2017 Jim Schmid bicycles Rail-Trail Hall of Fame 5.5-mile Midtown Greenway – Minneapolis, MN

The 29th member of the Rail-Trail Hall of Fame – Midtown Greenway.

Link to trail sign photos taken by Jim Schmid while biking the Midtown Greenway in 2017.

The Midtown Greenway is one of those urban trails that are great for locals, but not so great for travelers who need to find a parking place before they can start riding. There are no trailheads. I drove into Minneapolis, MN shortly after morning rush hour traffice. Got lucky and found a small park in a quiet neighborhood near the Trail where I could park my van. Biked the 5.5 mile trail out and back. Much of the trail is in a trench dug over 100 years ago to lessen the number of road crossings. Most of the road crossing are above you as you cycle along free from worrying about vehicle cross traffic.

At about the midway point the Midtown Greenway Coalition has an office. Since I had not seen a Hall of Fame sign I wanted to see if they knew where one had been posted. Turns out none of the folks I talked to knew the Greenway was number 29 in the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy Rail-Trail Hall of Fame. Later I checked their website and found no mention of being in the Hall of Fame. Of the 31 rail-trails in the Hall of Fame a handful are not signed. I assume they don’t need the publicity from a national organization. I hope that RTC will follow up every few years with the organizations managing the Hall of Fame Trails. Perhaps send along a few more signs. I imagine there will be more souls like me who want to bike or walk all the members of the Hall of Fame. Looks like RTC will add a trail each year to match how old the organization is. Great for me. I’ll have a yearly adventure to look forward to.

Ate lunch at Whole Foods and drove 200 miles north to start my adventure on the Paul Bunyan State Trail.