous closing words about Lake Wobegon in his weekly radio program. Lake Wobegon is a fictional town (to the great disappointment of many people). Keillor has said that people want the stories to be true and could see their disappointment when he insisted it wasn’t a real town. So he began to answer the question about the location of Lake Wobegon in a more general way, saying it was in central Minnesota in the vicinity of Holdingford, Albany, and Freeport. We’ve ridden through all 3 of these towns on the trail these past 2 days, and they are all 3 very cute hometowns with friendly, welcoming people. “Minnesota nice” is a real thing here.

I took lots of pictures as we rode. Our route took us through more open farmland and we saw more livestock today. It was a beautiful ride and the trail was in great condition.

In Osakis, the trail changes from the Central Lakes Trail to the Lake Wobegon Trail.

We found lunch at a cafe near the trail and stopped again at another little trailside cafe later on for iced tea. There were several options for food and snacks on the trails each day. Wildflowers are abundant all along the trail.

We had reserved an Airbnb in Albany and covered the 46 miles from Alexandria to Albany in about 6 hours. We stop often to take photos! The Airbnb was easy to find and is in an old building over a vintage home decor store. The building is one of the oldest in town and was originally owned by the rairoad. The upper floor where we are staying, has always been used as living quarters for the merchants that have run the businesses downstairs. The lower floor has served as a blacksmith shop, barbershop, and beauty salon. Right beside the Airbnb is the Albany Home Bakery. We’ve made a few trips there! Right across the street is a Kraft factory where they make cheese products. I could smell the scent of American cheese as we rode past on the bikes!

We planned a 2 night stay in Albany in order to ride the spur trail that consists of an additional section of the Lake Wobegon Trail, and the Soo Line Trail. Again, the 2 trails just change names, easily transitioning from one trail to the next.

We had to visit the bakery downstairs for coffee and donuts before we set out. They were delicious and the ladies working in the bakery were very nice, asking us about our trip and where we were from. We told them we’d visit them again tomorrow before we left their little town to continue our journey. The photos below may or may not contain pictures of all the donuts consumed, lol.

The temperature had dropped to 49 degrees overnight, so we didn’t head out quite so early, hoping it would warm up. The sun was out and it didn’t take long for the sun to warm things up, though it was a much cooler day, it was great riding weather.

Several people in town had mentioned to us the BoHo Cafe right along the trail in Holdingford. In fact, when we were at the Airbnb in Iowa earlier during this trip, Zack had mentioned the place to us as well since one end of the building houses an art studio. Zack, an artist himself, had painted the big mural inside, so we knew we had to stop and check it out. It was a beautiful building. Our intent was just to get coffee on this chilly morning, but we couldn’t resist a second breakfast once we saw the menu. Also, we told the person taking our order that we’d be back for lunch!

We got back on the bikes and headed on. We passed through some cute small towns as we made our way to the bridge over the Mississippi River where we’d turn around and head back. There were so many beautiful fields and wildflowers!

We made it to our turn around point at the Mississippi River. The Mississippi has grown a little bigger in this part of Minnesota. Much bigger than at its source further north, but not nearly as big as the Mississippi in the south. Also, the river is backed up by Blanchard Dam to form a lake.

After spending some time on the bridge, we turned back for the beautiful ride toward Albany and for our lunch at the BoHo Cafe!

And in all honesty, once we got back to Albany, we visited the sweet ladies in the bakery again so we’d have a bed time snack! We thanked them and told them we’d see them in the morning. After all, we’d ridden 43 miles today, and will add another 12 when we ride to dinner. (At least that’s how we justify it to ourselves!)