Hypno Toad

I'm headed to the Gunflint Lodge next month. It is located in the BWCA/Superior Nation Forest on the Minnesota-Ontario border.

I've been there before; however, I didn't bring the bikes. This year, I'm planning to haul the Pugsleys up there for some fun. The lodge has hiking trails and horse trails that would be easy enough to ride; however, these trails aren't very long. I might want to branch out further, there are some other long hiking trails, I'd like to know if anybody has been in the area on bikes. For example, the Kekekabic Trail. Let me know what trails are good and which ones are not bikable.

I will post updates too.

(& hopeful the wife will not veto the bikes )

bikemig 

Looking forward to reading the updates. This is an area I want to explore as well. Just make sure you ride fast enough to keep ahead of those mosquitoes!

Hypno Toad

No doubt! I've been canoeing in the BWCA when the mosquitoes were so bad we won't go to shore for anything, except the end of the day to set up camp.

steve0257

Double check any trail before you ride it. A few of them are restricted to hikers only or may have areas that are not passable in the summer.

Here's a place to get more info on the trails in northern MN
MN Bike Trail Navigator: Northern MN Map Links

Hypno Toad

I was informed that the BWCA does not allow bikes; therefore, bikes need to stay in the Superior National Forest. The Gunflint Trail is part of Superior National Forrest, but it runs right through the BWCA. Marked as CR 12 on this map: https://fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MED...rdb5130373.pdf Here's another good map of the area without the roads marked:



Looks like this will be a feel-it-out situation, we may be limited to the XC skiing, hiking, horse trails on the Gunflint Lodge site... This is not a small amount of trails based on my hikes last time I was there.

Hypno Toad

Here we go! Here's a map of the XC trails in the area, and shows the boarder for the BWCA and Superior National Forrest. From the Gunflint Lodge, there dozens of miles of XC trails, perfect for fatbiking! For scale, it's 10 miles from the Gunflint Lodge to Heston's Lodge. You can't take your bikes on the "Croft to Western Trail Head" since that runs through the BWCA... No big deal, since this isn't a bike-only trip, the trails around the lodge will give us great-plenty to work with!

Footnote: we'll have to skip the trails that cross Gunflint Lake, it should be open by the middle of August.



https://www.boundarycountry.com/images/gunfl_ski_map.gif

Hypno Toad

For the record, I'm a moron.

Google said "10 min" ... or 2.6 miles. It is 2.6 miles from the Gunflint Lodge to Heston's Lodge. [/embarrassment]

Hypno Toad

I didn't get too far from the Gunflint Lodge - this was a short trip and other fun things to do. I did two rides with Lisa (AKA wife) and two rides solo for a total of 14 miles - there are a lot more trails to ride and explore if I had more time up there. I'd say this is all fatbike conditions.

Here's a picture of the Pugsley at the High Cliffs over Gunflint Lake. That was a challenging ride, including walking a bog sections and some climbs over rough terrain at better than 25% grade.



Here's some of the better trail conditions:



Many of the ski trails are deep with brush, the resort will run a brush-cutter in the fall for the skiing, this is some of the deeper uncut trails:



Here's the heat map from my four rides up there. I have a couple better trail maps that I can scan and post:



Lastly, I have a GoPro, but haven't edited the videos yet (just got home late last night). I will post some video, if I have good/interesting stuff.