Treat (And Pedal) Lightly
The importance of staying on the right trail for your sport
Chris Godsey
We are wealthy people, to live where abundant off-road trails seem like a civil right. Our access to hiking, mountain biking, ATV riding, snowmobiling, running, skiing and horse riding trails is nearly universal. But with that privilege also comes the need to care properly for what we have. Staying on the right trail for your sport is more important than you might think it is.
“In order to keep good trails in our community, we have to practice good maintenance and etiquette,” says City of Duluth Public Information Coordinator Amy Norris.
That means learning about which trails are for what uses, then using them wisely.
There’s no better time to think about using (and caring for) the trails that snake through our city than on June 7, National Trails Day. On that day, hiking, mountain-biking, environmental, and similar groups will gather at Hartley Nature Center in Duluth to celebrate their shared love of outdoor recreation, to guide tours through Hartley Park’s labyrinth of trails, and to help inexperienced users make sense of usage designations that can be confusing.
Those groups, like Cyclists of Gitchee Gumee Shores (C.O.G.G.S.), the Duluth Area Trails Alliance (DATA), and the Superior Hiking Trail Association (SHTA), know their specific interests are best served by looking out for each other. They’re working hard to maintain and create opportunities, and to foster knowledge about maintenance, etiquette, and appropriate use.
Whose dirt is this?
Hiking and mountain-biking trails look the same, but they’re not.
The Superior Hiking Trail (identifiable by light blue paint or blue-and-green logo markers) and other foot-travel-only trails are usually plenty wide for bikes, but SHT Duluth Maintenance Supervisor Larry Sampson says their surfaces, especially in tight bends and steep descents, aren’t packed well for anything but foot traffic.
When bikers brake, he says, “tires create ruts where water collects and speeds erosion. Biking trails are built and packed specifically to prevent those problems.”
Duluth City Forester Kelly Fleissner says many city-maintained trails are equally inappropriate for biking—and for walking in mucky conditions—because they run along creek ravines on clay-based soils, and are especially susceptible to erosion.
“If we have a trail designed for a specific use and people use it improperly,” Fleissner says, “it almost always leads to erosion.”
As the SHTA cleared miles of foot-travel-only trail in Duluth from 1997 to 2007 (eventually creating a 30-mile, cross-city trail that sometimes uses sidewalks and paved paths), mountain-biking popularity grew but approved areas for it didn’t.
Some bikers wound up riding on trails intended for feet. Some hikers expressed frustration, not always diplomatically. Some bikers reciprocated.
“There’s still some resistance to staying on trails officially approved for mountain biking,” says Cyclists of Gitchee Gumee Shores (COGGS) Chairperson Adam Sundberg, who, along with Dave Stenehjem and other COGGS members, is responsible for Duluth’s newest mountain-bike trail, a 12-mile Piedmont Heights loop that will open this summer.
“Some bikers feel entitled, like they should be able to ride wherever they want,” Stenehjem said.
That sense of entitlement could be born of frustration, says Andy Holak, a St. Louis County forest recreation specialist and DATA organizer.
Holak is firm in saying that “bikers should stay off trails like the SHT.” He also says that mountain bikers, who have very few legal off-road riding opportunities in Duluth, should work to create their own cross-city trail.
Duluth’s only approved off-road mountain-biking trails are at Hartley Park, Spirit Mountain, and now Piedmont Heights.
“The more access they have,” Holak says, “the less likely they’ll be to ride trails they’re not supposed to use.”
Holak, the COGGS members, and Duluth Parks Commission member Dean Grace say the Duluth area, which is already a national hiking and Nordic skiing destination, could become equally well-known for mountain biking.
“The terrain is incredible,” Grace says. “We’ve got the best skiing in the nation, and mountain bikers love the same terrain skiers love. It would be great for the city.”
Tread Wisely
“All these interests will come together on June 7,” says Norris. “Skiers, bikers, hikers, nature advocates, runners, foresters and the DNR, the city. Our common bond is to get people involved by giving them information about conservation and other issues facing trails.
“We all want to promote development and access, and we want it to be done well.” They want active people to be empowered—not limited—by knowledge, mindfulness, and reciprocal respect.
“That’s the kind of people who want to live in Duluth,” says Grace—people who take their outdoor recreation, and their stewardship of it, seriously.
“This area is just full of tremendous opportunities for people who want to take advantage of them,” he says.
Trail Info
City of Duluth Parks and Recreation
www.duluthmn.gov/city/parksandrecreation/index.htm
(Includes trail etiquette reminders.)
Cyclists of Gitchee Gumee Shores (COGGS)
coggs.upnorthmn.net
Duluth Area Trails Alliance (DATA)
datadirt.wordpress.com
Superior Hiking Trail Association
www.shta.org
National Trails Day
www.americanhiking.org/NTD.aspx
Legal Duluth mountain-biking trails
Spirit Mountain
www.spiritmt.com/mountainbiking.aspx
Hartley Park
www.hartleynature.org/
(Includes information on Duluth trail closings.)
