The wife and I had a chance to do some biking this afternoon, and so we headed to the Gateway Trail in the east metro. I haven’t ridden that trail in ages, so I was anxious to see how it had changed since the reconstruction of Highway 36 through North St. Paul. We picked up the trail off of McKnight, with our destination being the Gasthaus Bavarian Hunter restaurant in Stillwater, MN.

The trail was very beautiful today, and the temperature was a perfect fall day for being outside. The Gateway trail has changed a bit since I first rode it, but it was still a really nice easy ride, with many of the road crossings turned into bridges. It still had a bit of elevation, but for the most part it stuck to 1-2% of grade. Overall, we made pretty good time.

After about 9 miles we made it to the restaurant and took a seat outside to feast on some traditional German food. I had some schnitzel with veggies, and a nice German Oktoberfest lager. It was an amazing afternoon to be eating outside, and enjoying really great food. They were quite busy, so it took a bit for our food to arrive, but it was worth the wait.

We then packed up for the ride home, which was just as uneventful as the ride out. It was a great time showing my wife some trails I haven’t been on in ages, and going on a short little adventure. Soon the weather will make it harder to do trips like this, so we need to make sure we keep doing them as often as we can.