Trails lead to recreation

I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.

Oct. 10, 1999

By Devlyn Brooks

Citing safety and monetary concerns, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources announced this week it will not groom the paved portion of the Heartland Trail leading from Walker to Park Rapids.

Tony Walzer, of the DNR's Trails and Waterways division, said the alternate trail still will be groomed.

He added the decision to groom both trails -- which was done for the last two years -- was made because of political pressure. A local resident had complained to former Lt. Gov. Joanne Benson, who was running for governor, and so the DNR was pressured into grooming both trails.

Walzer said there are several benefits to grooming only the alternate trail, but the primary reason is safety.

After two seasons of grooming both trails, he said the problems are just too great with having snowmobile traffic traveling two different directions and at varying speeds.

No amount of signing or rider education about the situation was going to lessen the hazards presented by grooming both, he said.

The second reason for grooming only one trail is that it costs less. Grooming both doubled the cost both in time and money, both of which now can be used to improve the alternate trail.

A third reason not to groom the paved portion of the trail is that no grooming means fewer snowmobile riders with stud-equipped tracks on the paved trail. In the last few years, surface testing methods and visual inspection have shown that damage from studs has been increasing since the trail was rebuilt, Walzer said.

He said he isn't aware of any negative feedback from the decision to groom only the one trail.

Other trail news:

Walzer said that snowmobile riders will notice several improvements that have been finished on the unpaved alternate Heartland Trail between Walker and Park Rapids.

It has been widened, overhead nuisances have been removed and debris from last year's improvement work also has been removed.

Discussion continues on paving the northern Heartland Trail from Walker to Cass Lake and also of building an alternate trail near it, Walzer said.

He said all of the field work has been collected, and the DNR is now looking at various concepts of adding the alternate trail which would exist in the current trail's right of way and in highway rights of way.

The DNR also is discussing different designs of crossing over the four-lane U.S. Highway 2 south of Bemidji because it will be necessary for the trail to cross the road to enter the city.

Many area legislators and local level officials attended a meeting concerning the paving of the northern portion of the Heartland Trail in Walker this summer.

However, snowmobiling enthusiasts argued that if it were paved, they would no longer be able to use the trail because snowmobiles equipped with studded tracks are not allowed on paved trails.

So, the dual trail plan was devised and paving plans have been set back.

Walzer said the DNR is working on paving a two-mile portion of the Paul Bunyan Trail from the Mississippi River trestle on the east side of Lake Bemidji to the area of fifth Street Northeast and Gould Avenue Northeast in Bemidji.

The DNR still is working on obtaining permission from the Minnesota Department of Transportation because it holds the rights to the abandoned rail bed that would be used, Walzer said, but the work could be completed next summer.

As for paying the other 35 miles of the Paul Bunyan Trail from Bemidji to Hackensack, Walzer said plans are to pave it in sections as money becomes available. The Paul Bunyan Trail is already paved from Hackensack south to Baxter.