Theodore Wirth

[Kingbozo]

What is the official word on Theo Wirth? What sections are legal illegal etc...?

[gopherhockey]

I notice nobody has anwered you - I was hoping one of the Wirth people (MOCA perhaps) would get online and give a better answer than I can.... but here goes.

What I do know is they are legal biking trails. There are some sections marked for closer I have been told (I have not ridden there yet) but you won't cause any major issues if you are riding there.

I think there is some political interest at work right now trying to line up some trail improvements there. Due to the nature of that, not many people are talking... why it has to be secret I am not sure, but I'm trying to respect their need to do things like remove the Wirth forum etc.

I am hoping that sometime this summer they can resolve whatever is happening and we'll be able to list trails like Worth in the review area and here in the forums.

I guess my question to places like Wirth or even The Farm would be.. if it is "ok" to ride there, why hide it? If it isn't, then shouldn't we be posting it as closed? I'm not a fan of the gray area ... but I sense there are times it is necessary in order to improve and move forward.

Thoughts anyone?

[jitterjepp]

I just put something in the Brownie Lake post under the metro trails section.

[Miriam]

The sections of Wirth Park on either side of the parkway between 394 and Glenwood are closed to bikes. There is also a section on the East side of Cedar Lake that is clearly posted no bikes.

We are trying not to appear to be promoting the trails in the Cedar Lake/Wirth Park areas as officially established trails until we get the ok from the park board. As it is, some at the board have decided that we are "renegade bikers." There is no ordinance banning bikes in the city parks, although where there are signs, biking is off-limits. We are working on improving our image with them, and on officially establishing biking as a valid use of the parks.

There is no particular secrecy involved. We are, as a matter of fact, trying to get more people involved with our efforts...

www.mocatrails.org

[EmL34]

What about the section of trail south of 394 and west of France Avenue? It is near what I thought was called Brownie Lake. It's a great trail and it gets a fair amount of use.

Is it legit?

[Miriam]

That is Brownie Lake. Its as legit as any of the trails in the Wirth system and more legit than the closed ones. I realize that this sounds like an 'its a big grey area' type of answer, but the park board hasn't ok'd any of these trails for biking YET. We're confident that with a show of support from the mountain biking community they will. In the meantime, we can only ask people to use their best judgement riding these trails and please be polite to other trail users (there is a fair amount of foot traffic on the east side of Brownie, which is a pretty fast trail).

For more discussion on that trail and to read about some of the issues, please see the Brownie Lake section in the MOCA forums in the Other section.

[Miriam]

MOCA's (the Minneapolis Off-road Cycling Advocates) next meeting is at 7pm, June 18th at the Kenwood Community Center, 2101 W. Franklin in Mineapolis. Please come!