Riding buddy Dave Olson and I had talked about it on and off through the summer: We’d take the North Star Commuter Rail from Minneapolis to the end of the line, then ride our bikes back, but life got in the way and summer slipped by, so when the email said that North Star was offering a free ride to the end for bikes and riders, we jumped on it.

The train: We rode to Target Field, wandered around a bit in confusion, then figured out that getting to the train platform required using an elevator, escalator or stairs. Not easy in road riding shoes. That problem will be solved when the Cedar Lake Trail extension is finished late this fall. Bicyclists will be able to go directly from the trail onto the platform. Quite nice, except that North Star doesn’t sell tickets on the platform. They’re sold one flight up- via elevator, escalator or stairs.

Each car has storage for two bike, at one door of the car, but securing the bike is clumsy. It requires holding the bike upright while kneeling to floor level to strap the rear wheel to the stand. LRT has a much better system. The cars themselves are quite nice with commuter enhancements like 110v electrical outlets for plugging in a laptop to get some work done during the commute. They also have second floor seating for a nice view of the city and countryside during the ride.

Train platforms lack bathroom facilities. Plan ahead, especially if you are over 50.

The bike ride: We received maps for the ride back. The suggested route more or less followed the Mississippi River and the rail line back to town, but the map itself was remarkably free of useful information. At one point, for example, the route turned off Hwy 14 onto Hwy 30, then weaved through a number of streets until it arrived in Elk River. We saw Hwy 30, but it wasn’t on the map, anywhere, so we rode on and spent the next hour negotiating our way to Elk River through a combination of aiming in the right direction (the sun was out, that helped), asking directions (novel for male travelers), and trusting our gut instincts. It worked, and we managed to hook up with the main group at a park in the center of town. The route we found was actually quite a nice alternative and could easily be incorporated into a loop ride or alternate route back to town.

Although it was novel to ride back to the city from the end of the line, I think the real benefit of  commuter rail for bicyclists will be the opportunity to get off the train at one of the remote stations to spend a few hours riding country roads before hopping back on the train for the return trip. Train fare is under $8 each way, so for the price of a couple of movie tickets you could spend a pleasant afternoon riding the train and bicycling through farm fields and woodlots.

Rosemount is at the outskirts of the developed metro area. It’s a developing city with some amenities for bicyclists and a nearby oasis at Umore Park, the agricultural and research grounds of the University of Minnesota. Plans for Umore include a sustainable community of 20,000 to 30,000 people, but for now it’s a quiet throwback with unusual structures from its short life as the Gopher Ordnance Works and buildings dating from post World War II.

Paved roads at Umore are the smaller part of the network of routes through the grounds. Those are the routes highlighted for bicycling in the Twin Cities Bike Map, but a rider with wide road tires or a mountain bike has many more options for exploring this flat expanse of agricultural land.

Rosemount has put some effort into building a network of bike trails and roads with wide shoulders. The primary route loops through some smallish parks and around housing developments. There are no major destination spots along the trail, and signage is non-existent, but the trails are pleasant and young enough to still be in good condition.

Apple Valley is an old suburb designed during the the era when cul de sacs and large feeder roads to distant malls was considered the ultimate in suburban living. Bicycling was an afterthought and, for the most part, still is. There are plenty of bike paths in this sprawling city, but most run in the right-of-way of heavily traveled, noisy thoroughfares like Pilot Knob Road and Lexington Ave. The trails, built 15 to 20 years ago, are showing their age.  A spiderweb of weed-filled cracks run the entire length of some of the trails.

During one brief flurry of building activity Apple Valley developed a suburban style “downtown” with plantings, colored pavers and other amenities designed to create a central gathering spot for city residents. The effect is more pleasant than a typical mall, but the auto is still king and getting to “Downtown” by bike is a chancy endeavor for all except the most experienced and traffic savvy riders.

That said, the city is negotiable by bike. By combining indirect residential streets and the trails mentioned above, you can get close to almost any part of the city. I saw a surprising number of riders during a mid-August weekend. Most were riding the weedy trails mentioned above. Apple Valley has a few short trails running through parks, but they are mostly access trails and not worth seeking out for a recreational ride.

For me, part of bike route research is following instincts and researching dead end roads. I’ve frequently found connecting bike trails and useful additions to the map in unexpected places. The Pine Bend Cemetery is one of those surprises. It won’t add anything to the Twin Cities Bike Map, but it is a fascinating find.

I found it by following a suggestion from Dave Olson, my most trusted bike route adviser in the Twin Cities. He was the first to tell me about the new bike trail along Concord Blvd in S. St. Paul and the potential for a connector via the frontage road heading south along Hwy 55. The connector works well, providing a quick exit from Downtown St. Paul towards the Three Rivers Refinery and points to the SE.  My hope, however, was to get all the way to Spring Lake Regional Park and eventually to Hastings, so I slipped past a “Road Closed” sign just to see what was further south.

The road ended at Pine Bend Cemetery, an oasis of tall trees, ankle high grass and the thin white  tombstones that date cemeteries to the 1850s and 1860s.  The white limestone or marble was used extensively in the 1850s because it was easy to carve, but rain slowly dissolves the rock. Later tombstones were made from more durable granite.

Pine Bend Cemetery is about half the size of a football field and only half of the grounds have tombstones and a semi-maintained look. It is fairly typical for old, rural towns, but Pine Bend has been absorbed by the city. Hwy 55 makes a very noisy, and close, neighbor and the refinery looms large across the highway.

That juxtaposition, of a rural cemetery and the noisy trappings of modern society, pulled me back to the cemetery a couple of days later to take photos and wander the grounds.

Had I been able to just look toward the back of the cemetery and block out the traffic noise, I would have lingered longer, but the noise from the highway and the smell of the refinery drove me away. I moved on, but in my mind I still carry that rural cemetery image of a quiet, shaded oasis.

This is from the Bicycle Update subscribers email:

Bicycle detours are currently in place on the Hiawatha LRT Trail under I-94 and the Camden Bridge over the Mississippi River. The Hiawatha LRT Trail detour is intermittent, and is anticipated to take place on July 20th and 21st, as well as July 26th to 30th. A detour route will be signed. The Camden Bridge over the Mississippi River detour is in place throughout the summer. The detour is signed and available online (pdf). For further details on those and other bicycle detours in Minneapolis, visit our detours website.

One more detour: The Cedar Lake Bike Trail will be extended beyond the Twins Stadium and to the Mississippi River this fall. Estimated completion date is in November. The trail may be closed at the downtown end while construction crews build the connector between the existing trail and the new extension.

Old Bike Trail Acess I-94

The reconstruction of I-94 between Minnesota and Wisconsin several years ago created a new alignment for the bike path over the St. Croix River. The new path crosses the river on the south bridge of I-94 instead of the north bridge. As a result, the access trail from the north side has been closed. Vegetation is slowly encroaching on the trail.

The change has made Rivercrest Rd and 21st St from the north unnecessary. They will not be designated as bike routes in the 2011 update of the Twin Cities Bike Map.

Other changes: 24th St N, from the NE corner of Tartan Park in Lake Elmo, now connects the two broken segments of 20th St between Tartan Park and Neal Ave. The road provides a more direct connection to Neal Ave and points north.

Woodbury: More trails and new alignments. Woodbury’s trail system is quite extensive, but utterly confusing because it has no trail signage.

42nd St Bridge across Mississippi River just north of Minneapolis is closed for reconstruction. It appears to be closed for the season. Two river crossing options include going north to I-694 or south to Lowry Ave.  (CORRECTION: The Lowry Bridge isn’t complete.  The next bridge to the south is Broadway. Thanks to Hokan (see comment below) for the correction)

The Loring Park Bike and Pedestrian Bridge connecting Loring Park near downtown Minneapolis and the walker Art Center Sculpture Garden has been closed for reconstruction. The work will include replacing wooden decking and touch-up painting. The closure will last about one month. Riders can cross at the major intersection of Vineland/15th and Hennepin/Lyndale Ave.Crossing lights are available, but the intersection is wide and should be navigated carefully.

40th St. S, just west of the town of Afton, is closed between Neal and Trading Post Trail for repaving. The pavement has been removed and deep trenches and loose dirt make it impassable. No word on when the road will re-open. The inconvenience is offset by a dramatic reduction in traffic on the rest of 40th St. S.

Neal Ave. S (near Afton) between 50th and 70th has been repaved. Current versions of the Twin Cities Bike Map indicate that it has rough pavement. That is no longer true. The 2011 version of the map will not have the warning.

S. Robert St in St. Paul is under construction. although it is not a bike route, traffic from this busy road has been re-directed onto Rich Valley Rd, a bike route. Rich Valley Rd now has a considerable amount of traffic and is not desireable for riding. The  detour may exist through most of the 2010 riding season.

Flooding this spring on Black Dog Rd along the south side of the  Minnesota River broke up the asphalt in a number of places. The road is stil rideable, but portions are now gravel instead of asphalt. The road won’t be repaired before 2011, at the earliest.

Woodbury, a suburb on the far eastern edge of the metro area, is a mixed bag for bicyclists. During a weekend research ride, riding buddy Dave Olson and I finally discovered the bike trails that run between suburban lots connecting many subdivisions with Carver Park. The trails are well maintained, about 10 feet wide and under used. To their credit, the city built the trail along the border between housing lots, making the it immediately accessible to thousands of residents. The residents, however, were not out in force despite a sunny and cool summer day.

My biggest complaint about the trail is that it has no signage. “You are Here” maps or other indications about where the trail goes would help trail users find their way around the system.  The problem is compounded in the parks by multiple intersecting trails, some merely connectors to a neighborhodd,  others major trails in their own right. We wandered around for several hours, enjoying the scenery for the most part and re-orienting ourselves when we reach major intersections, but I never got a real sense of where the trails went until the next morning when I downloaded my GPS track onto a map. The trail also has a few very steep exit/entrance connectors that will make most folks walk uphill and scare any mother who’s child wants to skate down the ramp on a scooter or skateboard.

Getting around Woodbury by road is more of a challenge.  Woodbury was built when cul de sacs and winding roads with no destination were considered the height of residential development. The net effect is a constant funneling of all vehicles, bikes included, into collector routes and major roads. Woodbury has done a credible job of building and maintaining bike trails in the right-of-way of the major roads, but like all bike trails along major roads, these are noisy, the scenery is minimal and crossroads are dangerous.

Despite the drawbacks, we found some beautiful roads, such as Pinehurst Rd north of the Tamarack Nature Preserve. The new routes will appear on the 2011 update.

One road that will disappear as a bike route is Lake Rd. When first built, a decade or more ago, it was a low traffic, free flowing road through the city. Traffic has increased dramatically ove the years and with new updates of the Twin Cities Bike Map it has gone from low traffic to high traffic.  Traffic is now high enough that it is no longer an acceptable bike route. Several alternates have been found and more research is needed to avoid the last mile or two of  Lake Rd. The changes will appear on the updated bike map.

Hastings, in the far SE corner of the Twin Cities Bike Map has a surprisingly robust set of bike trails, called the Veteran’s Home Bikeway. The trail starts just north of Lock and Dam #2, runs on top of the dike that creates the pool behind the locks, and follows the river around downtown Hastings. The trail heads inland along railroad tracks that skirt the eastern edge of downtown, then splits, with one trail leading to CP Adam Park and a second that follows the Vermillion River around the southern edge of town.

Hastings is separated enough from the metro area to be surrounded by farmland and gravel roads, but not far enough to avoid metro area traffic. Ninineger Rd (Hwy 42) is the best escape route out of town. It will take you to the very attractive Spring Lake Park, an excellent destination with a modern visitor center, picnic grounds, hiking paths and great views of Spring Lake (Mississippi River).Traffic is moderate to heavy depending on day of week and time of day.

Hwy 54, SE of Hastings is designated part of the multi-state Mississippi River Trail. This route is recommended for experienced riders only. Traffic is high and the road is narrow with no shoulder.

If you are looking for a 20-25 mile route near the metro area, I recommend visiting Hastings. Downtown has a mix of bars, coffee shops and restaurants for post ride food and drink.

Just spent an afternoon researching the northern parts of Savage and Burnsville. For me this is “ugly” research.  It’s necessary, but not that much fun. A comprehensive bike map has to be more than a collection of pretty rides. In some areas a good map can only strive to get cyclists through an ugly area as painlessly as possible. Burnsville and parts of Savage fall into that category.  They aren’t wastelands by any means. In fact, many neighborhoods and parks are quite nice. The challenge is getting around town by bike, and that often means wandering through a maze of twisting streets or hugging the curb on a feeder street while cars whiz by at 40 to 50 miles per hour. My goals were modest: Reduce the number of miles that cyclists have to ride on McColl Drive and Burnsville Parkway, two connectors with lots of traffic and not much in the way of alternate routes. A bike path through Neil Park cut out half a mile of riding on Burnsville Parkway and lead to Upton Ave. From there I went north and mapped out a couple of side streets that were straight and ran parallel to McColl Dr. The streets ran through pleasant suburban neighborhoods with few stop signs and low traffic.  I managed to eliminate another mile of McColl Dr. If you have revision 8.2 of the map, you will also find a decent alternate to McColl in Savage.  The part that will still be on the map is served by a bike path on the south side, but at the time I rode it, the path had remnant snow piles and plenty of sand and gravel.

Other research in the area: The Frontage road from the Bloomington/Ferry bike path to I-35w got better. Current versions of the Twin Cities Bike Map direct riders to a private gravel road that connects the Frontage Rd to Quentin Ave.  That is no longer necessary. The Frontage road now connects directly to Quentin and continues nearly to the interstate. It isn’t a destination route, but it does work as a reasonable east/west connector with low traffic. I’ve ridden this stretch a number of times over the years and find it enjoyable in a twisted sort of way. Maybe it’s just that being on a bike is fun, even when riding in marginal areas.