When weekend reporter duties are fun

During my eight months of working at the Faribault Daily News, one of the duties I've come to look forward to is that of being the weekend reporter.

As you can probably guess, it was a
good idea to wear swim trunks
while taking photos of this.

Because we're a relatively small daily paper, the task of weekend reporting rotates around the news room from week to week, with my turn coming about every six weeks. When that happens, my jobs is typically to cover some sort of live event on Saturday, write a story for Sunday's paper and be prepared for any spot news that might come up.

Most of my co workers approach weekend reporter duties with the same enthusiasm one would have with doing their taxes. So very little, if at all.

It's not that they hate the work (that wouldn't bode well for the career choice). It's more so because it involves having to do that work on a day where they'd rather be relaxing away from the office. After a hard week of work, it's nice to enjoy some R&R for the weekend.

While I agree with that mindset, it doesn't stop me from anxiously scanning the daily budgets to see what my assignment will be when my turn comes up for weekend reporter. Even if it's something as mundane as taking weather photos for unseasonably warm temperatures -- yes, that actually happened once -- I usually get pretty excited about it.

As a copy editor and page designer, my job is mostly confined to the office. I get the stories from reporters, I place them on the page and I try to make the newspaper look as appealing (and error free) as possible. It's enjoyable work because I get to utilize my creativity and knack for design, but it gets to be a little monotonous at times.

Weekend reporter assignments represent a break from that monotony. Instead of being cooped up in the office, it gets me out "in the field" and gives me a chance to work on skills -- writing, photography, interviewing, etc. -- that normally don't get a lot of practice. I went to college for print journalism with the intent of being a writer and though I think I made the right career choice, I still miss writing on a regular basis (as the 200+ entries on this blog would indicate).

Most of the reporter assignments are relatively forgettable. However, every once in awhile you get to cover something that's pretty cool. Last Saturday was a perfect example of that, as my editor Jaci Smith sent me to report on a group of kayakers known as the River Ramblers who were doing a paddle down the Cannon River from Faribault to Dundas.

Now, even to the average reporter, kayaking would be a fun thing to cover. Water sports in general are pretty photogenic, plus groups like the River Ramblers are usually more than happy to give a few quotes.

For me though, the event took on an added level of enthusiasm. As mentioned in a previous post, I recently bought a kayak and have been making regular trips to Faribault-area lakes to break in my new toy. It's turned into a multi-faceted activity of sorts for me. I get some fresh air, I do a little exploring, I get a good workout and if I bring my fishing rod with, I can get a few casts in as well. I've always been a fan of kayaking, but owning one has helped take that interest to another level.

The one hindrance so far has been the lack of a second vehicle to make river trips possible. There aren't any established kayaking clubs in Faribault and I don't know anybody in the area who's into the sport, plus I feel it would be rude to ask a coworker or friend to pick me -- and my kayak -- up at the end point of a trip when they didn't get to enjoy the trip themselves.

Kayaking isn't like cycling where you can do long trips by yourself without any assistance. There's a dependency aspect of it you need to adjust to, a difficult task when you're used to being self-reliant like I am. My hope is to do a multi-day trip down the Cannon River this fall, but unless I get to know a few other kayak enthusiasts in the area, it'll be difficult to pull that off.

Getting a chance to interview the River Ramblers was at least a slight step forward in that regard. None of the group members kayaking on Saturday were from the Faribault area (killing my local angle) and the River Ramblers only kayaks the Faribault portion of the Cannon River once a year (their schedule can be seen here). Still, it was nice to meet other enthusiasts of the sport and it gave me further encouragement that a trip down the Cannon River would be both very possible and very scenic (they do a second trip on the river near Welch as well).

The reporting assignment might also be a precursor to future kayak trips. I had to resist the urge to join the River Ramblers on their trip to Dundas on Saturday (I was on the hook for copy editing duties that night as well), but if I have a weekend available in the near future, I will definitely look into doing a trip with them. It solves my transportation dilemma and gives me a chance to explore other rivers, plus it makes kayaking a shared experience, which is always more enjoyable.

So in summary, my weekend reporter duties resulted in a decent story in last Sunday's paper and a possible connection to a group that will help me get more enjoyment out of a new hobby of mine. I call that a fun assignment.

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Important note to my coworkers: Please do not perceive this as an open invitation to dump your weekend assignments on me. I enjoy reporting from time to time, but not as much as I enjoy sleeping in on Saturdays.

Re-evaluating Faribault's bike trails

I feel that I owe the city of Faribault an apology.

While working for the Free Press in Mankato, I wrote a column a couple of years ago criticizing the Sakatah Singing Hills Trail for being a subpar trail and that it had the potential to be so much more. Among other critiques in the column, I wrote that Faribault did a poor job accommodating visiting cyclists on the Sakatah.

It made sense at the time. I had ridden the Sakatah trail on numerous occasions at that point and the only lasting memory I had of Faribault was the Dairy Queen located on Highway 60 near the outskirts of town. When I did a 2-day bike trip from Mankato to Red Wing (the inspiration behind that column, by the way), my experience with Faribault involved navigating busy roads to get to Highway 3 and narrowly avoiding the wrath of an oncoming semi (ok, it probably wasn't THAT narrow, but still).

The town hardly seemed bike-friendly and there was nary a local eatery or point of interest to be found. I didn't even know that Faribault had a "historic downtown" area until I looked it up on the Web after that trip.

It definitely wasn't the best impression to have about a town and it certainly didn't aid my enthusiasm about moving to Faribault for a new job. When I accepted the position, I chalked up the lack of bike friendliness as an acceptable drawback of the town. I figured I could make regular trips to the Twin Cities if I wanted to bask in a cycling culture. Besides, after last summer's back roads adventure to Lanesboro, I'm convinced I can make any town accommodating to my biking addiction (provided it isn't comprised entirely of interstate roads).

However, after settling in at Faribault for a couple months and doing some research  on bike trails for a story I wrote for the Faribault Daily News' annual Profiles publication (coming out this week!), I've come to discover that a lot of the stuff I wrote in that column was uninformed and misguided.

For one thing, the notion of charging a daily fee for riders on the Sakatah (a suggestion I made in the column after spending some time on the wonderful Cannon Valley Trail) is an impossibility because the Sakatah is a state-ran trail and thus gets maintained by state funding. The Cannon Valley Trail, on the other hand, is a privately owned trail and is maintained almost entirely through those daily rider fees, meaning they don't have to wait in line with other state projects for funding.

For another thing, I've come to discover that the Faribault isn't so bad when it comes to cycling. As a matter of fact, it more than holds its own.

I came across the Straight River Trail during a cold winter run in January near the downtown area. I didn't think much of it at the time, mostly because my extremities were freezing and I wanted to get home. But after browsing through Google Maps (a great starting point to find bike trails, by the way), I discovered that the trail was a lot more than a brief pathway connecting a few city blocks. It encircles nearly half the town, stretches more than four miles and runs right past several downtown restaurants, the Rice County Fairgrounds and the local disc golf course.

While out biking the other day, I also discovered that one of the side extensions of the trail links up with some of the paths on the south end of the River Bend Nature Center. I didn't take the time to explore the park's trail system extensively, but judging by the maps,  the RBNC will definitely be seeing a lot of me this spring/summer. Aside from the Straight River Trail, I've also found a few other smaller recreational trails in town, most notably on the north end of town between Hulett and Park Avenue.

Really, the infrastructure is in place for Faribault to be a great cycling town. There's good scenery, good points of interest and a logical mapping to avoid the traffic of major roadways. I don't see it topping Mankato as the best cycling town on the Sakatah Trail (sorry, I have a soft spot for that town), but with a little work it could easily turn itself into another Northfield, a town that has made cycling and pedestrian-friendly walkways a point of emphasis in its downtown area.

The biggest step forward from here for Faribault is to link up its in-town trail system with the Sakatah in a way that invites cyclists to spend some time downtown. As I've learned from both my research for the story and getting a general feel for the town, that step is already in progress.

According to an article last fall in the Faribault Daily News, the construction of a pedestrian underpass between Highway 21 and Highway 3 is in progress and will be completed sometime this summer. The project also includes linking the underpass with the trail near Hulett Avenue and overhauling the intersection with a traffic light, turn lanes and a realignment of Park Avenue.

Once that project is complete, city planners will turn their attention to linking the underpass with both the Straight River Trail and the Sakatah Trail. Future projects related to those goals include building a trail through North Alexander park (funding is already in place for it) and constructing a bridge over the Cannon River to reach the Sakatah Trail facility (no funding in place, but I'm told its in the "design phase").

Beyond their goal to link all the trails of Faribault together, these projects are also tied to the Mill Towns Trail, a planned recreational trail between Faribault and Cannon Falls that will eventually link up more than 80 miles of trails (factoring in the Sakatah and Cannon Valley trails).

At the risk of rehasing the story I wrote for Profiles (I'll either post a link to it or post it directly on my blog after it's published) and making this blog entry longer than it already is, I won't go into too much detail about Mill Towns.

Still, after taking all of this into account, it's pretty safe to say that my first impressions of Faribault were incorrect.

So Faribault, I hope you can accept my apology. Your town definitely isn't a black hole for cyclists that I thought it was, and I look forward to exploring more of you in the future.

New year, new beginnings

Not really conducive to the tone of
my blog post, but I figured my readers
would enjoy a little Calvin & Hobbes.

Well Mankato, it's been fun.

After 3 1/2 years of biking on the Red Jacket Trail and doing training runs up Glenwood Avenue, my residency in the scenic Minnesota River town came to an end yesterday. I am now *mostly* moved in at my new apartment in Faribault and I'll be starting my new job as a page designer for the Faribault Daily News and Northfield News on Jan. 9.

I have mixed emotions about moving away from Kato. I'm obviously not thrilled about leaving the city's blossoming bike culture, as it was a big part of what got me interested in cycling in the first place. I'm also a little downtrodden about moving away from the downtown location I was previously located at. Loud noise from the bars notwithstanding, it was pretty nice to be within walking distance of work, the post office, the grocery store, the library and several decent restaurants.

On a larger scale, it's also a little unnerving to be moving away from a place I've become so accustomed to over the years. I know it's not a good idea to get overly complacent with a situation, particularly in a career as volatile as journalism. But it's hard to avoid when you find so many things to enjoy about a community, which was definitely the case with me in Mankato.

On the other hand, as George Harrison once said: "All things must pass." Despite being nervous about the unknown, I'm excited for the change that comes with a new town and a new job. I don't know much about Faribault aside from its association with the Sakatah Singing Hills Trail, but I'm looking forward to getting acquainted with the community and seeing what the town has to offer. I'm also anxious to continue my career in journalism and get back into a routine that includes work (sorry, but eight weeks of being unemployed is more than enough).

I suppose it's only fitting that the new job and new town would come about at this time of year. New Years has always been a time of new beginnings and resolutions to better yourself in the coming year.

It's too early to tell if I'll grow fond of Faribault like I did with Mankato, but my resolution for 2012 is to make the best of the situation and put forth my best effort at my new job.

Happy New Years everyone!

***Note: With my new location, the focus of my blog will shift from being Mankato-centric to being more oriented toward Faribault readership. However, due to the two towns relative proximity to one another, I will be sure to keep my readers updated if any big news happens out of Mankato in the health & fitness realm.

River valleys and bike trails: A 2-day trip to Red Wing

Some scattered thoughts about a 2-day bike trip I took to Red Wing last week:

• The route I took can be broken down into four parts. I took the Sakatah Singing Hills Trail from Mankato to Faribault. From there, I hopped on Highway 3 and headed north to Northfield. Once in the town of Oles and Knights, I went west on Highway 19 to Cannon Falls (map between Faribault and Cannon Falls here). After that, it was a simple 20-mile jaunt on the Cannon Valley Trail into Red Wing. Collectively, it equated to being about 90-95 miles of biking one way and close to 200 miles both ways. A minuscule amount compared to what Eric and Christie Nelson pedaled (who are now back in Mankato after a 14,000-mile ride, congrats you two!), but a decent 2-day trip.
• My reasons for taking the trip were simple. I had a couple days off in a row from work and was getting bored with the everyday rut I was in. It seemed like everyday revolved around either work or getting a good training run in; not my kind of routine. Aside from all that, I read about the Cannon Valley Trail in the bike trails book I rented from the library and wanted to see if I could make it there from the end of the Sakatah trail. Cannon Falls (the start point of the Cannon Valley Trail) is less than 30 miles from Faribault on back roads; turns out it was very feesible on a bike.
• Since it was a 2-day trip, I had to pack a change of clothes and a tent on my bike somehow. I resorted to buying a $20 bar rack at Wal Mart and bungeed everything to it (see photo). I also packed a small bike repair kit on the front of my bike. The one hitch in this plan was that the rack wasn't designed for my bike and needed to be bungeed down to keep it from moving. Next time, I think I'll try someplace other than Wal Mart to do last-minute bike shopping.
• I was initially going to use this trip as a way to explore the notion of connecting the Cannon Valley and Sakatah trails at some point. However, as the trip progressed, it turned into more of a juxtaposition of how much better shape the Cannon Valley Trail is in. See my column in Sunday's paper for further details.
• Best part of the trip: Finding a random bar called Chuggers in downtown Cannon Falls to watch the Vikings-Jets game after setting up camp for the night. Good atmosphere, passionate fans, decent drink prices and an entertaining Monday night game. Not sure if I've ever head that many verbal barbs aimed at Brad Childress in one 3-hour stretch (which is saying something).
• Worst part of the trip: The 16-mile stretch of road between Northfield and Cannon Falls. Rolling hills, no shoulder, busy traffic and curse-worthy swirling winds. Let's just say the beer at Chuggers tasted a whole heck of a lot better after that ordeal.
• 2nd worst part of the trip: Paying $25 for a non-electric campsite to set my tent up for a night at the Cannon Falls Campground. I understand campsites need to make money, but charging the rate of a cheap hotel room for tent camping is a little ridiculous. I spent the rest of the trip wondering if I could have set up camp on the side of the road without being noticed.
• Despite Red Wing being the destination of the trip, Northfield was probably the coolest town I visited. It's home to a very quaint (and bicycle friendly) downtown area by the Cannon River, complete with quirky shops and tasty local eateries. I looked around the mall there for awhile and, on the suggestion of locals and websites alike, ate at Basil's Pizza Place for dinner. GREAT pizza and very reasonable prices. St. Olaf and Carleton campuses were also fun to look at for awhile. Liberal arts colleges usually have some impressive old-fashioned architecture to admire, and these two were no exception. Considering Northfield is an easy 11-mile jaunt from the Sakatah trail, I might need to make that trip again sometime. The third photo on the right is a picture of Northfield from the viewpoint of the top floor of Larson Hall at St. Olaf. Beyond the buildings at St. Olaf, you can see Carleton College off in the distance on the left and can see the downtown area of Northfield as well.
  
• I wish I would've had more time to explore Red Wing. I really only had about a 3-hour window to explore the town, and part of that was spent eating lunch at Liberty Restaurant downtown (recommended by locals; I wasn't a huge fan of it, too pricey). Red Wing apparently has some great hilltop vantage points from Memorial Park and Barns Bluff (pictured in the background in the first the photo, which is of Main Street in Red Wing). However, I didn't have the time to hike up to either of them. Instead, I looked at a few shops downtown, biked over the Mississippi River into Wisconsin, and checked out the riverfront park. Definitely fun, but there was more to see in that town.
• As par for the course with my other bike adventures, this one was not without equipment problems on my two-wheeled companion. My rear-wheel brake lever actually detached from the handlebar between Northfield and Cannon Falls (see photo), making it impossible to use that brake for the rest of the trip (not the safest biking I've ever done). Additionally, the extra weight of my gear caused a rear-wheel spoke to break on the second day of biking. Thankfully, I was able to locate a bike shop in Cannon Falls (really more of an old-timey hardware store, really wish I would've got a picture of it) to fix my spoke and duct tape the brake lever back to my handlebars.
• The trip was initially intended to be a 2-day adventure where I would leave late Monday morning and get back Wednesday around lunch. However, thanks to a combination of a head lamp and my legs getting second wind in Faribault, I managed to make it back into Mankato late Tuesday night. Collectively, Tuesday a 120-mile biking day, with the majority of the miles pedaled after 1 p.m. Not the best idea in retrospect, I felt like crap the next couple days.