TREAD ON ME

When one thinks of quiet recreation in the Driftless Area, perhaps a cast line of fly-fishing flashes before one’s eyes. Or paddlers in a canoe past ancient rock outcrops. Maybe bicyclists on dedicated trails or along country roads passing a horse and buggy, waving hello. During spring and autumn, birders flock to the Mississippi Flyway for the aerial array hither and yon. But what about hiking? No fewer than four state parks practically match the rectangular corners of far southeastern Minnesota. Added to these are a patchwork of outdoor attractions, including a sprawling state forest dotted with state natural and scientific areas, countless town and county parks, and legacy locations like Eagle Bluff Environmental Center and Good Earth Village. Each of these spaces offers opportunities for hiking, but only in short, modest loops. There is no long-distance trail from point to point.

The Minnesota Driftless Hiking Trail aims to change that.

It began with “a simple observation and a big idea” by board member Marty Walsh: southeastern Minnesota needed more hiking opportunities and a way to connect communities. Inspired by long-distance trail systems like the Superior Hiking Trail in northeastern Minnesota and the Ice Age National Scenic Trail in Wisconsin, what if there were a through-trail that showcased the rich history, stunning topography, and unique natural features unlike anywhere else in the state? A trail that threads through a tapestry of lush forests and intact prairies, valley-floor bottoms and soaring cliff-side vistas, cobble-strewn creeks and rock outcrops nearly half a billion years old? But also municipalities, luring hikers to local shops or a place to indulge in heavenly pie?

This is precisely what the Minnesota Driftless Hiking Trail (MDHT) is on a mission to do.

BABY STEPS

Officially incorporated as a nonprofit in 2023, the MDHT was first predicated on five years of public outreach, seeking to engage the community from residents in Fillmore and Houston Counties to backpackers beyond southeastern Minnesota. But also identifying existing trail systems and designating them as potential linkages.

Like an article of faith, the MDHT envisions a continuous trail from Chatfield, MN, to the Mississippi River – a distance of 100-125 miles – over the next ten years. Cooperation among private landowners is critical, as up to 50% of the proposed route may require public access easements. So far, only one landowner has declined to participate in the proposed route, according to Alexa Shapiro, MDHT Director. “People who live here take pride in the land,” she stated. “They want to see it protected.”

Work on the trail has already begun, thanks in no small part to the Bluff Country Hiking Club, whose volunteers first built the Lost Creek Hiking Trail in 2011. Only 20 minutes southeast of downtown Rochester, the Lost Creek Hiking Trail began as a 6.5-mile, one-way trail that delicately traversed private land. Today, the MDHT aims to connect it to the City of Chatfield by extending the trail by an additional 2.5 miles through town. Eventually, the hamlet of Whalan along the Root River and the small city of Caledonia will be connected, too. In doing so, hikers can anticipate experiencing the renowned Root River State Trail as well as Beaver Creek Valley State Park and its eight miles of trails, campsites, brook trout, warblers, basswood, and blufflands.

ROAM IF YOU WANT TO

The Lost Creek Hiking Trail embodies an ethos of conservation not through coveting, but its opposite: opening up. Inviting the public onto private property inverts the paradigm of domain – such a commendable contrast to the leasing of public lands for private profit in our present-day politics. It is a reorientation with space itself, a turning inside out that is quiet but quite radical. Culturally, across the board, we have grown so accustomed to a state of entitled and smug selfishness, as well as the dismissive contradictions of NIMBYism, that a collective of privately owned tracts welcoming the public to be a part of, and not apart from, is a breath of fresh air as sweet as the anemones fragrantly found there.

Most Scandinavian nations uphold a notion of free roam. Called Allemansrätten in Swedish, the practice of “the Right of Public Access” is codified into law. There are limits, of course, but essentially it comes down to a credo of “don’t disturb, don’t destroy.” One needn’t seek permission, but one must pay respect to nature and cultivated land. The implications are profound: no one is an outsider when everyone is allowed in. Allemansrätten upends our American motto of “not in my backyard” (NIMBY) or the legal reality of eminent domain.

And while the Lost Creek Hiking Trail itself lies entirely on private land, it presages what the Minnesota Driftless Hiking Trail aspires to be: a braided partnership among state land managers, private landowners, and the general public. What day-hikers can experience now, future backpackers can look forward to as well: a trail through wetlands, woodlots, old logging roads, open pastures, prairies, limestone rock outcrops, corn and soybean crops, forests, oak savanna, quarries, sinkholes, pinnacles, rivers and creeks – not to mention city streets with amenities and eateries – all hiding in plain sight.

LOOKING FORWARD, PAYING FORWARD

Beyond the mere name, there is an implicit poetry in founding a long-distance trail on a lost creek – for what is a stream if not a kind of trail? After all, rivers blur edges and redefine boundaries while meandering here through public sectors, there through private tracts. Rivers provide the passports we might otherwise need to cross. A terrain trail that wends through a matrix of private and public lands is hardly different but for one key distinction: rivers were here already. For such a hiking trail to exist, it must first be built, which in turn depends on the participation of private agents and public agencies united by a principle of shared sacrifice and the belief that the land belongs to all of us – and needs all of us to be good stewards of it.

There is a reverence for the area, a unique emotional attachment. But like a family recipe passed down from one generation to another, its importance needs to be nurtured and taught to be intuited. The reverence is contagious, Shapiro provided. Indeed, when I asked her if anything had surprised her thus far, she confided, “How excited landowners have been. It’s really been inspiring!” While it may seem counterintuitive at first glance, considering how common “No Trespassing” signs are along the edge of a woods, so many of us love to share what we love. Why should the land we live on be any different?

As like attracts like, respect commands respect. But for those of us raised by jackals or reptilian-brained parents, we’re generally reared to be on our best behavior when we’re guests. As children, we’re ambassadors, modeling impeccable manners, with our please preceding our thank-you. As adults, we want others to perceive us as better than we actually are. Both modes bode well as exemplars of etiquette and tact as we track through spaces otherwise closed off to us. As Shapiro noted, “moving slowly through a landscape inspires conservation.”

And conservation needs dedicated souls. Want to get involved? The opportunities are nearly endless. Shapiro reports that the volunteer waitlist for trail building and maintenance is already 75 strong. But she recognizes that sweat equity is not for everybody. “There’s GIS work, graphic design work,” she alluded. “Social media and progress to the website. We’re a nonprofit and open to ideas and individual talents. It’s very hands-on.”

The trail will be open for snowshoeing in the winter. Indeed, the only time it will be closed is during the two-week-long gun deer hunt season in November. If private landowners decide to close their easement, the MDHT will provide a reroute. Eventually, Shapiro envisions a private shuttle system in which hikers can pay a third-party courier to pick them up at their departure point and drop them off at their starting point. For more information on that, trail developments, and volunteer opportunities, check out https://www.mndriftlesshikingtrail.org/current-progress

In the meantime, happy trails!