It’s a little unnerving to stand on the Sustainability Stage in the Eco Experience building, dripping wet with sweat, to explain that I ran into a bike detour and the power is out so I can’t show the Power Point.  Some of it is my fault. I left too late and rode too hard through 68 percent humidity. No way to show up fresh for a talk under those conditions. I also should have anticipated that the bike lane on Como Ave would be closed during the Fair. Como is the busiest street anywhere near the Fairgrounds during the fair.

I didn’t anticipate the power outage. Apparently a truck ran into a power pole and took out the electricity to the fairgrounds.

We made it through, though. One gentle woman handed me a tissue to wipe my brow, a staffer brought over a water bottle and the folks in the audience adjusted to the lack of visual stimulation by asking lots of questions, providing personal insights and generally tolerating the unexpected circumstances.

The presentation was about the rail trails and back roads of Minnesota and Western Wisconsin and was based on Bicycle Vacation Guide. I enjoy giving this talk. When the power is on, I use the Power Point to introduce general information about the trails of Minnesota and Wisconsin, then open up the talk by asking the audience to suggest a trail or area of the state to talk about. I can then jump directly to that trail and talk about it. Even without the power, we were able to carry on the discussion.

I’ll be back at the Eco Experience Building on Labor Day for a 4:30 discussion. This time I’ll leave early so I can arrive and cool down before the presentation. I assume that we won’t have another power outage, so I’ll bring the Power Point again. Stop by to say Hi.

Oh yes,  despite the detour and the overheated intro, I still think riding to the fair is a blast, and the calories burned reduce the guilt about eating calorie packed Fair Food. If you want to bike to the State Fair, check out this map, created by Bikeverywhere.

The Eco Experience Building is on the north side of the Fairgrounds so the nearest bike parking is in Lot 2.  If you are coming from the west, however, I suggest going to Lot 3 and walking across the Fairgrounds. Lot 1, the busiest of the three, requires negotiating traffic or walking to access.

See you at the fair on Labor Day.

The suburbs of Minneapolis and St. Paul have been building bike trails for a number of years. Early on, most of the trails were nothing more than asphalt sidewalks next to busy roads. The cities have gotten more creative since then.

Woodbury and Maple Grove have developed an extensive trail system through the back yards of the residents. The yards in question are very large and they back up to the neighbor’s yard, creating a long green corridor. In traditional grid cities, the border between the yards is reserved for an alley and often a corridor for power lines. Woodbury and Maple Grove use the border for bike trails. The concept is sound, but I see very little use of the trails, except near the city parks. Apparently most residents prefer to load their bikes onto a car rack and drive to a park for riding, even if the trail through their backyard goes to the same location.  I find the trails to be quite generic, primarily because the yards are generic. It would be more interesting if a portion of those large backyards were converted into interesting plantings such as prairie grasses, woodlots or flower gardens. It would also help if the trails were signed with maps and directional signs.

Shakopee uses the same basic concept, with the dual purpose of catching and directing water run off . The water flows over grasses that slow it and allow it to soak into the ground. Unlike Woodbury and Maple Grove, the public portion of the corridor is wider than the bike path providing a close-to-home open space for children and families to use. As a result, the trail and corridor are used more heavily. It would be nice, however, if the corridor had more texture and color. Shakopee has institutionalized the grass monoculture. The entire corridor is uniformly green, short and weed free, a sign that the look is maintained using a mix of herbicides and fertilizer.

Cottage Grove went for color. A large portion of the main bike trail is being restored as a hybrid prairie with lots of prairie flowers and a few native prairie grasses. The effect is a riot of color and texture during the summer, when residents use the trail most heavily. Yards are smaller in Cottage Grove, and often more interesting, because the owners have created flower and vegetable gardens. They’re most noticeable when entering or leaving the trail system via one of the access trails.

Shakopee and Prior Lake took advantage of natural green spaces by building paths and boardwalks through wetlands, around the edges of lakes and through valleys. The effect is very soothing although the boardwalks can create anxiety. They are narrow and the surface is often uneven. Some riders should walk their bikes on the boardwalks. The boardwalks also require ongoing maintenance. The trail through Dean Lake Nature Preserve, for example, was severely narrowed by a recent mowing that wasn’t followed up with a sweep of the path and wetland plants grew up through the boards of the boardwalk.

Upper Midwest riders have recognized the incredible roads of SW Wisconsin for decades, but in the last few days the word has gotten out to a wider population. In its bid for the 2014 Olympics, Chicago’s Olympic Committee picked a route around Blue Mounds State Park, west of Madison for the challenging terrain and the low traffic roads according to the New York Times. Chicago lost out, but cyclists can still ride the route. For a complete guide to the roads in the area, check the Madison and Dane County Bike Map.

Another national publication, Adventure Cycling, featured Trempealeau County, along the Mississippi River as another cyclist’s destination.

A story in this morning’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that construction has finally started on the extension of the Beer Line Trail that would follow the Milwaukee River from North Avenue to Locust Street. For several years, the trail came to a dead end in a field shortly after crossing under the North Avenue bridge.

An on-line article published by Milwaukee Magazine describes a proposal for a new national wildlife refuge straddling the state line and covering parts of Kenosha, Racine, and Walworth counties in Wisconsin and Lake and McHenry counties in Illinois. The proposed refuge would cover much of the lower left-hand corner of the southeast Wisconsin bike map. It would stretch from the Bong recreational area on the east to the area south of Lake Geneva on the west.

This is prime bicycling country, surprisingly undeveloped considering the nearby urban areas. Thus, the proposal seems like good news for bicyclist (unless, of course, it results in more traffic).

The 13th annual Ride with Jim, Congressman Jim Oberstar, on the Paul Bunyan Trail will be held June 6th starting at the Northland Arboretum in Baxter/Brainerd, Minnesota, at 9 a.m. There will be a 28 mile ride that will include the dedication of a new trail segment. Everyone is welcome. The ride is free.

Congressman Oberstar is the chair of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. It is widely acknowledged that he has done more to promote the funding and development of bicycling infrastructure and programs than any other member of congress in the past decades. This is not a campaign event. Rather, it is an in district celebration promoted by the Paul Bunyan Trail Association to honor his efforts and show off the work that has been by DNR, Mn/DOT and the cities of Brainerd and Baxter.

For more information about the ride, click here.

Twin Cities bicycle advocates, with the help of bike friendly Mayor RT Rybak, have finally pushed Portland, OR aside and claimed the top rank for bike friendly cities. Bicycling magazine recently awarded the top spot to Minneapolis, much to Portland’s chagrin.

Bicycling Magazine and other organizations rate cities on the number of bike lanes and paths, the laws and other such things, but perhaps the best indicators of a bike friendly city are more cultural. Some examples:

When the Nature Valley Grand Prix bike race came to uptown Minneapolis,  the pro riders took time out from their warm-up laps to photograph the overflowing bike parking space near the course.  The Pros had never seen so many spectators arrive by bicycle.

College students, fresh in town from outstate, are often startled when asked “Where’s your bike?” as they prepare for a night on the town.

The Stupor Bowl, the largest and oldest Alley Cat race, is run on Super Bowl weekend in mid-February.

The Minneapolis Institute of Art, a staid institution more accustomed to working with high end donors than bicyclists, was talked into holding a bike themed art show. Ridrs were allowed to ride their bikes through the lobby into an inner courtyard, where the bikes were parked and watched over by security.  The response from cyclists was overwhelming, and eye opening to the museum’s curators and publicists.

Average ridership on the Midtown Greenway,  a once abandoned railway running through the heart of Minneapolis,  hovers around 3,000 cyclists per day. with records of up to 5,000 riders in some areas.

This, along with over 60 bike shops in the metro area, thousands of cyclists riding into downtown Minneapolis daily, more thousands of families and individuals riding the bike paths, and a general sense that bicycling is cool, make bicycling feel like an important part of the fabric of life in the Twin Cities. As a cyclist, these are the things that make Minneapolis a great city to live and work in.

Stop by our booth during the Midtown Global Market to celebrate Earth Day on April 17. While there, you can meet local farmers and producers, visit with environmental experts and shop for a variety of eco-friendly products.

Bikeverywhere will offer many of its products at a discount during the event. We also enjoy doing these events because they give us a chance to talk with you about bike routes, suggestions for improving the maps, new products you would like to see, etc. Stop by, even if you already own our maps and books. This is a great opportunity for some one on one discussions.

Need an excuse to ride more? GreenlightRide.com has issued the following challenge: In July, the Tour de France pros will cover 3600km or 2230 miles. If you started today, could you log that many kilometers (miles) by July 25? The Challenge is called Race to Paris Solo and it has a total prize list of $15,000.

That’s a lot of miles to cover, but the challenge offers incentives along the way. For each stage of the Tour that you complete before the Pros finish that stage, you are automatically entered into the prize drawing for that stage.  If you ride and enter 600 miles by July 8, for example, you will have completed the Prologue Time Trial and 5 stages of the Tour. That makes you eligible for up to 6 prize drawings. (Not all stages have a prize list.)

Instructions and rules are available on Greenlightride.com, but the basics are easy. Register on the site, then either join a team that is already in the challenge or create your own team and enter the team in the challenge.  There’s no cost and  anyone can enter, but the prizes will only be awarded to US citizens over 18 years of age.

Full disclosure here. I work part time for Quality Bicycle Products, host of the Greenlightride.com website. Quality is a wholesale bicycle parts distributor that sells to bicycle dealers throughout the country.  The goal of the site is to encourage more people to ride and to help the bike manufacturers who supply us with  parts to get their products in front of more people. I’m the web administrator and I have an interest in making the site more popular.

Check out the site. If you like what you see, sign up and start entering the miles you’ve ridden. All miles count whether bike commuting, recreation riding, errand running, touring. It doesn’t matter. It’s all about setting goals, riding more, and maybe wining some cool bike parts.

A report released today by the University of Wisconsin-Madison shows that bicycling tourism combined with Wisconsin’s world-class bicycle industry contributes $1.5 billion to our state’s economic every year! To put this in perspective, the report compares bicycling to deer hunting which contributes $926 million and snowmobiling which contributes $250 million.

The report also states:

• Bicycling creates 13,000 Wisconsin jobs
• Non-residents spend $535 million on bike-related events, food, and lodging
• 49% of Wisconsinites participate in recreational biking
• A 20% increase in biking could increase economic activity by $107 million and create 1500 more jobs

My adult bicycling habit began in Wisconsin 40 years ago. I started as a bicycle commuter at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and within the first year Phil VanValkenberg,  one of Wisconsin’s best known bicycle gadflies, introduced me to bicycle touring in the rolling hills of Wisconsin’s Driftless area.  That hooked me, and that part of Wisconsin is still my favorite bicycling haunt.