Trip 11 -- Grand Forks Fitness Trail

I decided to navigate the entire GF Fitness Trail today, a map of it (and the Greenway) can be seen here. It is a really nice trail, and I wish there were more like it in Grand Forks. I didn't even realize it goes right by Sertoma Park, which I recently discovered for myself this week.

The trail was great, I loved how it was marked with the smiley faces. My only complaint is sometimes it's hard to tell which way the trail goes when you come to an intersection. I did figure it out for myself, but accidentally left the path a couple times.

I went early because the forecast calls for more rain, it still looks pretty nice out as I type this but according to this, it's supposed to pour soon.

I'll start off with another question for anyone who can answer it. What the hell are these greenish things I see everywhere? They're usually unmarked too so it's been a big mystery to me for a while. Not that I've been losing sleep over it, but I have faith one of you knows what they are.


Someone else was apparently frustrated by these things too and wanted to get a look at their insides.


I've been trying to take more pictures of wildlife, but I keep scaring them away before I get a chance. Luckily this guy decided to hang out for a little bit.


This is a pretty cool marker near Sertoma Park, off of the Fitness Trail. For reference, I put a placemark on my Google Map of where the marker is. It is pretty crazy to stand there, read that, and think of what it was like during the flood.

Click the image to make it larger

I could've either continued on the trail or gone down the path through this rickety bridge. I definitely had to choose the bridge.

I thought this a pretty cool area and was surprised I'd never heard of it before. I continued down the trail to see a familiar area...the same spot I was in earlier this week. A sign that said Sertoma Park. It all makes sense now.


The Ralph Engelstad Arena is definitely one of the coolest things in this entire region. We are really lucky to have it.

Saw this guy on 20th street near 24th ave. They are a good idea, but I gotta think it backfires sometimes. I know I've seen people gun it just to see how fast they can go when they drive by these things.



If you noticed, I just added a blogroll of some of the blogs I read, if you want yours on there, shoot me an e-mail.

That's all I got for today, thanks for reading!


Start: 11:27
End: 12:40
Temp: 79 degrees
Trip: 9.6 mi


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Trip 3 -- Heading North

I guess I lied when I said I wasn't going to ride today. I came back to Grand Forks earlier than planned, and figured instead of sitting around I may as well take a trip. I felt like heading north today and trying to find a bike path that I knew of. It took a little bit, as you can see in my Google Map I was kinda all over the place when I got to campus. I did find it eventually, and it's pretty nice. I'm going to have scope out all of the bike paths in the GF/EGF area eventually.

Alright, on to the trip.
I've noticed there are a lot of businesses like this in Grand Forks. Businesses that make you wonder how they're not closed down, as well as businesses that you aren't quite sure what the hell they do. Finest Auto Trim? Firstly, it might be kind of brave to claim they're the "finest" of all auto trims... I've never even heard of them until today. Just another one of those businesses you drive by and don't think twice about. I'm not even sure what auto trim is.



Not far from Finest Auto Trim, I find Unique Auto Body also setting up shop along Gateway. How many auto body places are there in this town? I don't know what makes this one so "unique" from the million other auto body places around here...unless it's the porcelain bear outside of it. In that case, it's probably the most unique auto body in town. Also, that bear is very small.



These are the stairs to get up to the Columbia-overpass-bike-tunnel-of-doom-thing.


A view looking south on Columbia from the top of the stairs.


A view of the tunnel ( is tunnel the right word? cage?) from the inside. I had to wait until a girl jogged by, I didn't want to creep her out too much. I sure love looking like a tourist taking pictures of a bunch of random stuff...but I do it for you, people. Also, it's kinda scary how close you are to oncoming traffic, even though you're in the cage.


It took me a while to find this bike path, but once I did it was like I wasn't even in Grand Forks anymore. I was pretty sure I found an undiscovered part of the city and I was gonna claim it for myself but then someone just had to build a house right here.




Damn, they must've known I was coming too.


HAH! There we go...claiming some land in the name of JP. I think I'll build a tiny Wal-Mart there...or something.



That's all I got for now, tomorrow I have a dentist appointment first thing in the morning..so that's probably gonna ruin my day. Wish me luck.

Trip: Approx. 8 miles, Temp: 79 degrees ...maybe I should start keeping track of time too?



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