Plans Afoot - Backpacking Trail in Southeastern MN

 

Marty Walsh has a dream! 

While working in community development in Fillmore County, Walsh was looking over maps of the county and surrounding areas. He realized that there were many areas of public land that could be utilized - along with private land used with permission - to make a 100 mile backpacking/hiking trail between Chatfield MN and the Mississippi River near Brownsville MN.

Marty was inspired by the Lost Creek Trail (Chatfield MN) that 7 landowners developed and built cooperatively between Chatfield and Jordan Township. He also thought about backpacking trails like Ice Age Trail, Superior Hiking Trail and other trails that wind through state and national forest land and along connecting roadways and landowner and campground easements.  It could be done!

And so the Minnesota Driftless Hiking Trail effort began. 

The MDHT vision: "a 100+ mile backpacking trail across the Driftless area of Minnesota in the style of the National Scenic and Recreational Trails, supported by volunteers and operating as an independent organization."

The gray area in the proposed corridor below outlines all areas within which the trail could run, depending on landowner agreements to cross property or the use of only public land and paved roads. 

Nothing is set in stone at this point. Alot of the direction the trail will take depends on ongoing work spreading the word and connecting to agencies, working with the MN DNR, landowners and other local, state and national trail associations to see what could work in southeastern MN. At the moment, everything is in flux. The goal for the trail is to have it develop in a way that involves willing  participants and volunteers who are excited to see this trail developed and come through their area. So far so good!

This is a project that needs lots of volunteers and cooperating landowners. Over the past three years, MDHT has developed a solid leadership team of skilled volunteers, gotten agreements from 20 land owners along the corridor (with more in the pipeline), engaged with communities, nature centers, campgrounds and more to grow the network of possibility. 

Marty Walsh and Andy Petzold 
on "test run for proposed MDHT, June 2022
Image -Marty Walsh

In June 2022, MDHT folks did a "test" hike along a 25 mile segment of what could become part of the trail. They hiked only on existing trails, public lands and connecting roadways. They were looking at the possibilities for camping on the trail, water access, how the trails were - and, of course, enjoyed the incredible views, wet stream crossings and boots on these trails. The test run - to prove this trail could work  - was a success.

The MDHT board is currently engaged in filing for non-profit status. In addition, they submitted a $425,000 project to fund trail building supplies, print materials and an executive director for three years through the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund (half of all MN lottery ticket sales go to this fund)  The Legislative Citizen Committee on MN Resources has included the MDHT in their FY2024 Funding Recommendation. The LCCMR recommendation will be voted on by the MN legislature in February or March (with the money available July 2024 if the recommendation is successfully passed).  

The leadership team has also spent a great deal of time working with the MN DNR on exploring legal agreements and leases for parts of the trail that they hope to have on state lands. This work in particular is delicate because of the scope of land uses supported in the State Forest lands.

The overall goal is by 2027 to have the basic trail set and maps of the trail (including connecting roads) so people can hike. While work will need to be done beyond that date (think of this as a 20 year project), the basic plan would be in place.

Ambitious? Maybe. But if you attended Marty's update in February this year at Eagle Bluff Environmental Center in Lanesboro, you can see the steady progress being made. My notes from that February 11 presentation in Lanesboro and the more recent October 14 update in Caledonia reflect that.

You can support the work the work in a number of ways: donations; buying cool merch and signing up for the newsletter. Let your MN legislative rep know that you are in support of the MDHT project in the Environmental and Natural Resources Trust Fund recommendations that comes up for a vote this coming spring. If you know landowners in the corridor, speak to them and encourage them to reach out to the MDHT folks through the website. If you live in the corridor shown in the graphic above, you can also host a presentation by Marty to help spread the information about the trail to local folks in your community. 

There are also opportunities to collect data on formal trails and features: parking lots, logging roads, hunter trails - as well as informal ones like social camps, game trails etc. It helps the MDHT folks to better know the existing routes in State Forests and on private land. Maps can be mailed in.gpx format to MNDriftlessHikingTrail@gmail.com

All these ways big and small will help make this dream a reality!

from the MN Driftless Hiking Trail website