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.

Summer construction has started in Wisconsin and is affecting several bike trails shown on the Milwaukee and Southeastern Wisconsin map. Two of these involve the replacement of bridges built for trains with bicycle bridges. The other two discussed here are projects to pave previously unpaved trails.
The first bridge project is the crossing of 124th Street. It connects the New Berlin Trail with Greenfield Park and Milwaukee County’s Oak Leaf Trail.

In Shorewood, the bridge that carries the Oak Leaf Trail over Capitol Drive is being replaced. With both bridge projects, detours are posted. UPDATE (July 12): The is now open.
In Waukesha county, the Lake County Trail is being paved. Currently the western section between Nagawicka Park and county B is closed for construction (west of county B, the trail is already paved). Construction on the eastern section is scheduled to start in July. UPDATE (July 12): The entire trail is now barricaded.
In southern Racine county, the county trail is closed between Racine and the Kenosha county line. Signs mark a detour from Racine to Kenosha county. UPDATE (July 7, 2010): this trail is now open and much improved.

Brookfield is one of the most challenging places in which to find safe and continuous bicycle routes. Most of the through roads are narrow with heavy traffic. Bike paths along the roads often start and then stop for no apparent reason. Stretches of road will have a bike lane on one side but not the other. These challenges are reflected in the often circuitous routes shown on the Milwaukee and Southeastern Wisconsin bike map, often using winding residential streets.

On the plus side, Brookfield continues to add to its bike trails, with an emphasis on trails through parks. As part of its Greenway Plan, a newly-built trail starts in Wirth Park (near the intersection of North Avenue and Pilgrim Road) and runs northwest to Calhoun Rd. This new trail is part of a marked route, called the Beverly Hills Trail, running between Wirth Park and Mitchell Park.

Another new trail in Brookfield follows Pilgrim Parkway between Bluemound Road and North Avenue.

The second edition of the Milwaukee and Southeast Wisconsin map shows a gap in the Seven Waters Trail just north of Wind Lake. This gap required bicyclists to ride on the shoulder of highway 36 for a short stretch south of Muskego Dam Rd. With the opening of a new bridge this spring, the trail is continuous between Wind Lake and Muskego Dam Rd.

At the other end of the Seven Waters Trail, in Burlington, a paved trail leads southeast along the Fox River to Bushnell Park. A newly opened unpaved trail continues east from Bushnell Park. On the current edition of the map, the route of this trail is shown as the railroad track it replaced. Currently the trail ends at Vandenboom Rd, which is unlabeled on the map, but is the first road west of highway 75.

The country’s merriest festival of bikes, costumes and whimsy is coming to Milwaukee for the first time. Tour de Fat takes place at Milwaukee’s Humboldt Park from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, July 3.

New Belgium Brewery has been taking its whimsical Tour de Fat around the country for a number of years. Some of the unique features of this unusual event include a bicycle parade through the city in the morning, costumes, beer garden and various festivities.

During the festival one rider will trade in his or her car for a fully loaded commuter bike. To be eligible, participants must submit a 2 minute video to New Belgium Brewery explaining why they want to live car free.

Suggested donation for participants is $5, which goes to the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin.

The Bike Fed needs 100 volunteers to register participants, staff the beer tent, marshal the parade and conduct sundry other activities throughout the day. Volunteers who serve a minimum of two hours receive a Tour de Fat t-shirt and two beer tokens. For more information or to sign up, please contact the Bike Fed’s Jessica Binder.

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.

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.

It’s spring and that means route research is back in full swing. I spent Sunday afternoon exploring West St. Paul and South St. Paul, two surprisingly good biking areas. The best scenic view is on the bluffs overlooking Downtown St. Paul from Prospect Blvd. Prospect is about equal distance south of downtown and west of the St. Paul Airport. To get there, cross the High Bridge (Smith Ave), then turn left at the top. It’s a little clunky making the turn, but you’ll find a curb cut in the middle of the median strip. Go east on Congress, then north on Bidwell to Prospect. With each major update to the map, I ask cover artist Mike Wohnoutka to illustrate a new iconic image of the Twin Cities for the cover. The view from Prospect Ave is my current favorite for the 2011 update.

From Prospect, there is a very pleasant, although somewhat complex, route along the bluffs to Kaposia Park. The route is hilly, but that has its advantages. The most interesting houses are often placed on hilltops and West St. Paul is no exception. You will see a number of large, very well maintained houses with colorful paint schemes. Some, such as the one with the cannons in front, are also a bit quirky.

If you have revision 8.2 of the map, you will see that the bike trail from Kaposia Park now connects to the So. St. Paul Regional Trail down by the Mississippi River (steep drop down the trail- and a long climb back up). The trail also goes west to Thompson Park and hooks up with Emerson Av, a new addition to the map.

Sunday’s ride will result in two new additions to the 2011 update. Caesar Chavez Rd/Concord St and Dodd Rd. Both have heavy traffic, but Caesar Chavez has bike lanes that run almost to the Kaposia Park Trail and Dodd has a wide shoulder. Both are escape routes that will take you quickly from near downtown to the Southwest and southeast. Dodd is especially fast, with very few stop signs and no stoplights. Chavez runs through an active Hispanic commercial area, then flows quickly to the Kaposia Park Trail and its connection to the South St. Paul Regional Trail.

Registration is now open for the 2010 Wisconsin Bike Summit sponsored by the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin. This year the summit will feature special guest Andreas Rohl, head of the City of Copenhagen’s Bicycle Program. Copenhagen is considered by some to be the world’s most bicycle friendly city.The Wisconsin Bike Summit also offers multiple education sessions on a variety of subjects including encouraging our kids to walk and bike through Safe Routes to School programs, building Bicycle Friendly Communities and expanding Wisconsin’s off-road bicycle recreational opportunities. Click here for more details and to register.