I ride my bike to work. Occasionally I have been known take a ride on one of the many Minnesota bike trails built from converted rail beds. I have never left the wide, relatively flat, debris-free road-shoulder and rail-trails to try mountain biking — at least until last Monday.
Minnesota and mountain are not words that go together. The highest point in the state (Eagle Mountain) is only 2301 feet above sea level. And while the Sawtooth mountains on the Superior Hiking Trail deliver a memorably painful backpacking experience, they are not mountains like those I knew when I lived in Utah. Even so, a search for “Minnesota mountain biking” will certainly lead you to the Cuyuna Country State Recreation Area which has “the best mountain biking in Minnesota.”
The Cuyuna Country State Recreation Area includes 4600 acres of land that was abandoned by mining companies several decades ago near Crosby and Ironton MN. It includes 25 miles of mountain bike trails over 600 acres. In the winter there are 20 miles of groomed fat tire trails. The mines have closed but the land still serves the residents of Crow Wing County — now as a tourist destination.
The CCSRA is a direct result of the mines. There is a chain of (clear and deep) lakes for boating, fishing (pike, trout, bass and panfish) and scuba diving from the abandoned mine pits. The un-even terrain for the mountain bike trails are from rock stockpiles leftover from the mining operations which nature has largely reclaimed. The pits were as deep as 500 feet and the piles were as tall as 200 feet — providing the CCSRA with a fair amount of ups and downs which certainly contributed to the International Mountain Bicycling Association’s “silver” rating for the trails on the CCSRA.
The bike trails on the CCSRA are less than a mile from Ironton. It is easy and cost effective to rent bikes in adjoining Crosby and ride to the trail head. The trails are clearly marked and have three difficulty ratings. My family and I stayed on the “easy” trails. Later I ventured onto a trail marked “more difficult.” I am reserving the "most difficult" trails for when I have more experience. There is camping, including yurts on or near the trail and local houses for rent which you can find using air bnb . There are no fees for trail use. The mountain bike trails intersect with the paved MRT (Minnesota River Trail) which follows the Mississippi (approximately) from its source to the Iowa state line. The CCSRA is only two hours (by car) north of the Twin Cities.
When biking on a road, even a busy road, you don't need all your muscles and you don’t have to be fully present. Mountain bike trail riding, at least on the CCSRA, is different. Even on the trails marked “easy” there are constantly obstacles to negotiate. The trail twists and turns limiting visibility. If you are not fully present you will hit a rock, a tree, find yourself in the wrong gear, or slide off the trail into the poison ivy helpfully present throughout the area. It is exhilarating. It is not entirely safe. And if you don’t watch your speed exhilaration becomes terror pretty quick. Your legs, your core, even your upper body all get a workout. It is an entirely different experience from the commuter biking I am used to.
The more difficult trails on the CCSRA do not have more obstacles but the hills are steeper, the turns sharper, the drop-offs (if you leave the trail)are more perilous and there are occasional rock steps to negotiate.
When the last mining company closed in the 1960s the area was a mess (physically and economically). From the time mining stopped and the CCSRA opened in 1993 nature may have reclaimed the land but it was multiple layers of government as well as volunteer groups working together that made the CCSRA a mountain biking destination and a tourist asset for the local economy. The Iron Range Resources and Reclamation Board (IRRRB) and the Department of Natural Resources, funded by the state of Minnesota, worked with Crow Wing County and local municipalities to create the CCSRA. The bike trails are maintained by the Cuyuna Lakes Mountain Bike Crew, a volunteer organization which receives both public and private funding. Simply put, the CCSRA would not have come into existence without government action and funding. Local government has leveraged that tax investment into a amazing and well maintained facility through its partial support of the volunteers who take care of the trails. The CCSRA is a textbook example of tax dollars well spent — and a 20 minute walk through nearby Crosby, dotted with cafes and boat and bike rental shops demonstrates that the various levels of government receive a payback in the form of the taxes generated by the tourist industry.
I plan to go back to the CCSRA at least a couple of weekends this fall. I hope to try the fat-bike trails this winter. And if you have a mountain biking destination to suggest to me, I would be happy to hear it.