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looking for trail riding areas in Southern Minnesota (south of Minneapolis). Can't have width restrictions (Talon).
Thanks in advance
Thanks in advance
clifforeilly
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Goodhue and Wabasha county . County Roads and Township roads are pretty much all open to ride. STAY off State Roads. Warning, we have one DNR agent whose just a prick !!!! Pull you over for not riding far enough to the right, or for no reason at all.
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clifforeilly
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clifforeilly
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Nemadji State Forest is roughly 30 miles south of Duluth, so may not qualify as "southern MN" to folks who don't live in the Northwest Angle (north of Lake of the Woods). It is a decent place to ride, with some winding trails and a few gentle hills. Most trails are posted for ATV Class I and II, implying a 65" limit on vehicle width, but I don't recall any physical gates even close to 65". A (very) few trails are posted as Class I (50" limit). I didn't ride any Class I trails, but these may be gated by the trees.
If you're going that far north (or south, to those Angle people), Spider Lake Trails, in the Foot Hills State Forest, is more winding and less flat than Nemadji. SLT is roughly 40 miles northwest of Brainerd MN. One hill has a 35% grade (that was this spring, will vary, of course, with erosion). See attached(?) map. Most hills are 20-25% grade. There's also a makeshift ATV playground (or two) at the northeast corner of the trail system, just south of 24th St. The trails are fun (especially the one short one-way trail), but don't expect a lot of breath-taking scenery. Not many, if any, width-limiting gates, but a 65" Pioneer roll cage is tight around some of the trees. Two forest toilets at roughly opposing ends. The state DNR offers a geo-PDF. The map says there's two parking lots, but the one at the southwest end might hold one rig. There are numerous campsites scattered about the trails. None of the trails have names nor numbers (other than the forest roads), but some intersections are numbered. I've got crude gpx tracks, message me if you want them.
Further south, and further east, is Chippewa County Forest in WI, about 20 mile northeast of Chippewa Falls. Small (20-some miles of trail), but very nice, if you're not a fan of abandoned railroad beds, but don't want any threat of needing a winch. 65" max. width, but the gate tolerance is more generous than what I've seen around Barron County WI (a 68" Talon would sneek in here). There's several hills with signs labelled "steep hill" which, in this case, means up to 20% grade (i.e. not steep). If you go around once clockwise, and again counter-clockwise, and stop for some pics at the lakes and streams, you could burn 4 to 5 hours easily. There's two spurs that could add an hour or more to your ride time. There are two forest toilets at (approximately) opposing ends. Two small (6-7 rigs) parking lots at (roughly) opposing ends. Usually open till 15 Nov. I've got crude gpx tracks, message me if you want them (there's only about four turns that you could possibly miss).
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so you are riding east and south of Cook area? I road up there this summer from Cook over to Vermillion Lake area (basically the ride that Destination Polaris followed up there). I have a friend with a cabin over by Deer River and we went riding from Marcell to Grand Forks area. It was pretty good to. With cold coming will probably head west to AZ over New Years for few days.
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Yes, (east and south) by a bunch. Nemadji and Spider Lake are the furthest north that we've ridden. (We go to W. VA (H-M) once per year.)
We went to Spider Lake three times this spring, despite being an hour further than Nemadji (which is over 2 hours away for us). We're in MN, barely, about 1.5 hours west of Chippewa Fall WI.
How are the trails in that north area, terrain, hills(?), etc.?
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combo roads and twisty stuff. not real hilly. they have built wood swamp crossers in a couple places by Marcell. Lot of work but keeps the enviro guys happy. you guys ride up by Drummun WI?
clifforeilly
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