The Munger Trail - Willow River to Moose Lake

The Willard Munger Trail - named for one of the environmental heroes of MN is our neighborhood bike trail and the place I get my biking exercise and conditioning.  I thought it would be good to share some of its highlights and pleasures.
 So here is a look at the trail and what I enjoy.

The small towns that prospered during the days when the trail was a railroad track and the country moved by Steam Engine are just a shadow of what they used to be, but that shadow is filled with surprises and fun places to explore if you give yourself the time to engage in the setting, as well as the peddling.


 Willow River is our little home town and the Mercantile is over 100 years old and still meets many of our needs.  It is a place for refreshments and Peggy Sue's is a local restaurant that makes a great lunch or dinner stop.

There is also a local park that provides you with a sense of the RR past.

The trail is very straight like most RR grades and lacks hills except between Rutledge and Finlayson and coming in or out of Duluth - more on those stretches on another day.


This is an easy 10 mile stretch - I tend to commute to Moose Lake - going to the bank and taking care of other business that I cannot do in Willow River and then return home for a really nice ride.  My distance from the trail makes a good 25 mile round trip.

The Moosehorn River and its natural lake give this end of the trail a lot of beauty and lots of birds to hear and see.



The trail at Moose Lake has two options - one goes through town on back streets and the other more popular section goes up and past the old train depot with its exhibit on the 1918 Moose Lake - Cloquet fire.  Another nice stop.


Comments

  1. Aunt JulieJune 1, 2012 at 3:29 PM

    Thank you, Mike. Your blog helps us with our trip research.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownJune 1, 2012 at 3:54 PM

    I am glad to share. Have a great trip.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sense of Place

Image
GOING NATURE’S WAY By Kate Crowley I am intrigued by the idea of Sense of Place; to feel completely ‘at home’ in one particular place.  I have read that people who grow up on the Great Plains feel claustrophobic when they are in forested environments and in reverse,  people who have grown up surrounded by forest find the openness of the plains unnerving, with nothing to break the view to the horizon. I grew up in the city, but the Minnehaha Creek and Parkway were just two blocks away and I spent countless hours playing and exploring there.  The city lakes were within biking distance. The Mississippi River was just blocks away from the apartment where I lived the first four years of my life.  When I was 36 I married Mike and moved to our current home and it was perfect.  When my dad first visited us in our new home, he said, “Kate must think she’s died and gone to heaven”.  This is where I am supposed to be.  Scientists who have studied the evolution of humanity have proposed
Read more

Rain threatens birds

Image
WINGIN’ IT By Kate Crowley As the floodwaters recede, a stunned and relieved populace can finally stop holding their collective breath. Throughout southern Carlton County and all of Pine County there is a sense of disbelief that only four years after a major flood event, it has happened again.  At our home we measured over 8” of rain in less than 24 hours. This is what the word deluge was meant to describe. Others said it felt like they were in the middle of a monsoon. Thankfully there was no loss of life in our region, but property damage and loss was significant for people who have in some cases finally recovered and remodeled after the flood of 2012, which was said to be a once in 100 years flood when 8 to 10 inches of rain were spread over three days. Here in Willow River, there was fear that the small dam holding back the waters of the river would fail, with catastrophic results. Roads throughout the two counties (and into Wisconsin) were hard hit and the cost to repair
Read more