River valley conditions?

[nigel]

Anyone know what its like these days? Aint been down in forever since ive assumed been all flooded.


D

[homebrewbiker]

Anyone know what its like these days? Aint been down in forever since ive assumed been all flooded.


D
Was there on Sunday am. It was about 70% dry with some significant puddles. Came out with a fair amount of mud, since I was under the impression that widening the trail by going around the puddles is not as bad for the trail as just taking them on. We only rode to the river crossing though so I can't speak to how things are beyond that point.

[Don Youngdahl]

Anyone know what its like these days? Aint been down in forever since ive assumed been all flooded.
D
It's in fine shape, completely dried out from the flood. There's one down tree which caused an instant reroute to spring up, which is OK because the old trail was pretty close to the bank. There's one spot where one branch of the trail is partially washed away by the receeding riverbank, but there's an alternate path.

I found three discarded or lost plastic soft drink bottles in a half mile stretch near the Izaak Walton League property, which I can only assume were not left by real mountain bike riders, because real mtb riders don't litter, and they likely use hydration packs or real bicycle water bottles. If you see the occasional pop bottle lost or discarded, stuff it in your pack & help keep the area neat. Maybe look at it as our obligation to look after our less enlightened brethren.

Don Youngdahl

[nigel]

It's in fine shape, completely dried out from the flood. There's one down tree which caused an instant reroute to spring up, which is OK because the old trail was pretty close to the bank. There's one spot where one branch of the trail is partially washed away by the receeding riverbank, but there's an alternate path.

I found three discarded or lost plastic soft drink bottles in a half mile stretch near the Izaak Walton League property, which I can only assume were not left by real mountain bike riders, because real mtb riders don't litter, and they likely use hydration packs or real bicycle water bottles. If you see the occasional pop bottle lost or discarded, stuff it in your pack & help keep the area neat. Maybe look at it as our obligation to look after our less enlightened brethren.

Don Youngdahl
Ugg River Valley, down trees and my riding! Fun waiting to happen! Yeah i know what ya mean bout the garbage, I always end up with at least one jersey pockets full of stuff at RV as well as Leb!

Thanks for the updates guys! Hope it does not rain before i get there tho!

D

[homebrewbiker]

It's in fine shape, completely dried out from the flood. There's one down tree which caused an instant reroute to spring up, which is OK because the old trail was pretty close to the bank. There's one spot where one branch of the trail is partially washed away by the receeding riverbank, but there's an alternate path.

Don Youngdahl
Yeah, I think I took that. Is that near the begnning where the trail is sandy and you look to your right and there is about a 10 foot drop? I that that was cool, but my friend who is afraid of heights didn't like it too much.:shocked:

I may have taken the downed tree for an obstacles and got chewed up by it twice. I guess maybe I should bitten the bullet and just treid to hop it instead of trying a 2 step move, both times my bike got stuck after my front wheel cleared.

I have to say that the trail is a lot more fun than I thought, only problem was the grumpy hiker with his kids who gave us dirty looks when we came up on him. My buddy said he had a beer can in has hand, I expect someone will find that on the side of the trail.:embarass:

[PaulHill]

I rode there this evening.

There's some standing water in places, which suprised me. The trail is quite overgrown in places - can be less than a foot between one side of the trail and the other. It can get a little claustrophobic at times, and the overgrown foliage sometimes completely obscures the trail, but it's ridable.

Mosquitos are out in force too. I think I chose the wrong time of the day, but I'm sure they are more prevalent there than on the other trails.

So my brand new bike got dirty. Bah!

(Iron Horse Hollowpoint Expert, btw :-)

[cheese4brains]

I rode the west end this afternoon:


Trail is mostly dry. There are the usual muddy spots between the Ferry Bridge Lot and the swing bridge. There's an unusually muddy spot about 1.5 miles east of the Ferry Lot - this area was one of the first (and assumedly last) areas to flood and it's still recovering.
Weeds are generally OK except for just west of the swing bridge. The trimming and mowing done by Steve and the Monday maintenance sessions has really helped.
Sand is present but tame and mostly packed down.
Thanks to whoever cut down the low-hanging tree west of 9 mile. It was an interesting obstacle for a while, but sand+tree+corner was an accident waiting to happen.
Mosquitos? I had no problem in the afternoon, even the few times I briefly stopped. I'm guessing things get scarier in the early and late parts of the day.
Overall I had a good ride. If you're worried about the weeds, try and get out to the Monday trail sessions and lend a hand. It's suppose to rain tonight, but hopefully the warmer weather this week will dry the trail quickly.

[Beaner128]

I don't know how people do it, there has got to be an easier way. Maybe it's just me because I have a pacemaker defibrillator implanted so I can't go as strong as I'd like. When I ride my MTB to work, I take the Bloomington Ferry Bridge trail and usually arrive at Lyndale within 2 hours. It's east of Lyndale that's the problem. I need to make sure I'm far enough south so I can take the Cedar Ave. Bridge across the river, and on the South Side of the Nature preserve is really a bear to ride. It takes me almost 2 hours to complete this section. Going through a bit of a swamp, and some trees down and then getting by the river only to have to pedal through lots and lots of sand... I spend more time off my bike then on it during this short section. I know probably where I turn off to go south of the preserve may be a little early, but I don't know if the other 2 trails I see there will get me on the South Side of the preserve. Anybody have any ideas???? This ride is wearing me out!!!!!

[TomT]

I don't know how people do it, there has got to be an easier way. Maybe it's just me because I have a pacemaker defibrillator implanted so I can't go as strong as I'd like. When I ride my MTB to work, I take the Bloomington Ferry Bridge trail and usually arrive at Lyndale within 2 hours. It's east of Lyndale that's the problem. I need to make sure I'm far enough south so I can take the Cedar Ave. Bridge across the river, and on the South Side of the Nature preserve is really a bear to ride. It takes me almost 2 hours to complete this section. Going through a bit of a swamp, and some trees down and then getting by the river only to have to pedal through lots and lots of sand... I spend more time off my bike then on it during this short section. I know probably where I turn off to go south of the preserve may be a little early, but I don't know if the other 2 trails I see there will get me on the South Side of the preserve. Anybody have any ideas???? This ride is wearing me out!!!!!
"arrive at Lyndale within 2 hours" + "almost 2 hours to complete this section" = A four hour commute?

Ouch! I think you'll need to provide some additional details, such as Time, speed and distance. Your time seems long, but that depends on your speed and distance. There are some areas east of Lyndale that can be nasty but I believe all have bypasses.

[Beaner128]

Yes you got it almost 4 hours. My average speed is very slow, probably close to 10 mph at the most... This has a lot to do with the Pacemaker and the medications I'm on. The problem isn't so much the length of the ride, it's just that once I hit east of Lyndale I spend more time off my bike then on it. Partly because of channel crossings, and partly because of the tons of Sand. I checked today and driving down Black Dog road to the park is only about 3.5 miles. I know others ride east of Lyndale, but have not seen many people riding the South Side of the preserve. At least where I've been riding. This section should at the most take me 30 minutes, but right now... I ride to the section of trail where you can make 3 choices. 1. Go straight up the hill, 2. Take a right and then an immediate left., 3. Take a right and continue to vear to the right until you see the river. The initial section here is in pretty rough shape. It looks like a lot of work has been done on the number 2 choice, I just don't know if I could some how end up on the southside of the preserve...

I don't think I can, but if anybody knows...

[seberly]

Nope, you cannot get across as Long Meadow Lake except at the drainage crossing that you are using - the only other way used to be the Old Cedar Bridge but it is closed now, and it also required a trip up to Old Shakopee Road to bypass the 1 mile bird watching trail which is not open to bikes.

No one is formally maintaining the southern route - it is WAY overgrown and sandy as you mention.

[Beaner128]

Thanks, looks like I may have my work cut out for me if I want to continue to use this route. At one time I was travelling with a foldable shovel in my pack but it just took me to long to get there I couldn't do any trail work on my way to my real job. I'll try to get some work done on it early morning on Saturday and Sunday. I'll post some additional messages if the commute is better on Tuesday AM.

[Beaner128]

I went out on both Saturday and Sunday. It certainly wouldn't hurt to run the mower back from Old Cedar to just before the channel crossing. When it comes to rerouting a trail I am certainly no expert, but it definitely looks like part of this trail will have to be rerouted. The river bank is eroding very quickly, if anybody rides this portion of the trail and is more of an expert on trail rerouting maybe they can... I even had some runners thank me for clearing some of the brush, I couldn't get the stuff that was overgrown, but I did manage to take care of anything that was blocking the trail, for runners as well as bikers.

[Beaner128]

Much better this morning, total ride time was about 3 hours. :laugh:

[Pandl]

I rode from the end of Lyndale to the Bloomington Ferry parking lot Friday around noon. Great ride. Haven't been here for about 2 years. No wet puddles. A couple of muddy spots, but they didn't take the whole path. A couple of the 2 x 4 bridges looked a little shaky, but I made it over no problem. Felt very safe once on it. Felt great to be off road again, and at the River Bottoms! :cheesy:

[el gueche]

by sunday a tree had dropped blocking the trail within a mile of bloomington ferry - had to crawl on thru - el