That changed several years ago. I found myself taking the Lake Minnetonka Trail, or turning up to ride Cedar Lake Rd. If I was interested in adding hills, I took a combination of roads like Ridgewood and Lake St south of Minnetonka Blvd.

Today I decided to go back to Minnetonka Blvd. It wasn’t any fun at all. Traffic is still high, the shoulders are falling apart and the intersections with major cross streets aren’t easy to negotiate. Apparently other riders have come to the same conclusion. I didn’t see a single rider on Minnetonka Blvd. Four years ago that would have been unthinkable.

Minnetonka Blvd will no longer be designated a bike route on the Twin Cities Bike Map. The change will be noticeable with the next press run. I can’t predict when that will happen. If I sell out this press run, the change will come when I reprint. At the latest, it will appear with the scheduled update in 2014. The Twin Cities Bike Map is always evolving to reflect the changing conditions for bicyclists in the metro area. Although the changes aren’t usually as large as removing a major east/west corridor, they are frequent and numerous. I’ll be out there checking out new routes and doing my best to keep the bike map as current as possible.

Trail users traveling west should detour south along Highland Road, then west along Kennedy Memorial Dr, rejoining the trail where it intersects with Kennedy. Trail users traveling east should detour along Kennedy Memorial Dr east, then north on Highland Road until it rejoins the trail.

For more information, go to www.ci.minnestrista.mn.us

This trail, between Dresser and Amery in west central Wisconsin, is tucked into an area of rolling hills, lakes, marshes, maple and oak forests and farmland. The trail is flat, with a hard packed limestone surface suitable for narrow road tires. During our visit over Easter weekend the trail was in bloom from wild fruit trees, and maples had already started to green up due to our unusually early spring .

The trail is named after Harvey Stower, a member of the Wisconsin Legislature and long time mayor of Amery. The name also refers to the numerous lakes along the trail. Lakes near the western end of the trail are large enough to support cabins and recreational boating. Others such as Kinney Lake, between Deronda and Amery, are seepage lakes which depend on groundwater and local precipitation. Seepage lakes are usually surrounded by marsh and virtually inaccessible.

The trail doesn’t appear to get much use, which is too bad because the frequent lakes and lowland marshes create scenic stopping points and break up the tunnel effect along better known trails such as the nearby Gandy Dancer Trail. Of greater interest to this long time road rider are the paved, low traffic roads that intersect and run parallel to the trail. Those roads weave among the rolling hills, skirt lakes and wander through woodland and farm country. I’ll be back to explore those roads later this season.

The Stower Seven Lakes Trail isn’t part of Bicycle Vacation Guide, but it will be part of the new Bikeverywhere website planned for spring of 2013.

It turns out that the rustic road mentioned in an earlier post that was destroyed as a through route–Hoosier Creek Rd–was also done in by the Commissioner of Railroads.

Also plans have surfaced that would extend the Lake Country Trail west from Oconomowoc to Watertown in Jefferson county. The route would follow a powerline that using a former interurban right of way. The biggest obstacle is the need to bridge two crossings of the Rock River.

I was very surprised then to see a “dead end” sign at the intersection of one of these rustic roads, the Hoosier Creek Road. I took the road nevertheless and found that it had indeed been made dead end. A substantial section had been torn up and no trespassing signs posted. It appeared that the former public road had been handed over to private interests.

Both ends of the road still sport Rustic Road signs and it still appears on the DOT’s map as a through route.

I have never seen this before, where a public road was closed and converted to private interests. I wonder if this is legal. On my way home I kept thinking of Putin’s Russia where people who are politically well-connected can obtain public enterprises and become very wealthy.

I sent an email to the DOT and will report any response.

The site also rates individual neighborhoods. Scores over 90 are called “walker’s paradises.” In the Twin Cities, Minneapolis’ downtown east, Loring Park, and Lowry Hill East and downtown St. Paul are rated as walker’s paradises. Milwaukee’s most walkable neighborhoods are Northpoint, Murray Hill and Juneau Town. In Madison, the capitol area is the only one.

The least walkable cities in Wisconsin are Caledonia, Pleasant Prairie, and Mequon. All are in southeast Wisconsin (on the Milwaukee bike map) and are areas near Racine, Kenosha, and Milwaukee that have recently become urbanized. Given their low density, it is unlikely that these areas will ever become walkable. But perhaps they could be made bikeable.

One tool on the site allows the user to type in an employer’s address and get back a list of apartments within a walkable or bikeable distance or available on public transportation. Apparently major apartment listings now include walkable scores (see this article in Slate), reflecting a growing desire to get out of cars.

The trail will connect to the Minneapolis Grand Rounds trail system at Lake Nokomis, Three Rivers Park District’s Nine Mile Creek Regional Trail in Richfield, and the Mall of America in Bloomington. Future connections across the Minnesota River to Dakota County’s regional trail system and proposed Minnesota Valley State Trail also are considered.

Copies of the master plan are available at www.ThreeRiversParks.org (search for “Intercity” in the search box at the upper right corner of the home page)

The public has the opportunity to provide comments from April 2 through May 1; written comments may be submitted by e-mail to ICRT@ThreeRiversParkDistrict.org, by fax to 763-557-5248, or by mail to: Three Rivers Park District, Intercity Regional Trail, 3000 Xenium Lane N., Plymouth, MN 55441

It appears that the best detour for bikes would be to go south on 27th, east on Puetz, north on Shepard, east on Forest Hill, and north on the power line bike trail to Drexel, for bicyclists traveling towards the lake. Those going away from the lake would take the same route in reverse. Note that Puetz Rd west of 27th lacks shoulders and can carry heavy traffic.

According to the DOT’s web site, Drexel will be closed until November.