Friendships, laughter keeps them pedaling
Childhood friends reunite and form bike club
Trending
MARSHALL -- Jan Louwagie, one of the founding members of the Trail Travelers Bike Club, recalls going to a campground in Walker with everyone. They spent hours around a table playing cards and laughing. She remembers at one point the hostess came to see if they needed anything, but everyone was so busy laughing and telling jokes they eventually just left.
"That’s what keeps everybody coming back, I think," Louwagie said. "The laughter.”
Couples Jan and Dan Louwagie and Dianne and Greg Louwagie were childhood friends. But grew apart in later years with their children in different school districts. But one day, by happenstance while biking on a trail in Camden, they all ran into each other.
"We biked back to Marshall together," Jan Louwagie said. "(Dianne and Greg) graciously invited us to their house for chili, and I had a wonderful time."
They all had such a good time that they wanted to bike together more often. According to Jan Louwagie, in late 2020, as COVID lockdown protocols began to loosen, they decided it would be a great time for them to start a club.
Dianne, Greg, Jan and Dan all got in touch with their other friends who were interested in biking and started a club called the Trail Travelers. They meet up every Wednesday, bike one of the trails in Marshall -- usually out to Camden -- then go back and have some ice cream.
"Thats what keeps me coming back," Joked Wendy Johnson, one of the members of the trail Travelers. "If it weren’t for the food, I don’t think I'd be here."
For others, the weekly trip is a great time to see who are now some of their closest friends, Cecelia Pohlen came to the group about four years ago. She had recently moved to Marshall, and remembers the first couple of trips not knowing many people and being very shy. A few weeks later, I was like she had been there the entire time.
"When I came to Marshall, I only had one friend." Pohlen said. "Now I have 20, not just friends, but family."
The group wouldn’t be the same without Curt Boerboom, who had been a regular member with the group for six years. When he had a stroke and had difficulties balancing on a bike, The Trail Travelers Bike Club riders visited him in the hospital for support and helped him as he got a three wheeler bike.
He still comes on nearly every trip and is always the one to say "Lets go." He is letting everyone know when they need to get going before it gets dark.
"We have to call him whenever he isn’t here," Jan Louwagie said. "We don’t know when to go without him, so he calls and says 'lets go' and we all know to go."
In addition to The Trail Travelers Bike Club Wednesday bike meetups, every year they take annual trips. In June of 2020, they took their first step with a three day trip to Lanesboro.
"Since then, every single year, in June we make that same trip. We made our sixth trip there this year." Dianne Louwagie said.
In July, the trail travelers go on a trip up north to Walker, where one of their favorite things to do is go out to Itasca State Park.
"We don’t just bike," Emphasized Dianne Louwagie. "We’ve done ATV rides. We go kayaking. We play pickleball. We play cards. We play campground Jenga."
According to Theresa McCoy, the annual trips are so popular they bring members internationally. Karen West & Lynn Kletke from Manitoba, Canada, come down every year to attend.
In addition to their trips, the trail travelers are always looking for ways to help their community. Every year they go to decorate the Christmas tree and set up a nativity scene at Prairie Home Hospice. Two more Trail Travelers, Jane and Dennis Plaetz, play Mr. and Mrs. Claus for the children of Marshall.
"It involves us," McCoy said. "Not only as a group, but the whole community."
Those interested in learning more about the Trail Travelers can contact Jan and Dan Louwagie at djjklouw@mnval.net. Jan Louwagie shared “All that’s required is a bicycle and a desire to have a good time.