Epic trail in Minnesota

[jitterjepp]

I'm wondering if anything is in the works for an epic trail in Minnesota. We have an incredible amount of State and National park land as well as a an incredible amount of state forests. I'd like to see an epic trail exceeding 50 miles. I think it would be really nice to have something that somewhat parallels the Border Route Trail or the Kekakabic Trail.

[Danimal]

You can do Lebanon and bike down to Mammoth. Pretty darn epic to me, I always get lost at Mammoth so that alone becomes an epic trail to me.

It would be cool if something along your lines of epic was established. It would be awesome to say ride up to the boundary waters area from the cities or vise versa.

[Buck]

Look up Tim's Cuyuna Project.

weRd!
Buck

[crux]

We have a few areas that have the potential to house a semi-epic trail.

Leb if we were to have full access in the summer months, as an added bonus biker traffic all the way out to the visitors center would increase park revenue if they could provide a cold beverage for nominal fee. (Hint-Hint Dakota)

Afton also has a bit more potential if cyclist had access to the land in the park adjacent to the ski hill.

Not sure if we could have a true epic mountain bike trail here in the state as I think that the user group would be limited to locals. Would never have an area here draw the type of traffic ie kokopelli trail, rim trial, flume, trail, slickrock....

[TrailPatrol]

We have some potential in the highlands above Lake Superior, and maybe in the Chippewa National Forest, but the concept has not grabbed on here like it has say, in Wisconsin. They have the CAMBA trails near Cable, Levis-Trow near Black River Falls, and Kettle Moraine near Milwaukee. Our state IMBA rep and the DNR are working on a potentially epic, destination trail system west of Brainerd, but it is still a number of years in the future. We also have the potential in NW Anoka County, but that may take even more time.

Jeff Lynch at Sawtooth Outfitters is working on something in the Superior National Forest, near Tofte, and some folks from Ely are also working on a new project between Ely and Biwabek with Superior NF, too. The good news is, it's in the works, but the bad news is it's still in the works.

Ride safe,
:banana:
Hans

[FarmerBEN]

unfortunately northern WI has the advantage of accessability. The cable trails, and levis probably draw almost as many people from MN as they do from WI, Kind of nice to have a major metro area just across the border, no offense to fargo or souix falls, but combined they aren't as large as Mlps-SP

[gopherhockey]

Leb if we were to have full access in the summer months, as an added bonus biker traffic all the way out to the visitors center would increase park revenue if they could provide a cold beverage for nominal fee. (Hint-Hint Dakota)

Don't count this out as a possibility... ;) We're working on it... we're working on it... at least I'm not getting my hand slapped as much when I point to the east side of JCRR these days. :crazy2:

Lets see.. what was the ride I was thinking about. Leb->Terrace->Murphy I think. ~5 miles between Leb & Terrace, ~9 between Terrace and Murphy (the NEW Murphy).

[jitterjepp]

Not sure if we could have a true epic mountain bike trail here in the state as I think that the user group would be limited to locals. Would never have an area here draw the type of traffic ie kokopelli trail, rim trial, flume, trail, slickrock....The kekakabic hiking trail is about 42 miles and about 30 of that is maintained by the friends of the kekakabic trail club. The trail does get used and its a hiking trail where at one point your are about 19 miles from any roads going any direction. You have to walk with a buch of crap on your back and its not a particular interesting trail most of the time because the woods are so thick you can't see anything. Its not like hiking in the mountains were you have all these beautiful views all the time. If people go up there and use that trail I think that people would go up there for a 42 mile bike trail that possibly had a lakeside campsite or two. I'm also pretty sure that the friends of the kekakabic trail club is down here in the metro area or at the least have much of thier support down here because they are holding thier meetings at REI and not in Ely or Grand Maris. Kind of like what MORC is doing.

I guess when I say Epic I mean out in the wilderness and really long like Maah Daah Hey, White Rim or Kokopelli long..

[gopherhockey]

I guess when I say Epic I mean out in the wilderness and really long like Maah Daah Hey, White Rim or Kokopelli long..

Cuyuna has the potential to be this kind of epic - being more remote, much longer, a real "destination" trail. Lots of exciting things going on with this area... Tim Wegner is on point with that one.