Mississippi Biking

Tue April 12 2005
Posted Apr 12, 2005
8,597

Biking 2169 from the Headwaters of the Mississippi to New Orleans felt like the appropriate thing to do. She made that decision at a meeting of the Minnesota Missippippi River Parkway Commission last summer. Fellow board member Ed Dallas volunteered to join her as well as her husband, Jack Heule, who drove the RV and biked part of the way. "I wanted to do something special for my 65th birthday and I knew I had to say it out load somewhere so I would have to stick to it. When I said it, Ed, who doesn’t bike much, piped up to say he would do it do. They left the Headwaters on September 29 and put their wheels into the water on November 2. "Scenery was wonderful without fail, just gorgeous. We went through many industrial areas but we also had some very solitary stretches riding mostly on trails, streets and highways. "People were very kind, yelling to us from their front porches, ‘Where ya headed’ they would call out to us," said Bussard. The leg from Itasca to Red Wing was the slowest. The weather was wet and cold, their biking legs weren’t ready for the 70 miles a day average and many friends and relatives met them along the way to cheer them on, ride and eat with them. Things got easier once they left Minnnesota. "If you can make it across Minnesota, you can make it all the rest of the way. The muscles gets use to biking every day." Following a river means pedding up many hills. "It took a while to get use to all the hills. I learned to shift differently shifting, gradually going through all the gears. Before you know it, you’re over the hill. The trip was also a way to publicize the Missippippi River Trail and raise money for the new Cuyuna Lakes Trail System in North Central Minnesota The Mississippi River Trail is a 10-state cycling route in process of development. It travels over 2000 continuous miles between the headwaters of the Mississippi at Lake Itasca, Minnesota and the Gulf of Mexico, winding its way through the states of Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee and Wisconsin. Cycling route signs featuring the "MRT" logo identify the route along those segments that are complete. Route markers eventually will serve as the unifying identity along the entire route. Though the Tour de Mississippi followed the entire 10-state route of the MRT, the team has a special passion for its own local segment of the larger trail - the Cuyuna Lakes Trail System. "A core group of volunteers has been working for over five years to establish the Cuyuna Lakes Trail," explains Dallas. The project started with a Blandin Foundation Leadership group in 1998 and grew from the concept of a local trail to a state dual trail. The Cuyuna Lakes Trail System includes both paved and unpaved "backbone" trails that will eventually connect the Paul Bunyan Trail at Brainerd/Baxter with Aitkin, where it will meet with the Mesabi and Mississippi River Trails. The first phase of the Cuyuna Lakes Trail will feature construction of approximately 6.3 miles of two-alignment trail, scheduled for 2003-2004 in the Cuyuna Country State Recreation Area. Future phases of trail construction are being planned and funding is being sought. The goal for future segments of the trail is to complete connection of the Cuyuna communities, followed by extension of the trail toward Brainerd/Baxter, and then northeast to Aitkin. Preliminary alignments are in process, right-of-way is being defined, and grants are being sought from Federal, State and private sources.