Editor’s Note – This piece was originally published in our September 2011 issue. The byline was incorrect and should have been attributed to Brent Baxter. We apologize for the error.
The first weekend in June this year, the woods in Northern Minnesota were filled with over 60 people and 45 rigs. Not one person was wheeling; instead, they were cutting almost two miles of core road trails to a new park. This was the 10th annual National Trails Day that has grown exponentially each year. Anyone can wheel trails, camp, pack up and go home on Sunday, but there’s a movement in Minnesota that is spreading like wildfire – getting involved and getting dirty; trail maintenance and making great friends in the process is done all in the name of responsible wheeling.
These days it seems like there’s a lot of chatter about Ultra4 racing, King of the Hammers and the like. Everyone’s concentrated on the next big race – even calling their rigs “cars”. While the racing side of our sport can be the fancy thing to keep our eyes on, the land we’re using to wheel on is being taken out from underneath us. The first trail closure that made the situation real was the closure of the Upper Tellico OHV trails system in North Carolina. It’s long been a “must experience” location that has now been lost. Almost weekly, there’s a cry for help from a trail system around the country where the community rallies together to help save the land we value so much.
While no one is immune to the risk of losing public land to enjoy, there is a location that is having success in not only fighting to keep public trails open to the public, but acquiring new land, cutting trails, and opening new trails and parks: Minnesota. ‘Uh, where’s that, you say? Minnesota, eh?’ Yep, it’s covered in many feet of snow half of the year, but that just makes the easy trails hard and the hard trails downright hairy.
In 1993, Minnesotans started talks about getting some land, building some trails and doing some wheeling. As easy as that sounds, there are definite processes and procedures that need to be followed to get anywhere with this sort of proposition. A group of dedicated wheelers soon found out that success would come in organization and getting their community involved early and often. They soon formed a local club called the Northern Minnesota Jeepers (NMJ). Through trial and error, they found a system and process that has helped move the progress forward in getting new trails cut.
With a location found in Gilbert, MN, they brought their idea to the local community, to town board meetings, and the DNR. An environmental study tied up the process in a holding pattern for three years. However, in 1996, the Minnesota State legislature approved the Iron Range OHV recreation area and it opened its trails to the public in 1999. Gilbert OHV has trails for all types of offroad rigs and experience levels.
Also in 1999, another win came with the legislature approving a 3,500-acre addition to the brand new OHV recreation area. Again, the local community was kept informed and involved every step of the way; through environmental impact studies, public feedback and approvals.
The Gilbert OHV park opened the eyes of wheelers from neighboring states and beyond, and clubs saw this as an opportunity to show the public that wheeling can be enjoyed as a family, and enjoyed responsibly. That paved the way to start the state’s first Grant In Aid request process for the Mesabi Mountain Trail. Twelve long years of a Northern Minnesota club working with the local officials, DNR, state officials and general public to get approval, and they are currently cutting trails that should be open to the public in the fall of 2011.
With the momentum of the Mesabi Mountain Trail progress and the success of the Gilbert OHV, the 2700-acre expansion adjacent to the Gilbert Park, was in the works and plans were laid in 2008. After a familiar and all too lengthy permit process, construction began in the summer of 2010 for the Virginia expansion to the Gilbert OHV Park, and is scheduled to open the gates for wheeling in the next 2-3 years.
The buzz surrounding the trails and parks in the Iron Range of Northern Minnesota provided the motivation and momentum for a Southern Minnesota club to start the search for a trail system, book-ending the state with wheeling opportunities from the North and South. The Rochester Rough Riders club, in collaboration with the Minnesota 4 Wheel Drive Association, took a page out of the playbook from the Northern Minnesota Jeepers and put their tried and true system to work – an area was located that would make a suitable, sustainable trail system. The idea was brought to the local city council and the community to get support of the plan in the early stages. Once the local community was on board with the idea, they became a driving force, working for the OHV community instead of against it. A ton of research was done to find Federal and State Aid Funds, as well as any Legacy funds available to acquire the proposed trail system land. Once funding was approved, the planning continued, and the National Off-Highway Vehicle Conservation Council (NOHVCC), in conjunction with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, held an OHV Management Workshop. Here, they were brought in to build a better understanding of laws and regulations governing the use of OHVs. The process for the Southern Trail System is a long haul, and still in the early stages of development, but if we’ve learned anything, this isn’t a quick and easy process; in fact, it’s quite the opposite.
The old cliché of nothing good comes easy, has never been as true as it does when talking about keeping public land open to the public. Minnesota wheelers have been both fortunate and determined enough to put three trail systems on the map with a fourth in the works. This great northern state may not be thought of as the mecca of wheeling locations, but they’re blazing trails that (hopefully) others will follow.
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