I have to admit that the Gilbert OHV Park in northern Minnesota has improved a great deal since first visited in 2002. The additional trails make this a full days ride to even come close to riding all of them. On day 2 all you have to do is reverse course and its hard to remember where you have or have not been.

Interesting is how under utilized the park seems to be. We only saw 6 other quads, 4 jeeps and 2 motorbikes while their Saturday before last.

Anyways - we found a trail that takes us back and forth to Biwabik and if you get north of the town of Biwabik their are miles and miles of trails. Bring a GPS. And for anyone riding a white quad - get use to pink as the iron ore is hard to clean off without a pressure washer. Useing Zud cleanser works well to get the pink out also.

 

Trying to find a place to go riding in southern Minnesota - trying to find stuff on the internet but not having very good luck - finding information. Can someone help? We would be traveling up from central Iowa for a weekend so hate to go too far into Minnesota. Any help would be great! Thanks!

 

WhoDatInDaMud

Sounds like ya had a good time... [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

Iam going up is weekend got any other tips or insite on the park..

Looks like I will have to get a case of that Zud for my white 'Z'[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-disgusted.gif[/img]

RidePolaris

As far as I know, There is NO place to Ride Here.(southern Minnesota)

for a weekend Bud. BRF WI or Danbury WI, or the Gilbert OHV park are about the best around.....

Let me know if you find another [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-cool.gif[/img]

 

Ridpolaris, check out the mn dnr website. Depending on where in southern mn you are, there may be some areas to ride. Snake creek, trout valley,and elm creek are three i know of. If you join a club, there are more options, because lots of times the club has private areas open to them.
MNDNR trail index

 

hondabuster,

Have you ever Been to any that you have listed????

Just woundering how thay are?????

Any thing like BRF?????

 

ZButcheR.. Not alot of info, but some about Gilberts Park.

Map of park can be found here:
http://www.gilbertmn.org/images/2003%20OHV%20Map.jpg

Some of the black diamond (difficult) marks are for the pure height of the hill, others are for the rockieness of the hill. There was one that I had an absolute blast on. I dont remember exactly where, but I think it may have been one of the Crator Crawl or rock crawl areas. Anyways, it started out with bunch of rocks to climb around, then you went down a fairly steep and slippery hill covered with shale (smoothe, flat, slices of rock). Then, I think this was the only time I used 4 wheel drive through out the whole park, you had a nice hill filled with more rocks. I'm not sure if 4 wheel drive was needed, but I used it anyways.

Take a map with and try to hit every trail there is.. There are quite a few gems in the park. I just wish I took my GPS with me to map out where I was and mark the better trails.

One more note, we had 7 ATV's with us, 4 came back damaged. 1 guy hit a tree stump and busted his suspension mount. Another guy busted his throttle on a jump. Yet another tried climbing a big hill and couldnt hold his front end down and had to ditch is '04 grizzly and watch it roll down the hill. Luckilly it stayed on all 4 tires and a nice tree stopped it causing a couple of dents in his bumper. Oh, I almost forgot, another guy rolled my ATV on the hill by the Mud run. It was a small hill, but It looks like he totalled it (still waiting to hear final answer from insurance company).

Even with all the bad luck Everyone that went, cant wait to go again. =)

Our motto should be "If you dont break em, you dont ride em" =)

 

ZButcheR,
The snake creek and trout valley are close to each other, and i havent been to any of those three.I may be going to the snake creek and trout valley trails later this summer.
Been to just about all the trails up north, was at nemadji two days ago and had lots of fun, wide sandy, powerslide kind of trails.If you havent been there yet, ...go. Theres a new spur, not on the map, which was narrow and tight , and got into the woods real good. Kind of a 4x4 trail but we had a 2wd with us and it made it fine. Theres also a campground right in the middle of the area, and you can ride right from the campsites.Thats about as close to brf as there is in mn, that i have found. And there werent any dnr boys handing out tickets, sorry to hear you lost the fight.
Did you like gilbert? seems like its more for 4x4 than for sports,( because of the slick mud in the back areas, and the rocky hill climbs.)

 

Thx for the insite on the Park guys.......

Looks like its going to Be nice, Hope to get some good riding in[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-cool.gif[/img]

 

As for snake creek and trout valley they are small loop trails. If you like to stop and see the sights you will find these trails ok.
But if you like to put on miles these are pretty short. You can make the loop in 20 min at ether trail. I am going to camp at Trout valley next weekend my kids like the short trails. I only live about 70 miles from the trails so not to bad of a drive in the motorhome. If anyone who reads this wants to stop by and say HI i will be there all weekend.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]