MOA (or Sibley House) to Belle Plaine?

[Pete]

Has anyone started at the service road behind MOA (or at the Sibley
House) and followed the river all the way to Belle Plaine?

It seems like you could ride a nice mix of gravel, dirt, and easy
singletrack all the way to BP. Looks like you'd only have a few miles
on pavement.

Anyone tried it?


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[Tim McNamara]

On Apr 21, 2010, at 7:26 PM, Pete wrote:

> Has anyone started at the service road behind MOA (or at the Sibley
> House) and followed the river all the way to Belle Plaine?
>
> It seems like you could ride a nice mix of gravel, dirt, and easy
> singletrack all the way to BP. Looks like you'd only have a few miles
> on pavement.
>
> Anyone tried it?

I've never done it contiguously but I've ridden most of it in parts,
some of them not in quite a few years, though.

From the Sibley House to the trails along the Minnesota River in
Bloomington is inconvenienced by the destruction of the Old Cedar
Avenue bridge, so you'd have to work around that. The Bass Ponds
trail can be used. From the parking lot at the Bloomington end of
the Old Cedar bridge I think the Bluff Trail trail is closed (part of
a wildlife reserve) to bikes until you reach the eastern entry point
to the Minnesota River Bottoms Trail at Indian Mounds Elementary
School. From there you can ride to the old Ferry Bridge Road.

If the Long Meadows Lake Trail is open in its entirety to bikes then
that would work around all of that. I've ridden from the new Cedar
Avenue bridge to American Blvd several times and it's fine. Years
ago the southern leg from the bridge just petered out and was
impassable without a long hike-a-bike through the woods. It connects
on the maps now, though. I haven't ridden out that way in probably
15 years.

You can continue on the Bloomington side of the river on gravel but I
think that eventually peters out to a dead end. At least it did 10
years ago which is probably the last time I rode out that way. You
can take the new trail into Shakopee and past that to Jordan; it's
paved but very pleasant. I've never gone on the trail west of Chaska
to Belle Plain.

Sounds like a good adventure ride! Between the two PDFs below it's a
complete map of the route, I think.

http://www.fws.gov/Midwest/MinnesotaValley/long_meadow.html (click
for PDF)

http://www.morcmtb.org/wiki/index.php/Minnesota_River_Bottom

http://files.dnr.state.mn.us/maps/state_parks/sra00304.pdf

[Dan Steeves]

> On Apr 21, 2010, at 7:26 PM, Pete wrote:

>> Has anyone started at the service road behind MOA (or at the Sibley
>> House) and followed the river all the way to Belle Plaine?

I can't tell you the exact trail names but for the last several years
I've ridden from the Bloomington Ferry Bridge through to the MOA light
rail. Just come up when you can't find a trail that keeps going east.

I think some of the trails in the bird sanctuary area just east of the
official MORC River Bottoms trail are "no bikes allowed." I rode them
anyway and was polite to walkers.

What I really wanted to do was connect the area below MOA to the area
below Fort Snelling. But I found that the area directly below the
airport is taken up by a fenced in military something.

[Pete]

Thanks for the info guys. I had found those same maps, and like you
said Tim, by the looks of the maps it is doable.

I like the fact that some of these trails might peter out...

The biggest question mark is between 77 and Lyndale. It seems this is
the stretch with the most overgrown trails and "off limits to bikes"
areas... and solid info about it is hard to find. The rest seems
pretty well established. I'll probably stop in the FWS visitor center
at some point and ask if the Long Meadows Lake trail is bike legal
from MOA to Lyndale. If so, I should be good to go.

It looks like I'll have to ride 3 to 4 miles on highway 101 between
Bloomington Ferry and Memorial Park in eastern Shakopee, right?

It's probably a bit too much dirt/singletrack for a 'gravel grinder'
discussion group, but I appreciate the info.

Thanks again!

[Tim McNamara]

On Apr 26, 2010, at 9:09 PM, Pete wrote:

> Thanks for the info guys. I had found those same maps, and like you
> said Tim, by the looks of the maps it is doable.
>
> I like the fact that some of these trails might peter out...
>
> The biggest question mark is between 77 and Lyndale. It seems this is
> the stretch with the most overgrown trails and "off limits to bikes"
> areas... and solid info about it is hard to find. The rest seems
> pretty well established. I'll probably stop in the FWS visitor center
> at some point and ask if the Long Meadows Lake trail is bike legal
> from MOA to Lyndale. If so, I should be good to go.
>
> It looks like I'll have to ride 3 to 4 miles on highway 101 between
> Bloomington Ferry and Memorial Park in eastern Shakopee, right?

There's a paved trail along the side of the highway for at least part
of that stretch, IIRC. I think it's listed as "Bloomington Ferry
Road/Crest Road" on Google Maps, and it dumps you out onto Hwy 101 at
67th or so. But you can, if traffic is uncomfortable, minimize it a
lot according to Google Maps. A short stint on the shoulder to 70th,
cross to the south side frontage road for a mile or so. Where it
turns back to the highway you can cross to what looks like a dirt
road on the north side, then pick up Park Drive to Valley View Drive
at the theme park. You can cross there to the south side frontage
road again. At Canterbury Road, cross over to the north side
frontage road (who the fuck lays these things out anyway? Jiminy
Christmas. A committee of drunks would design a more sensible road
system). From there it looks like you can cut up to a connector to
Shenandoah Drive, which would get you to Memorial Park.

A lot of farting around, it might just be better to ride the shoulder
of the highway of traffic is light. OTOH lately the Minnesota
quality of driving seems to be strained, it droppeth like violent
death upon the roads beneath. It may be best to stay away from the
roads.

[Jim Thill - Hiawatha Cyclery]

The trail between 77 and Lyndale is not a problem. Often I ride from
Mendota (Sibley House) to 77, cross the bridge, and pick up the trail
on the other side of the channel. From there, just stay on the trail
to Lyndale. I was not aware that there was a trail beyond Shakopee,
but I'd like to try it when things dry up down there in a couple
months!

[Tim McNamara]

I rode from Mendota Heights to the Cedar Avenue pedestrian bridge on
the State Corridor Trail on Sunday. Well, "rode" is a bit of callous
misuse of the word. "Walked or carried my bike" would be much more
accurate for about half of that distance. The trail has long
stretches of soft, loose silt the texture of ashes which would only
be rideable with much fatter tires than my 26 x 1.25s. There was a
bunch of Kenwood riders on their MTBs and they did better, although I
saw signs of them having to walk or divert off the trail entirely.
There were also many large piles of flotsam and driftwood.

Black Dog Road remained closed, so I didn't bother crossing the
bridge to try riding further south on the Bloomington side of the
trail. I had a great tailwind all the way back up Hwy 13 to the
Mendota Bridge which made up for some of the difficulties of the trail.

Might be another month before the rain packs down the spring flood
silt on the trails along the rivers.

[Pete]

I was out there on Sunday too... around 3:30pm or so. Wish I would
have seen a fellow rider.

The State Corridor Trail was tough, like Tim mentioned. I had a
29x2.2 in front with a 700x35 in back and I walked quite a bit.

I kind of enjoyed the adventure, but there were definitely times I
wish I was on a Pugsley. It would actually be fun ride on a Fat Bike.

I chose to cross at 77, and rode back on the Long Meadow Lake Trail,
which was waaay better and almost entirely rideable. The first few
hundred yards (where the trail runs right next to the river) was sand,
but the rest of the trail up to American Blvd was fine for my set-up.

Next I'm gonna try to ride Long Meadow Lake trail south from 77 and
see what I can find. From what little I saw on Sunday, it might still
be too wet.

[Pete]

Rode from MOA to Bloomington Ferry yesterday... Long Meadow Lake trail
was rideable to 77. The FWS plowed the trail of most of the sand near
77, but after 77 there hasn't been any maintenance. LOTS of sand, and
I did a LOT of walking for the remainder of the ride. Hopefully this
route will be in better shape by this fall.

If I go back anytime soon it'll be on my fat bike.