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10,000 Fresh Voices (Series)

Produced by KFAI Minneapolis

Most recent piece in this series:

Ride your bike across Minnesota...the long way

From KFAI Minneapolis | Part of the 10,000 Fresh Voices series | 05:21

Canada2_small Did you know you can ride your bike across Minnesota, the long way?

Beginning in the late ‘70s, the same group that coordinates the numbering of the interstate highways thought it might be a cool idea to begin creating a country-wide network of long-distance bicycle routes. These routes would consist of a combination of off-road paths, bicycle lanes and road shoulders.

For years, there were only two in the nation, but in 2011, Minnesota got its first with US Bicycle Route-43, the 600-mile Mississippi River Trail from Itasca State Park to the Iowa Border. Five years later, USBR-41 was designated, connecting trails and roads from the Capital of Saint Paul, to Canada.

Last year, that route would be named the James L. Oberstar State Trail in memory of the late Congressman, trail advocate and avid cyclist. While the purpose of the bike routes is to get a rider from point to point, the Minnesota Legislature put specific language into the statutes to empower MN-DOT to plan and supervise the routes. Plus local communities have gotten in on the action to welcome cyclists to their attractions plus contribute to their economy.

So about crossing the state the long way – if you rode the Mississippi Trail from Iowa to Saint Paul, then picked up the Oberstar Trail, you’d eventually end up at the international border!