Thursday, July 13, 2023 Red River State Recreation Area: Hot Afternoon, Cool Tunnel

We’re entering the final lap of this long race to finish hiking at all of Minnesota’s State Parks (and some of the recreation areas). This week we have a particularly ambitious hiking schedule – seven parks and seven hikes in four days, camping at 3 different parks as we go. These parks are the farthest away from where we live, so it would be nice to get them all done in one fell swoop (or swell foop, whatever your preference is). The only complicating factor is my left hip. Yes, after all these years of talking about my knees, my hip has made a late entry into the game. I’m pretty determined to finish up the parks and Kris has spoken of doing whatever he needs to do to make it happen. I would accept no less than this:

Our first park was the Red River State Recreation Area, right smack dab in the middle of Grand Forks, Minnesota (“Forx” on one sign that we saw – very hip and cool). Out of all the state hikes we’ve done, this one was the most like a city park. And indeed, it only came into being after the floods of 1997 that devastated the area. After a large scale clean up, structures and homes were removed from the land and after some general tidying up, what was left was the 1,200-acre greenway now known as the Red River SRA.

As we walked along the wide, paved path, we saw many bicyclists, joggers and walkers. It was a very hot day, 84 degrees when we started out around 2:10 p.m. to do the 2.2 mile hike. Let’s play a fun game of good news/bad news first.

Good news: It’s finally time for my trekking poles to start earning their keep – they will no doubt be important to keeping stress from my hip as I walk.

Bad news: In spite of the fact that we both checked to make sure the poles got packed, they were, in fact, not in the car. What we had both mistaken as the bag of hiking poles was a camera tripod in a very similar bag. Sheesh!

Good news: I came equipped with some new and powerful mosquito repellent. It’s called Picaridin and some of you will understand the joke when I say we call it Captain Picaridin. For those of you who don’t, I’ll tell you later.

Bad news: We didn’t see a single mosquito the entire hike, so Captain Picaridin was never put to the test. Oh wait, a minute. That’s GOOD NEWS!

Off we went. Naturally, I had my camera, so I captured some bird’s foot trefoil, a summery, buttery yellow beauty. Kris says it’s called that because the seeds look like bird’s feet.

There were encouraging signs along the way. Probably needed these at the end of the hike instead of the beginning, but the message is a welcome one no matter when it comes.

Due to all the trees, we didn’t see much of the Red River, although we walked alongside it for much of the first half of the hike. At one point, it came into view so we can attest to the fact that it was there.

The milkweed is in flower now. This is a fairly nice phase of the milkweed life cycle before the whole thing takes on the aspect of a fright wig. I looked for monarch caterpillars munching their way along the leaves, but didn’t see any.

The cottonwood was piling nicely up in drifts along the path, as well.

My favorite trees were clustering around here and there. Those of you who have been reading this blog for awhile should know what that tree is, but for the rest of you, it’s the quaking aspen, AKA poplar tree. As an aside, I think giving it two names is excessive and confusing. Why?

We moved along fairly quickly. When the paved path ran out, we had a short time of walking on the grass, and then we went into a nice cool tunnel under the road. Ahh…the shade felt so good.

For the FIRST TIME EVER, the ending of the hike came earlier than I expected. Hallelujah!

Before we leave here, however, let’s pay homage to the old song, Red River Valley:

From this valley they say you are leaving
We shall miss your bright eyes and sweet smile
For you take with you all of the sunshine
That has brightened our pathway a while.

Come and sit by my side if you love me,
Do not hasten to bid me adieu.
Just remember the Red River Valley
And the cowboy that’s loved you so true.

P.S. In the sweet providence of God, the park was practically next door to a Cabela’s where we went afterward and purchased a single hiking pole for me to use.

Knee Score: 2-3. Fairly level with one short hill with 5% incline.

I’ll probably use a hiking pole to delete this in the morning.

Next hike: Old Mill State Park