Contemplating a bike route to Target Field

Yep, this seems liked it'd be
WAY better than the Metrodome.

I have a confession to make: I've never been to a game at Target Field.

It's feels absolutely ridiculous to write that. I've been a Twins fan for as long as I can remember, idolizing Kirby Puckett as a kid and even staying loyal during the dark times of Pat Meares, Marty Cordova and Scott Stahoviak.* During my high school and college years, I went to more Twins games than I could ever hope to keep track of and collected Twins bobblehead dolls to the point where I'm ashamed to print the number of them that I have in my possession.

Alas, working life came between me and the newly-minted baseball gem of downtown Minneapolis. My days off varied from week to week while I worked at the Mankato Free Press and it was almost impossible to coordinate anything with friends who worked more conventional hours (also not big on going to baseball games by myself, it's meant to be a shared experience). Aside from that, tickets became harder to come by once the Twins started calling Target Field home.

The closest I've come to attending a game at Target Field came two years ago, when a friend and I biked past the ballpark while the Twins were playing Baltimore. We were exploring Minneapolis bike trails for the first time and stuck around long enough to check out the monuments around the stadium and marvel at the park's accessibility via bike trails, but it was too late to get a ticket and we had many more things to see that day (pretty much fell in love with the Twin Cities' bike trails that instant, blog entry here).

That experience got my wheels spinning to plan a bike trip up to the cities to see a Twins game. I figured the biking would add a sense of adventure to the trip and make the ballpark experience all the more rewarding once I finally got there. Reading about ballpark cycling adventures like that of Darren O'Donnell last year only increased my interest to do the same.

The trip never quite came to fruition while I was living in Mankato. The aforementioned work schedule got in the way and I kept letting myself get bogged down with other commitments. Eventually, two baseball seasons came and went and I started to wonder if my ballpark pilgrimmage would ever become a reality.

But with a new setting comes new enthusiasm. My new job in Faribault has a much more consistent schedule and pretty much as soon as I accepted the position, I began mapping out routes to Target Field and asking Twin Cities friends what trails to take around the stadium. This year's mild winter also helped stoke the fires of biking for me, as I got an earlier start on long rides and got acquainted with the back roads around Faribault. I did a bike trip to Northfield at the beginning of March and made it all the way up to Farmington a couple of weeks after that.

This past weekend, I took advantage of the gorgeous weather on Sunday and drove up to Farmington to work on another portion of the route: using the bike trails of the southern metro area to get to the more-familiar Grand Rounds trail system in Minneapolis/St. Paul. After browsing Google maps, I came up with this route to Minnehaha Falls.

I was pleasantly surprised with how easy it was to navigate. In the pre-GPS days, I used to get lost all the time while driving in the cities. It didn't matter if the directions were simple or complicated; I wasn't used to city roads and got rattled in heavy traffic. I figured biking along those roads would be a lot of the same, only without the airbags and seatbelts. However, that wasn't the case at all. There were bike paths on every road I looked at, the trails were clearly labeled and I had no trouble finding Minnehaha or the trail leading from there to Target Field.

Pretty much the only drawbacks of the ride were the long lines for drinks at the Minnehaha diner and the ridiculously steep hill coming out of Fort Snelling on the way back (it was the first time I had to walk my bike up a hill in awhile, I felt slightly emasculated).

The ride probably wasn't necessary from a physical standpoint. The overall distance from my apartment to Target Field is about 55 miles, roughly 1/3 of the distance I rode from Mankato to Lanesboro last summer. It's a challenging ride to be sure, but it's certainly not beyond my skill level as a cyclist.

No, the ride was really more necessary from a psychological standpoint. I've never biked in the Farmington/Apple Valley/Eagan/Burnsville part of the metro area and had no idea how the trails would handle. Getting lost on a back country road with no schedule to keep is one thing, but when you get lost on a busy city street while trying to make it to a Twins game on time, it adds a little more stress to the situation.

After Sunday's ride, I feel like I'm good to go for the trip. I've now biked out all portions of the route at one time or another and have a decent grasp on how long it'll take me to complete it. All I have to do now is put it all together, mix in a baseball game and have a good ride.

At long last, my Target Field drought is coming to an end.

NOTE: I haven't decided on an exact game date yet, but it will more than likely be on a Saturday. I'll post a shorter entry about that once I settle on a day.


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*During the 1996-97 seasons, my dad kept telling me that Stahoviak would become the next great power hitter for the Twins and erupt for 40-something home runs someday. He was out of baseball by the end of 1998 and finished with 27 career home runs. To this day, I'm still not sure whether dad was just trying to be funny or was clinging to hopeless optimistism during a dreary time for Twins fans. Not-so-fun fact from that era: The Twins' top home run hitters from 1996-99 combine for less homers (68) than Mark McGwire hit by himself (albeit controversially) in 1998.

Minneapolis: A metropolis of cycling wonderment

As mentioned in a previous post, Minneapolis was recently ranked as the most bike-friendly city in America by Bicycling magazine. The city has more than 120 off-and on-road trails, a bike share program and repair facilities scattered throughout the metro.

I also mentioned that I was going to have to see this "thriving biking community" for myself at one point. A cycling magazine might say those types of things about a city, but how do we know for sure? After all, most of my memories of the Twin Cities involved bad traffic, worse street organization (at least in St. Paul) and God-awful parking around the Metrodome. Could Minneapolis really be THAT accommodating to cyclists?

Well, with a day off on Sunday and printed bike trail maps in tow, I finally decided to make my long-awaited pilgrimage to this cycling-crazed metropolis. I packed a lunch, circled interest points on the maps and got an old college friend to come along for the trip.

At the risk of offending my Mankato-based readership, I'm going to refrain from slobbering over Minneapolis' bike trails. But I will say this: The city's national ranking is well deserved.

My friend and I parked on the west side of Cedar Lake in Minneapolis. From there, we planned on taking the Cedar Lake Trail to Target Field (another Minneapolis landmark I had not experienced yet, double bonus!), where we would then take the bike lanes of streets to West River Parkway, head south, cross the historic stone arch bridge and swing by the East bank of the U of M to pick up my step brother, a student at the U and our unofficial tour guide of the bike trails. We were also hoping to see Minnehaha Falls, bike on the Midtown Greenway Trail and possibly grab a drink in the uptown area of town.

The trip stated off wonderfully. The weather was perfect and the Cedar Lake Trail took us right up to the entrance of Target Field, where my friend and I were absolutely shocked by the number of bikes parked along the stadium's walls for the Twins game that day (side note: the Twins won 6-0). There were bike racks at every corner of the stadium, all of which were packed to the limit with two-wheeled commuters. Considering how accessible the stadium is via biking (every trail in the city links up at some point), I'd imagine this to be a regular occurrence on good-weather days.

We'd both been to countless Twins games at the Metrodome in our time, but we could never remember it being THAT accommodating to cyclists. The sea of bike racks alone was enough to make me fall in love with Target Field, never mind the stadium's overall awesomeness (not a journalistic term, but that's the best way I can describe it). We literally could have spent an entire day walking around Target Field. However, we lacked Twins tickets and had other sights to see. Though we did have time for the giant glove, as the second photo would indicate.

We navigated the city bike lanes with ease to West River Parkway and crossed the stone arch bridge with no issues. However, once we got to the U of M, an all-too-familiar bike problem reared its ugly head: I had a flat tire. Even worse, It was a flat caused by a valve issue rather than a standard leak. So instead of being able to patch it and repair it, I was forced to pump up the tire every 5-10 minutes. We managed to get to Minnehaha Falls before the valve broke off (or rather, exploded off like a gun shot) completely and rendered my bike useless.

Thankfully, my step brother was aware enough of the area to know that a Minneapolis Light Rail station was nearby, where we then took it back to his place near campus and attempted to find a bike shop for quick repairs. We managed to find one, but since my bike was an older model, the shop didn't have the right sized tube in stock and our biking trip was prematurely over. Dejected, we hitched a ride back to our cars from my step brother and called it quits for the day.

For the most part, we got to travel on pretty much every trail we set out to see, with the exception of the Midtown Greenway. However, we did get to take an unexpected trip on the Light Rail instead. So our attempt at non-vehicle commuter routes in the Twin Cities kind of evened out in that regard.

Overall, the bike trails in Minneapolis were everything I hoped they would be in more. They were easy to navigate, well maintained and offered plenty of appealing destinations. Any cycling enthusiast could have a field day (or weekend) exploring the various landmarks, checking out historical sites and hitting a few bars and restaurants along the way. At the same time, the trails are direct enough where any cost-conscious commuter looking to save money could easily get around on two wheels and a set of pedals.

The city has really done a commendable job building a distinct cycling culture. Hopefully next time my bike will cooperate better.