ROOTED IN THE OUTDOORS

Nestled in the beautiful Bluff Country of southeastern Minnesota, the charming little city of Lanesboro is bisected by a frissoned river and former railroad corridor converted to a state trail like an X marking treasure on a map. But the bounty here is not some chest full of precious gems or gold doubloons. Instead, one will discover a paddle-and-pedal opportunity unlike any in the Midwest, as well as other respites along the trail worth visiting.

I am a lover of rivers and, by dint of travel and scratching insatiable itches, I often paddle alone. As such, I take a bike with me to ride back to my car after I’ve reached my destination. While it is part of the experience, bike-shuttling is a means to the end of paddling a river; the route taken has more to do with logistics than preference – the shortest distance between two points, and/or a paved highway over a dirt or gravel lane. But every once in a while, a dedicated trail lies parallel to a given segment of river, and when it does, the ride back to the car is as much a part of the adventure as paddling the river itself.

Whether a trail is paved or made of finely crushed stone, the riding is easy sledding – and always a safer alternative to roads (especially out in the country, where semis and farm equipment barrel down the roads as much as cars and pickup trucks). And since dedicated trails are typically converted from abandoned railroad lines, the gradient is gradual – a welcome change of pace from the precipitous climbs up and descents down hills.

Perhaps my favorite novelty of trail-shuttling is perceiving the landscape from the perspective above the banks and noticing moments along the river I’d paddled through earlier, now in reverse. Just as in the cultural world, it takes multiple perspectives to appreciate the totality of the natural world most effectively. You might not see a turtle kerplunk into the water via the trail the way one does by kayak, but relative to the river, you’d never encounter the log that reveals a den of fox kits or cluster of oyster mushrooms as you do riding on the trail.

There are dozens of dedicated trails along rivers in just Minnesota and Wisconsin alone. However, one of the prettiest, longest, most accessible, and affordable (free!) is located in Fillmore County, Minnesota. Called the Root River and Harmony-Preston Valley State Trail, there are technically two corridors: one connecting the towns of Fountain and Houston, spanning 42 miles east-west, and the other between Harmony and Preston, extending an additional 18 miles north-south. Each corresponds to portions of the Root River – itself a bifurcated stream with several different branches – and the Root River itself is one of the most beautiful and fun streams to paddle in southeastern Minnesota.

Comprising a north, middle, and south branch in three top-down tiers, its watershed is one of the largest in the state (over 1,600 square miles). The North Branch begins only ten miles south of but a world away from posh Rochester and can be paddled when water levels allow. The Middle Branch is itself the byproduct of three separate creeks that uncannily converge within one mile of each other near Spring Valley, which merges with the North Branch a few miles south of Chatfield. The South Branch, renowned for trout, flows near and through Mystery Cave – Minnesota’s longest cave, possessing 13 miles of subterranean passages – to Preston and Lanesboro before meeting with the North Branch a couple of miles west of Whalan. After the north-south confluence, the Root flows east and passes the hamlet of Hokah (a Dakota word for “root”) before dissolving into a Byzantine sprawl of backwaters and sloughs en route to the Mississippi River, south of La Crescent.

There are multiple options for splendid paddle-pedal combos, depending on your druthers. Paddlers seeking creek-like intimacy with zippy current will kvell over the South Branch from Preston to Lanesboro, a distance of 14 miles. From Lanesboro, the South Branch meets the North Branch after three felicitous miles through town, after which the Root River proper and the state trail lie cheek by jowl down to Houston for over 30 miles. The main trunk of the river also has pep in its step, but it’s much wider. Wooded bluffs and wildlife capers abound wherever you go. Both of these segments can be shortened by using alternative access routes. Still, uber-ambitious adventurers, who favor the extended play version, may opt to add camping along the river at designated sites accessible only by boat.

Unfortunately, the trail does not correspond to the North Branch of the Root River, where its most forested swaths are found, many featuring ostentatious rock outcrops that resemble castle parapets, often crowned with conifers. Furthermore, the valley widens considerably as you venture downstream; the handful of miles leading up to and following Houston can be a little dull, via canoe. As the bluffs take a powder to the backdrop, big agriculture steps into the limelight. But official scientific natural areas showcasing sand barrens and prairies diversify the views.

This part of Minnesota was not shaped by glaciation during the most recent Ice Age, so the landscape is bountiful in bluffs and looks like nowhere else in the state. It’s also inflected with karst topography, where the bedrock is dissolved by acidic water, resulting in sinkholes, caves, and natural springs. It’s no accident that the home of Karst Brewing is in the town of Fountain, the self-proclaimed sinkhole capital of the U.S., or that the complementary brewery in neighboring Preston is named Trout City – all that cold water gushing out of natural springs from underground provides ideal conditions for the finicky fish. Both breweries can be easily reached by bicycle, as can Sylvan Brewing in Lanesboro; good things come in threes as well!

But what may well be the most popular stop along the entire trail is in Whalan at the Aroma Pie Shoppe. On summer weekends, far more patrons sate their sweet teeth than the population of Whalan itself. Baked or cold, by itself or à la mode, Aroma offers over two dozen varieties on the three days it’s open. To borrow from the late, great David Lynch, it is “where pies go to heaven.” You’ll feel like you did, too.

Lanesboro is the hub of it all. Framed by a limestone escarpment of astonishing stature that has been incised by the soft scalpel of flowing water throughout hundreds of thousands of years, the town looks like a postcard-perfect village plopped at the bottom of a miniature mountain. Often called “quaint,” Lanesboro is indisputably so. But “quaint” conjures something old-timey, like rock candy from a five-and-dime or barbershop quartets in seersucker suits, something that is as it always was, immutable. Lanesboro is dynamic and adaptive. Sure, it hosts a Rhubarb Festival on the first Saturday in June, but it’s also home to Commonweal Theatre Company, which has been producing plays from Shakespeare to Ibsen since 1989 – not shabby for a town whose population is only 700 and change.

Paddling and pedaling, pints and pie – “all things merge into one,” Norman Maclean famously wrote, and the Root River runs through each. Treat your taste buds and feed your soul by sampling this ample smorgasbord in Fillmore County, MN. Sometimes, free is more valuable than gold.