An Active Weekend: Devils Lake and Biking the Hank Aaron trail

I spent the majority of my weekend outdoors hiking and biking! Unfortunately, I have the sunburn on one of my arms to prove it (I am still getting used to how much natural sunscreen to slather on).

I never get to spend an entire day with my friend Danielle, so we had to remedy that and go to Devil's Lake State Park together to hike! 

We got so lost trying to find the trail we wanted to be on and it was quite frustrating. At least the scenery was beautiful to take in, well everything except the very muddy trails we had to cross about 10 times! I need some hiking boots, not only for ankle support, but for their durability.

After our long 9 mile hike in the woods, we enjoyed lunch at a picnic bench by the lake. Because we're crazy, we ventured off on another two mile hike after lunch. I insisted on an easier trail because I was already quite sweaty and tired at that point. We chose the Tumbled Rocks trail along the Western shoreline. I had never been on that side of the lake before, so it was fun to see something new.

Walking along the lake and huge boulders was so peaceful. It was a very crowded trail though, while we barely saw anyone on our morning hike. 

We left Devil's Lake mid-afternoon and stopped at the Johnson Creek outlet mall on our way home. I was happy to find some light gray pants for work at Banana Republic and Danielle found a cute jean skirt at the Gap. 

I wasn't really that hungry, but Danielle was so we decided to stop for dinner in Delafield. I saw that the Picnic Basket was mentioned as being off the freeway, but it was really in Nashotah, further down the road past Delafield's downtown area. I had heard that the Picnic Basket has excellent sandwiches. I was happy that their vegetarian sub had so many great vegetables on it and not just cheese and lettuce. 

Craig and I set out on the Hank Aaron trail over the weekend. Neither of us had ever been on it before and we were able to drive to 94th Street and Schlinger Avenue to pick it up there.

Towards the end of our route, we came to the Menomonee Valley and the start of Three Bridges park.

The mural is a really cool feature to stop and look at. The MV branch of the Urban Ecology Center is above me in the picture below.

We took a break before heading back on the trail and rested by the Harley Davidson museum. I had a new to me bar, Trio, which was sort of dry, but it grew on me.

Our way back was challenging because of the wind. The valley was extremely difficult to get through for both of us, but I especially lagged behind. I felt like my bike couldn't even go forward at one point!

We ended up riding almost 13.75 miles and I was ready to relax for the rest of the weekend! While I love being active two days in a row, it is really exhausting and I much prefer having one day of the weekend to read, run errands and clean.