Cyclists discover Mesabi Trail

As the Mesabi Trail continues to stretch across the Iron Range, the number of users is expected to double to 100,000 this year over last.

And when visiting bicycling enthusiasts are looking to make a vacation of it, Boundary Waters Trekking in Grand Marais offers a way for them to eat, cycle and sleep away from home.

"The response we got last year from people was that it's a pretty incredible trail," said Ted Young, co-owner of the trekking business that offers a program called Bicycling Lodge to Lodge. "They said it was something that they weren't used to.

"They were used to straight trails built on rail grades, but this trails winds up and down and goes through the woods and past mines."

By the end of this summer, 90 miles of the Mesabi Trail, a 130-mile-long recreational trail that crosses the Iron Range, will be complete. Part of that -- a 65-mile continuously paved stretch from Grand Rapids to McKinley -- will be the longest recreational trail in the state.

When fully complete, the trail will run from Grand Rapids to Ely, connecting 28 Iron Range communities.

About 55,000 people used the trail last year, according to Bob Manzoline, director of the St. Louis and Lake County Regional Railroad Authority, which operates the trail. Revenue from two-day and season trail passes was $10,346 in 2003.

Monitored by four electronic trail counters, use this year is expected to reach 100,000, he said.

"I think a lot of people are learning about it through word of mouth," Manzoline said. "Everything that I have seen about the trail rates it very highly. I think a lot of people who have ridden it are going back home and telling other people about it."

For the second year, Young's Boundary Waters Trekking is offering the Bicycling Lodge to Lodge program. Under the program, bicyclists can ride the trail for one to three days and receive a trail pass, breakfast, lunch, and lodging at any of nine facilities between Grand Rapids and Hoyt Lakes.

Shuttle services, which pick up participants' bicycles and return them to their hotel or starting point, are also part of the Lodge to Lodge program. Prices range from $160 to $315 per person, without taxes.

Last summer, in its first year, the program hosted 16 people.

"It's such a neat trail; I really think it's going to pick up," Young said. "There aren't a lot of trails this long and diverse for road biking."

The Mesabi Trail is open to bicyclists, roller bladers, hikers, pedestrians, skiers and snowshoers. A few designated portions of the trail are open to snowmobiles.

Since trail construction began in 1995, about $7 million has been spent. Another $3 million to $4 million is needed to finish the trail.

Money has come from the U.S. Department of Transportation; Legislative Committee on Minnesota Resources; Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board; Blandin Foundation; St. Louis, Itasca and Lake counties; and federal enhancement grants.

In 1995, the total cost was projected to be about $10 million.

The bituminous trail is built along old railroad grades, iron ore haul roads and abandoned highways. It winds past streams, creeks, forests and iron ore mines.

Last year, information requests on the trail came from people in states such as Iowa, Texas, New Jersey, California, West Virginia, Kansas, Kentucky, Colorado, Utah, Connecticut, Indiana, Missouri, Oklahoma and Arizona.

"People are just amazed at what the countryside looks like up here," said Doug Schmitz, Mesabi Trail operations and maintenance manager. "We are used to it, but when people from out of the area see the Iron Range, they love it."

Informational kiosks and directional signs are posted along the trail. Being placed along the trail this summer are about a dozen of the hundreds of plaques that will bear information on historical sites.

For the first time, St. Louis County Sheriff's deputies will patrol the trail this summer on about 20 selected days.