Mecca of the Midwest

A few weeks ago a crew of friends went up to the mountain bike trails at Cuyuna State Recreation Area.  This lies just outside Crosby, Minnesota.  Up on the iron range, the first recommendation I can give people is to make sure to bring water (or be prepared to purchase).  Iron range equals iron water.  Not tasty.  We filled a cooler with visually clear tap water and by the next morning it had turned quite red.  Gatorade red.  Like I said, tasty.

The Heartland Staff

Second recommendation is to eat at the Heartland Kitchen & Cafe.  I really cannot explain how marvelous this business is.  The food is solidly delicious.  Not "I will call everyone I know and tell them about this meal" delicious, but really, really good.  What sets this place apart is how wonderful the staff is.  Immediately upon entering the restaurant they were making space for us.  Even with our dirty, sweaty group, they welcomed us like we were family.  I have never experienced that level of service when dining out.  We made sure to make it back for Sunday brunch.  Again, beyond worth it.  

Third recommendation is if you enjoy riding off road, make a trip to Cuyuna.  Every local we spoke with made comments about how much they enjoy having mountain bikers come to town.  Every rider I have talked to has raved about the trails.  This isn't the mecca destination of Moab, but for the midwest, it doesn't get much better.  It would be great to keep the hype going for as long as possible.  There are plans to continue to develop trails in the area, and the more people that ride responsibly, the better the chances to enhance our midwest mecca.

Cuyuna Weekend

Obby trying an obstacle

This weekend a group of friends of mine headed up to the trails in the Cuyuna State Recreational Area.  This trail system opened earlier this year and I have heard really great things, from a number of different sources.  Everything surpassed my expectations.

The riding:  I cannot say enough good things about this system of trails.  We drove up late on Friday night, camping at Portsmouth Campground.  This worked out great for our crew (8 people) as they have a group campsite that is off from the rest of the campground so we could be louder later and not feel too bad about it.  It also is feet from the trail.  From our camp we climbed a tiny little riser and it didn't feel like I had to pedal for the next mile.  There are a boat load of pump sections that carry your momentum like mad.  

We started off on the northern-most section (Yawkey Unit) and were a little disoriented with the maps and trail markers, but everything consists of various loops that bring you back to intersections and more maps so you can't get lost.  It's just becoming comfortable with distances and where markers are set.  Once familiar, navigation of the trails is super easy.  Besides a few, and I mean just a few, of the corners being sandy loose dirt, the dirt is hard packed and smooooooth.  We rode a couple of trails and then ran into some more friends who drove up for the day of riding.  After shooting a couple of fast runs and taking our turn at some SERIOUS obstacles, we broke for lunch.  Yet another great thing about this system is that it is quite close to Crosby which has a number of nice eateries.

After lunch we went further south to the Mahnomen Unit.  This section has longer sections of trail and there is a little more elevation change.  There are some fantastic downhills and I was really digging on the longer climbs.  We did a number of loops, trying to make sure that we didn't ride the same trail more than once, and I think we did a good job of it.  There are also some killer overlooks that show what reclamation can do to an area.  I can't think of a better use of land.

Ken flying

We had a couple of our group that were heading back to the cities Saturday night so we headed back to camp, cleaned up a little, and rode into town for dinner.  It's beginning to darken early around here so after we were back in camp, a few of us broke out our lighting systems and did some night riding.  We went back north as we were a little more familiar with what the trails did.  That didn't keep us from riding a couple sections we hadn't in the daylight. No big whoop.


Sunday morning brought another round of morning riding.  We hit the trails fairly early as we wanted to get some runs in before breakfast.  A couple runs down the Bobsled, Tugger and the Man Cage before back into Crosby.  More on eating later.  Some of our crew had ridden (and eaten) a little more than normal so it was just Ken and I that went back out for the afternoon run.  We didn't have a lot of time before we had to head back home so we chose some of the easier trails of the Mahnomen Unit.  Easier does not mean easy.  There are still some good climbs and it's nice that they have thrown in some optional obstacles for people of differing skill levels.  We made a loop all the way around the outside of the section and with time working against us we made our way out.

*** Eating and whatnot coverage to come ***