Southern MN MORC Chapter

[jaybird]

I placed this in the southern MN trails to see what response there would be on starting a MORC chapter for southern MN. My initial feeling is this would be great to get some local support for the trail systems outside of the Twin Cities area. On the other hand, I have an initial concern on having a single extension chapter for such a large area. I believe we have a solid group coming from both the SE part of the state (Redwing/Winona) and SC (Mankato). Because of this, a chapter in the south would be split on what it wanted to do? Do we look at only the portion of the south interested in starting a chapter - SE, SC, SW, TW, WC, etc.

Any comments from the riders from the south?

[mtbGirl]

I would be VERY interested in a MORC chapter in southern MN! We definitely need some more trails in southern MN!!!

[martini]

Aaron and I have been talking about this for a while, but have been too lazy to REALLY do anything about it. We've got a name: Mankato Area Trail Riders (MATR), and possibly had the project that I posted a while back, but was shot down pretty hard. That stole alot of our momentum. I guess we'll have to appease ourselves simply by doing trail maintenance at Mt Kato and 7 mile. Or other venues. Who knows? I may end up here for the next few years, so getting something rolling would be a great thing to do. Ideas folks?

Good to see you on here Amy! How's Chris doin', did you go up to Chequammy this year? how'd it go?

[mtbGirl]

Hey M!

There are many areas around Mankato that have excellent trail potential (e.g. Minneopa by the river valley). It really sucks to have to drive +50min to get trail variety. Southern MN definitely needs some more technical trails.

You know the Kato crew...If we got a project going I think we'd have the muscles to support it.

I know I should have gotten involved with MORC before but it seemed like a metro focused group. This thread really got me pumped! Chris and I are planning on attending the MORC meeting/ride...looking forward to learning more.

Cheq was great! Beat my best time by +20 min. Drank lots of beer!

Mark your calendar...House of Large Sizes @ the What’s Up on 10/17

[gopherhockey]

As a MORC board member I fully support and would love to see a southern MN chapter (not just affiliate) start up. It seems like you have some motivated and enthused people in the area - exactly what is needed to start something like this.

[martini]

Originally posted by mtbGirl
Mark your calendar...House of Large Sizes @ the What’s Up on 10/17

Oh, you KNOW I'll be there!

[KleinCrazy]

Jeez,

I havn't seen HOLS since I was in school down in Ames in the Early 90's.

Talk about bring back old memories. Just saw an announcement for a new group with Tina, from Tina and the B Sides.

[legoshoe]

Where do I sign??? j/k I'm here in A.L. and the only worthy trail worth riding in this town is the state park trail (which now they are putting a paved trail from AL to Austin right through the state park).

If a southern Mn chapter were made, I would definately want to get involved somehow since I seem to have more time on my hands now that I'm in college instead of hs (more ride time).

Travis

[jaybird]

Marty - you had some initial discussions with Mt. Kato and a private owner earlier this year to extend the existing trail system. I know what happened with the land owner, but what was Mt. Kato's side of the story? Are they open to 3rd party assistance on trail development?

[martini]

Travis, where you going to school? Still in AL?

Jason~Mt Kato doesn't really want additional trails built on thier land perse, but are willing to look a few reroutes~maybe~. It seems that they're more interested in having someone do maintenance work. There may be other land owners that are willing to pony up access, it's just a matter of finding suitable land. And that could be a hard search ;)

[jaybird]

Well this is step in the right direction.

I would love to start moving forward with this in preparation for next spring. But I want to make sure this is a win-win for both Mt. Kato and the riders. Marty's last message leads me to believe that we will have to demonstrate trail maintenance before we can look at expanding the existing trail system.

Amy/Marty - What interest have you heard from others in the area of maintaining & potentially developing Mt. Kato. I've been trying to think of a few spots at the top of the hill to develop a section that is more difficult, but flatter, then most of Mt. Kato. Something like the XX loop at Lebanon.

[martini]

well, lets get together then, eh?

I know of another guy in town that would be willing to help. Rides a Ti Dean and goes to school at MSU. Can't remember his name though....I'm sure that there are others who'd be interested though.

Romberg has mentioned that Junoir wanted to build more technical stuff out there, and that it may be possible. It remains to be seen how serious he was though.

I've got access to LOTS of land information here at work. Digital air photos, land records just downstairs, and a killer GIS system to look at it all with. Gimme some time, and I can find possible spots.

[legoshoe]

I'm going to the community college here in town and in Austin for my 2 years of generals before shipping off to St. Cloud probably. I'm usually in Mankato around 2 times a month so if some trail maintanence thing got going or something I would be interested.

[mtbGirl]

I would be happy to help with ANY new trail construciton in southern MN. I think other locations besides Mt Kato should also be looked at too!

Hopefully I will see you guys at the meeting on Saturday and we can discuss more.

Later! AT

[jaybird]

I was at our company's annual golf outing at Shoreland and nearly fell over with the surrounding terrain there. The perimeter of the golf course was a combination of Afton and Lebanon with the elevation and potential trail variety.

Does anyone else have a feel for the potential surrounding area near Shoreland or am I way off base?

[martini]

There are some interesting spots in that area for sure. Another place that I've been entertaining is Thompson Ravine between Madison East and OutBack Steak house. Yeah it's steep in some places, but we should easily be able to build something there.