Rebecca Trail

[The Bull]

Rode Rebecca on Sunday hoping for good conditions. I
checked with Three Rivers and the trail was open.
However, quickly realized the trail is in horrible
condition. There is standing water everywhere on the
trial. Some spots look to be permanent water holes.
At the bottom of one hill, there is a wash out to the
point that there is a 2-foot deep by 3-foot wide hole
(very dangerous). Riders are damaging the trial by
trying to ride around many of the wet spots. This is
just expanding the damage to the trail.

I tracked down maintenance and told them to close the
trails, which they did after looking at the trails. I
cannot foresee riding this trail this year. Even if
it does dry out, it has been rutted badly.

[yetirider]

This will be interesting come late July, if there is indeed perm. standing water. From what I have heard, there is a X-Terra "offroad" triathlon there in late July...

Having done these in the past, the damage is significant and with what was described, it would be almost permanantly damaging to the trails?

[KleinCrazy]

Jeff,

I would like to say thank you for taking the initiative and contacting Park Staff to close what you as a ride saw as bad conditions. If we had more riders like you out there MORC's job as a who would be much much easier.

That being said, you would you be willing to help with the Lake Rebecca Trail System in the future? MORC has an agreement with TRPD to Review and make modifications to the mountain bike trails at Lake Rebecca, Murphy, and Elm Creek.

At this time Lake Rebecca is a ways down the list, but from your description it might be in need of moving up a little.

Drop Tim Wegner, the Southern Minnesota IMBA Rep about the conditions you saw and see what he has to say.

mailto:twegner50@yahoo.com

Thanks for the great work!

[smeulebroe]

I rode out there a few times last year and ran into some of the same conditions. There are a few sections that have water no matter when you ride the trail. I was excited when I heard MORC and Rebecca had discussions about trail work. I live in Plymouth near hwy 55, so I would be willing to help out with the trail work at Rebecca.

[Tim Wegner]

Update on 3RPD. We were thrown a curve ball a week ago by the director of 3 rivers. Nothing that we can't overcome but it will delay the work here for 1-2 years. This is fine since it will take that long to review what they have, meet with the appropriate people and plan the trail rebuild correctly. Until then we still have work to do on the river bottoms. Will meet on Friday with city of Bloomington as well as FWS. Terrace Oaks will get some TLC this summer and there is always the trail in Inver Grove Heights.

So as you can see we probably could not get in to Lake Rebecca until late this year or early next year.

Sorry to disappoint those of you that were hoping to rebuild Rebecca this year. It will happen, just not as fast as I would like to see it happen.
:(

[homebrewbiker]

I was at Lake Rebecca in early May. I wasn't sure if the trail was open or closed (the front sign said open but the sign by the trail said closed and their web site said it was open). It was the second time I had tried to go there so I decided to give it a shot. I did not think the conditions were as bad as has been reported. My biggest complaint is that there are several bog areas that are impossible to avoid. I ended up trying to go around some of them through very tall grass. Others you just had to try to get through the mud as best you could without ending up thigh deep in mud.

I also work not too far from there in Plymouth and was hoping to make it a regular trip. With the recent rain I don't know how the trail can be considered enjoyable unless you like slogging through deep mud, and this is not even very good for the trail or your bike.

I would be interested in helping out if and when trail renovation happens. I am afraid it waits much longer, much of the trail will have to be re-routed.

Cheers and Good Cycling!:cryin:

[JayT]

As Tim stated in his earlier message Lake Rebecca will get improvements, but not as soon as everyone would like. The Park District is in the process of developing a plan to manage ALL of its non-paved trails and there are miles & miles of them. Mountain bike trails will just be one part of this overall management plan. The Park District operates over 20 park facilities totaling over 25,000 acres - getting a handle on what the Park District already has, incorporating sustainable trails, then setting a strategy and budget to care for it all is a huge task.

I will pass this information along to park maintenance, but just so everyone is aware… I do not speak for the maintenance staff and I know that this is a busy time of year for them.

Stay tuned.

JayT – Development Section (Planning & Engineering) - Three Rivers Park District