Yesterday it was fun to visit with the Iversons. This morning, I was back on the road early. My agenda was to go northwest to the state capitol and then go southbound to the edge of the Minneapolis/St Paul urban area. There was a lot of trail riding today which was both good and bad. The trails made for relatively easy crossing of a large urban area. At the same time, these same trails seem to have a lot of little cracks (freeze/thaw from the winter?) and hence were more bumpy than if I had been on the roads.

This picture taken heading north in Cottage Grove on one of the first trails. There was a cool breeze from the north west and overall this kept temperatures very nice today.

Large buildings downtown and the state capitol were visible early. Many of the trails this morning closely followed major highways into the city.

Along the Mississippi River with barges also parked alongside. I cycled the north side of the river for a while and then came past the Amtrak train station before the last little climb through urban city blocks to the capitol.

Made it to the capitol! Hooray and time for an obligatory photo.

A second photo including my bicycle.

From here, several miles of cycling along the river, first along the north side – then crossing over and along the south side.

This bridge brought me back across the Mississippi River. This is my third crossing of the river this trip and I expect the last time to cross. After this I followed the river from the south side until very close to the MSP airport and then started heading south along a major road (Pilot Knob)

Interesting looking tower along the way. This was very close to the campus for Unisys in Eagan.

One of the last trails for the day as I cycled through suburbs of Eagen, Apple Valley and finally Lakeville. Overall, not a difficulty day though did seem to have a moderate amount of climbing. Below is the strava map for the day. I also cycled 0.40 miles before starting this map.