Elk River, MN
Well 2022 is a wrap and now we are on to 2023. Heidi and I celebrated the end of 2022 with a quiet evening at home. It’s a new year and to get out and get some fresh air and start making memories for 2023. After a brief discussion we decided to explore Elk River MN. We wanted to get a cup of coffee, some exercise and would reward ourselves with a beer from a brewery we haven't tried yet.
Our first stop was Caribou Coffee for a cup of coffee and to decide where we would go hiking. The Elk River City website was very helpful when looking up parks in the area. The park we picked was Woodland Trails Regional Park. The Park is located at 20135 Elk Lake Road and is just north of the Elk River Country Club. Woodlands Trail Regional Park takes up 427 acres and is filled with dense forest, prairie and wetlands. The park is open year round and has many amenities including an archery range, biathlon range, nature play area, picnic area, cross country skiing trails, and grass and paved trails.
We arrived at the park around 3pm and headed out on one of the paved trails. We followed the loop and ended back at the parking lot where we started. We wanted to explore more of the park so we headed up one of the winter walking trails. These trails are groomed, packed hard snow and are easy walking. There were some ic
y patches to watch out for. We took the trail that passed by the picnic area and the archery range and followed it into the woods. The trail system is impressive and we took one of the larger loops that would bring us back to the parking lot.
After we finished our walk we headed to Aegir Brewing for our reward beer. The brewery was located just down the road from the park and was easy to find. The brewery opened in 2018 in the industrial park area of Elk River. The brewery has a large variety of beers that include light beers, hoppy beers, dark beers, gluten friendly drinks and specialty brinks. Heidi had the Fall Stout and I had a blood orange and chocolate porter called Blood of the Allfather. The taproom was welcoming and was decorated in a norse theme. We picked a table off to one side and talked about the day and sampled our beverages. After finishing our beers we decided that we would get dinner from the food truck in the parking lot. We ordered our food and a couple more pints. This time Heidi went with the Blood of the Allfather and I went with the Peanut Butter Porter. All the beers we tried had a rich flavor and are good examples of stouts and porters. When we were finishing eating our burgers there was an announcement that Sunday night trivia was about to start. The brewery offers trivia nights and other activities throughout the week. We decided that we would hang out and play trivia. The trivia category for that night was “2022”. We found out quickly that we must not have been paying too much attention to 2022 fashion, music or movies. Even though we didn’t know as much as other groups we didn’t come in last. When trivia night was finished we headed home and called it a night.
This was the first adventure of the new year and it proved again that spontaneous adventures can be some of the most fun. We found a new park and brewery to enjoy and we will be back to visit them again in the future. If you're in the Elk River area check out Woodland Trails Regional Park and Aegir Brewing Company for a pint and some trivia fun.
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