Thanks to Dick Reisner of

Dick’s Tree Service.

Dick donated a large load of wood chips to use at the GWT tree planting.

On two previous clearing

projects, Dick picked up large quantities of limbs and debris. Dick is a good friend of trails

Special Thanks to Marion

Businessman

Terry Bjornsen,

for donating a strip of land along Highway 13 to use as a connection between our present GWT

trailhead and Squaw Creek Park.

He also volunteered to

grade this strip

In 2001, when we learned that the Midwest Tandem Rally (MTR) was being held in Duluth, Minnesota, we starting exploring ways to extend our cycling vacation in upper Minnesota. The Midwest Tandem Rally, held on Labor Day weekend, typically hosts more than five hundred couples on tandem bicycles with a few odd-looking single-person bicycles thrown in.

On Saturday, the Rally organizers used a highway route to the town of Carlton that is south of Duluth. Another option was to use the beautiful Willard Munger State Trail instead of the highway. This trail stretches from Hinckley, MN, to Duluth, a distance of 70 miles. The section from Duluth to Carlton is 19 miles and it has an asphalt surface. One of the spectacular sights on this trail is at the crossing of an old railroad bridge high over the St. Louis River near Carlton. Far below you see the roiling whitewater. If you are lucky, you may see kayaks making their way through the rapids below.

Traveling from the west toward Duluth you pass through deep cuts in the iron-laden rock, which has a dark and rusty color. Just beyond the cut, you get a great overview of Duluth and the bay. This is truly a great trail. In past years we have ridden this same section in mid-August, and the trailside wildflowers were beautiful. We have friends who have ridden more southerly sections of this trail and they were not as impressed with the scenery. We look forward to the day we can ride that portion and see for ourselves.

The Rally organizers used the highway along the scenic north shore of Lake Superior for the Sunday ride. This route followed scenic old highway 61, which parallels the main route and hugs the shoreline as far north as Two Harbors. At Two Harbors the route ventured inland. After several rest stops and 60 miles of riding, we were back in our hotel in Duluth. We would recommend this ride for trail riders who are comfortable riding with some traffic. There was some shoulder on the road. If you ride early in the day or during non-holiday periods, the traffic is light and the scenery makes it worth the trip.

When the Rally was over, we moved to the Breezy Point Resort near Pequot Lakes (north of Brainerd) to sample some other trails. The Paul Bunyan Trail is the attraction in this area. This is another paved converted railroad right of way. The riding is easy and the scenery is typically woodland with quite a few nice lake views. The route generally follows highway 371. The sections from Brainerd to Nisswa and Backus to Hackensack are more pleasant, as they are away from the highway. The trail is listed as stretching from Brainerd to Walker, a distance of about 55 miles, passing through the communities of Merrifield, Nisswa, Pequot Lakes, Jenkins, Pine River, Backus and Hackensack. Eventually, this trail is supposed to reach all the way to Bemidji—a total of 100 miles.

The 2001 Trail Guide indicated the 17-mile section from Hackensack to Walker would be paved in the summer of 2001. As of September 2001, that had not been done, but that still left a very nice 38-mile trail to explore.

The towns of Nisswa and Pequot Lakes have very nice shops for the ladies to explore; Marlene thoroughly enjoyed them while Ed took advantage of the opportunity to get in some additional exploring on the bicycle. In Nisswa, we met some of our fellow Paired Iowans Going Somewhere (PIGS), also doing some shopping. The town of Jenkins has a really neat meat market with all sorts of tempting choices for the grill. We regretted not bringing home some of their offerings.

After several days of riding the Paul Bunyan, we decided to try the Heartland Trail, which is currently paved from Walker to Park Rapids, a distance of 27 miles. We only did the 16 miles to Nevis and back, as it had started to rain just as soon as we started and at times came down quite heavily, which put a damper on things. The section we experienced was not as nice as the Paul Bunyan, running parallel to the highway much of the time with fewer lakes. Much of our reaction may be due to the weather conditions we experienced. I guess the only way to find out is to go back and ride it again! When MN completes these trails; there will 148 miles of paved trail linked together.

Our next adventure was to the Itasca State Park headwaters of the mighty Mississippi. This park features 8 miles of paved off-road bicycling trails, 13 miles of mountain bike trails, and many miles of paved roads. We didn’t get a chance to cycle here as the heavens opened up with even more rain than the day before. We did get a chance to skip across the Mississippi on rocks and take a boat ride on the lake. This would be a nice area to spend a day or two when the sun is shining.

We found all these areas to be fun to explore. The paved trails make cycling easy. The towns are convenient distances apart, and it wasn’t crowded. We liked the area so much, that we are planning a self-contained cycling loop for 2002. The plan is to use the Paul Bunyan and Heartland trails, and highways to get to Lake Itasca Park. We would then follow the Adventure Cycling cross-country routing in this area to follow the Mississippi. The river flows northward to Bemidji then curves back to Mille Lac Lake close to Brainerd. This should be a wonderful 300 plus mile loop ride. If we pull it off, there could be a future article.

With the reorganization of the Government Relations Committee, there has been an infusion of new blood into the work of keeping trails going in the Metro area. Diane Handler is heading the revised organization. To date, these are the following assignments:

-Marion Trails: Gary Darland, Larry Kramer, and Troy Albrecht

-County Matters: Marty Ralston, Dave Maresh,

and Chuck Grado

-Cemar Trail: Brice AntonJensen

-Safety/Courtesy: Dave Wolf and Ben Dukes

-Chamber Of Commerce: Matthew Preston, Ed Hayek,

and Roger Flint

-Hoover Trail Liaison: Ron McGraw

-Cedar Rapids & All Other Trail Liaisons: Ron McGraw

I am repeating the above information from the last Trail Connections because these are the people to be contacted when you want to input or get current information. If you want to get involved in any of these tasks call Diane.

Cedar River Trail

With spring here, trail construction activity has started. From 42^nd Street NE and going north, you can see work underway on the CEDAR RIVER TRAIL. Of particular interest—the way the route goes under the Interstate entry/exit ramps and the HWY 100 lanes. You can best see this from the Werner Avenue turn-around space.

The funding problem with the CRT segment in Hiawatha has been solved and they are hoping to get IDOT approval for contract letting this summer. The LCCB people say they will do their part to complete the link to the CEDAR VALLEY NATURE TRAIL.

There are still railroad negotiations holding up the start of the final CRT construction between Sylvia St. and Blairs Ferry Road, but with luck, construction will get started this fall.

Bad News

Our Grant Requests for Segments B and G of the CEDAR RIVER TRAIL were not acted upon when the statewide budget problem caused IDOT to suspend further awards until money matters get resolved.

The Hoover Trail

IDOT has accepted the plan to keep the Hoover Trail work going. There is much work to be done but the sought outcome will be that individual county groups working under an umbrella organization will take charge of the route in their county and proceed at their own pace. One good outcome for Linn County is the decision by IDOT to be willing to make some old grant money available for purchase of Railroad right-of-way routes, should they become available. LCTA is working with the Iowa Heritage Foundation on this matter.

The Cemar Trail

Brice AntonJensen is working with CR Engineering to input a grant application for the first part of the CEMAR TRAIL. They are exploring several new routings to solve some difficult problems. They expect to have a grant request ready this summer. The CEMAR TRAIL has consistently been one of the highest priority routes, after the CEDAR RIVER TRAIL.

General

There have been some pop-up opportunities, such as the RR application for abandonment in Marion, which we will examine. Further, this is a request for all of you to let LCTA know when there are developments that offer opportunities for trails. Call any officer of the Association or any person designated above, when a new opening happens. Of course, try to gather some information before you call.

Please send questions, comments and suggestions to rcmcgraw@mcleodusa.net