June 11 - Albany, Minnesota - Walk

We awakened to a steady rain, but nothing was dripping on our heads so we just turned over and went back to sleep. In a tent we always expected some leaks and were seldom disappointed, so that the major issue was exactly what was the water dripping onto. The worst case scenario was water dripping on your head because the steady drip, drip, drip was like a Chinese water torture and would sooner or later send you screaming out of the tent. Drips on the sleeping bag could be safely ignored until they started to soak through to where you were, at which point you had the choice of staying inside the bag and being relatively warm but wet or getting up and being both wet and much colder, at least until you could don some dry clothing. That is, of course, assuming you had any dry clothing in the tent. Not having, say, dresser drawers inside the tent, our only option was to put bags with clothing on the floor. If we perchance chose the uphill side of the tent, we might have some dry clothing if there were no leaks directly over the clothing bag. But if we put the clothing bag on the downhill side of the tent, we were usually doomed to a soggy day because the water leaking into the tent would invariably seek the lowest point to form a pool and turn the clothing bag into a soggy mess. I usually slept with my feet downhill, and awakening during the night with my feet in a pool of cold water is definitely one of my least favorite experiences! Ah the good old days!

Actually, we really appreciated the luxury offered by our trailer. A few days back the temperature hit 96 and we were using the air conditioning to keep cool. The last couple days had lows in the 40s and we occasionally used the auxiliary electric heater to keep warm (saves propane). The temperature swings in a continental climate can be absolutely tremendous and the trailer certainly helped us cope with them and carry out our daily round of activities without being uncomfortable. Having cold milk for cereal and ice cubes for cold drinks just was icing on the cake, so to speak.

The rain stopped around 9 o'clock, so we decided to walk in the town of Albany about 17 miles northwest of St. Cloud. We were intrigued by the description of the trail as a "Lake Wobegone" trail and wanted to see what that was like. In fact, the Albany seasonal event offered three different possible trails for walking 10 kilometers and they even had prepared 5 kilometer options for each one. Each of the trails was an "out and back" along a converted "rails to trails" hiker-biker-snowmobile path that was nicely paved with asphalt. The options were a northern route alongside the freeway, a southern route that paralleled the freeway but was at least a mile away, and an eastern route to Holdingford through the farmlands. To get the best possible view of the "Lake Wobegone" countryside, we chose the Holdingford route and were glad we did.

The one thing that gave me pause was the cautionary message emblazoned above the route map. In bold black letters it stated: "YOU ARE ADVISED TO WEAR BRIGHT CLOTHING DURING HUNTING SEASON". Unfortunately, it didn't tell me when hunting season was! Thinking about taking a walk with lots of men lurking about in the underbrush, each armed with a lethal weapon and ready to shoot if he thought he saw something edible, thought he saw something frightening, or was just plain drunk, was unsettling. I suppose I could have equipped myself with an AR-15 and a sniper scope and fired back whenever we heard gunshots, but does that sound like a restful walk in the country to you? Although the NRA nirvana may be having each adult packing a concealed or unconcealed firearm and ready to use it at the drop of a hat, I am somewhat less sanguine at the thought of every Tom, Dick and Harriet packing heat on a daily basis. Foregoing the "armed and dangerous" option and hoping it was NOT the hunting season for deer, black bear, duck, quail, or peasant, we started off on the walk.

The Holdingford Volksmarch route followed the old rail bed for 9.4 miles pretty much due east, and it certainly gave us a taste for the rural farming area of Minnesota. The trail was deserted; we met only one other person, a blond, blue-eyed young woman (What else? This was Minnesota!), for the entire two hours we spent walking out and back. Of course, we only walked out 3 miles or so, not the entire 9.4 miles. The trail is apparently so seldom used--we were walkers 10 and 11 for this Volksmarch--that the birds had built nests right up along the trail. We really disturbed one blackbird whose nest must have been nearby; he flew tight circles right around us and chirped like mad at us when he lit for a moment on the branch of a bush. I think if I had approached the nest any closer he would have started dive bombing me and pecking, but he was a good daddy just doing his duty, so we just hustled out of the way. Among the birds that we disturbed along the way were some we definitely did not recognize. One was coal black with bright yellowish-white markings on his head, side, and wings plus a white patch on his tail that you could see when he flew away. Another was a mottled brown on top somewhat like a sparrow but much larger (the size of a robin) and had a light yellow-gray chest. It was frustrating not knowing what these things were, and Monika said that I should remind her to take our field guide for birds with us on our next trip!

The trail to Holdingford gave us great views of the farming countryside. We saw cornfields with plants about 4-6 inches high, fields of what looked like winter wheat, and other fields that might have been soybeans or some other bushy-topped crop. We also saw at least one dairy farm with Holsteins along the way. In general, the farms were nestled in the fertile valleys, each one with a barn and one or more silos, and the total effect was postcard perfect. Wildflowers were also blooming profusely along the path, purple, white, and yellow, but all we could recognize were daisies! Maybe we need to bring a wildflower guide as well!

We felt pretty good on the way back so we also walked the 5 kilometer route on the path to the northwest along the freeway. This section passed underneath a very picturesque old railroad bridge but otherwise, the path is only a hundred yards or so from the road and the noise from the traffic, especially the semis, was continuous. In contrast, the walk out to Holdingford was extremely quite with the sounds of birds and the peeping of frogs being the most noticeable contributors. We enjoyed the Holdingford walk very much would recommend it to anyone who would like to see the rural countryside of Minnesota up close and personal.

We rewarded ourselves for walking 15 kilometers with a Caramel Cashew Nut sundae for desert when we had lunch at Culvers back in St. Cloud. Monika had a Swiss cheese mushroom burger, which was very good, and the flavor of the day was M&M Swirl, which consisted of chocolate and vanilla custard swirl with mini M&Ms added to it. Topping that off with hot caramel and cashew nuts made for a very satisfying desert indeed! We headed back to camp to do Competing Computers for the rest of the afternoon, as it was too cold to really enjoy the heated swimming pool at the campground. After dinner I read the next couple of chapters in "Kim" while Monika crocheted a bit and then she played the dulcimer while I practiced on the tenor recorder for a while. I was still learning the recorder and I sincerely hoped it was just coincidence that the people parked next to us suddenly left the campground for dinner and didn't come back until very late that evening. We finished up the evening by reading "The Full Cupboard of Life" in bed--I was greatly relieved that it had a happy ending because that way I didn't have any trouble getting to sleep.