"A long-time dream of a route for the North Country Trail through the wilderness of northern Minnesota is beginning to become more than a mere dream, as the National Park Service (NPS), the overall administrator of the trail, has initiated a planning process to study a route through Minnesota's "Arrowhead" region."

RONDER, have you ever heard of this one?

http://www.northcountrytrail.org/explore/focus/arrowhd.htm

I have heard of National Scenic trails one which goes through NY. PA, OH, MI, WI, MN and ND which is suppose to be 4,200 miles long when finished. The section U ponited out JD is a section that needs to be completed.

The interesting part of the North Country trail is that they talk about snowmobile use on the Arrowhead section. Which they also allow on sections of the WI Ice Age National Trail.

It looks as though the trail up into the Arrowhead, is the new plan... which I like better than the old section.

Click to view attachment

It would be a wonderful ride up there on the proposed trail!

Man would that be awesome, but I can't imagine the enviros ever letting this happen.

This is a very nice trail proposal for hikers. The new arrowhead route option is strictly for hikers. No chance you'll ever see a snowmobile on the Kek or the Border route (legally that is).

Yah but read the end of the 4th paragraph.... not sure if they are talking about the whole proposed trail or just a section...

"It now appears that it will also be a bicycle/snowmobile trail. A separate hiking treadway once was proposed, but was greeted lukewarmly."

All I know is it would be a blast to ride from Ely through the BDUB to the end of the Gunflint - SeaGull/Saganaga lake area. Passage through there would be great for Businesses. Can I get an Amen Brother?

AMEN!!!

A 2nd AMEN!!! Man that would be awesome!!!

we'll never get a mototrized trail in the bdub. the Tomahawk is a good alternate route.

Good writeup on the MN section of the North Country Trail, with maps-

http://northcountrytrail.org/explore/guide/menu.htm

I hope the business owners and forest service realize the value of having sleds in this area. For one, it is one of the only things that keeps a town like Grand Marais going in the winter. My family has been going to our cabin in this area since 1926 and it has really changed (attitudes towards sleds) in the past 15 years. I have family up in GM and they can really tell you about the changes. My cousin had to fight to ride his snowmobile on a forest service road to go ice fishing because a cross country sking resort was groming the whole road for skating! What a bunch of BS, the road is owned by everyone, not just reserved for skiers. Now they groom 1/2 the road, the other side can be used by snowmobiles. My cousin had to fight for a year with others to get this done because the sking resort owner didn't want to let snomobiles through. Snowmobiles bring in $ to a town and are not hard on the environment. They run clean (late models anyway) and are more efficient than ever before.

Unfortunately the forest service and their best friend the Sierra club and any other tree hugger freak could care less about local businesses and cabin owners near the bwcaw. The park was setup by and for the liberal elite. As long as they have access to an outfitter in the Ely area, they're happy. I'm sure if they could have it their way they'd swallow up the whole upper half of the Gunflint trail corridor from Poplar up. Yes, I'm a little bitter - we have had a cabin on Seagull Lake since 1940 and my grandmother took her first canoe trip through the area in 1918. The lake has seen many changes over the years - I have no issue with the natural ones. But, you have to wonder who had the lame-brained idea of running an imaginary park boundary line through the middle of a lake?? 50% of the lake is paddle only. Another 25% is 10hp limit and the remaining 25% is unlimited hp's. So, once a year I haul my 20 foot Yamaha jet boat with 270hp and stir things up a bit. You should see the looks on some of the canoeists as I go by at 55mph!!