Greetings fellow MPLSers.

Gomango and I have been trying to plan a ride for the MPLS C&Vers for some time. The stars and planets have apparently aligned and we're shooting for Saturday October 15.

I mapped a route and gomango liked it so here it is:

http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/50247568

We'll start from the parking lot of the Mills Fleet Farm at the intersection of 694 and Highway 36. From there we'll hop the Gateway trail for a while and get off on Manning Ave. We'll head North to Square Lake Trail and head over to St. Croix Trail (MN95) and South to Stillwater for lunch. From Stillwater we'll take Dellwood Road out of the valley and get back on the Gateway and back to Fleet Farm. Round trip is about 35 miles and the only significant climb is Dellwood out of the valley.

I'd imagine since downtown Stillwater is at about the 24 mile mark maybe we start at 10:00-10:30a which might put us into Stillwater around noon for lunch.

I don't anticipate this being an extremely fast ride. Gomango can chime in but I'd expect speed of 14-17mph average maybe? Just a relaxing ride in hopefully beautiful fall weather with beautiful fall color.

Obviously we can adjust times and such to accommodate but it looks like the 15th is what's going to work.

I plan on driving the route in the next few days just to be sure there's no gotchas. If there are we can adjust the route as necessary. My hope would be that this is a no-drop ride since this is mostly social. I'll have route maps printer for distribution at the ride start. I'll be riding the Touring Series V so I'll have a bag or two of tools and supplies.

Also, as a group, we can decide what happens if there's a downpour, a little rain, mist, fog, whatever.

Please post with your thoughts and if you plan on attending!

Confirmed attendees:

khatfull
gomango
badger_biker
FORDSVTPARTS
FORDSVTPARTS Jr.
twolve
Captain Blight (and possibly companionship)