CHASKA, Minn. — If you’ve driven on 212 – going west towards Chaska, you might have noticed dirt trails in the hills.
“Most of these trails are beginner and intermediate we are going to have one black trail,” says Tim Vossberg President of Carver Trails. “But with this piece of land that we have, for better or for worse, there is quite a bit of elevation change.”
This is the new Hawks Ridge Trail in Chaska. It's 4.1 miles on Minnesota Department Transportation-owned land, of ups, downs, ‘to’s and fro’s’ designed to give kids and adults a safe place to ride or hike.
“It’s really dangerous riding out on the roads,” says Vossberg. “With younger people especially who don’t know about the traffic laws and also its dangerous to ride the paved trails because they also cross roads. So it’s really paramount that we get our own single track trails.”
Tim Vossberg of the non-profit group ‘Carver Trails’ has been trying to get a single-track mountain biking trail in the Southwest Metro for 5 years. In that time Mountain Biking has grown exponentially in Minnesota in the youth and high school levels.
“The league last year has 19-hundred and some participants,” says Vossburg. “So, it’s been growing at about 25% a year.”
While a lot of trails in the metro have been made by professionals with machine equipment. Here in Chaska this has been made by hand, from 50 volunteers over the past 6 weeks.
“It’s all been done by hand with rototillers, lawn mowers. A lot of raking. Raking, Raking and more raking the dirt,” says Vossburg. “It’s a great opportunity for the community and that’s why we wanted to make sure it was multi-use trails. “
Aside from some final mowing and signage, they are hoping that the trail is ready *use* in the next few weeks.