What to do when it's warm and the holiday season - go for a bike ride of course! Initally Jody and I were going to ride the River Bottoms at Fort Snelling, but warm temps and rain would have made that a mudfest.
Instead we headed to the near West Suburbs for a ride on the Nine Mile Creek Regional Trail. Temps were above freezing, and the trail was wet, but no rain as we started. We checked the weather, and rain was forecast for later in the day, so we started around Noon.
Jody had never been on the trail, so he was in for a real treat! We started at the Depot Coffee Shop in Hopkins - which is closed, but the new parking lot on the West side of the building is open. We took the trail through Hopkins, the looped Bredeson Woods Park in Edina. With the warm weather we encountered LOTS of folks on the trail today! We added a few extra miles, and ended at York Ave in Edina.
Our beer stop was Wooden Hill Brewing in Edina. Located on Bush Lake Road in Edina, it's just down the road from BI - my first real job after undergrad. I had stopped here on a ride before, but today the brewery is easily 3 times as large as it was. Lots of people today, but the place was wide open. Jody anted up on the Zest II, and I tried the Spacer! NA Italian Pils.
With the ride back, we made just made it to the parking lot before we were greeted with light rain. A great day, and a great route. Give it a ride!
GPX Track of our Ride
I attached the GPX track of our ride. We rode 21.9 miles.
You can also find this as a public trace on the OpenStreetMap.org project.
BJCP Scoresheet of Spacer! Italian Pilsener from Wooden Hill
I'm a big fan of NA beers, and an always on the lookout for good ones. Their take on the Italian is a good example, but unfortunately I only scored it as a 28/50. Check out the detailed BJCP scoresheet below.
You can also find out more about Italian Pilseners at this blog post - What is An Italian Pilsener?
