Trail Overview
This trail, also known as the 49, is one of the primary routes through the area, providing access to several lake communities as well as the Marcell Experimental Forest and the Spruce research sites. While the trail is generally wide and well maintained, it sees frequent use and has developed significant corrugation in places, which can make for a rough ride. The surrounding landscape is typical of the region, with forested sections and occasional views of nearby lakes. There are no formal or dispersed campsites along the trail, and services such as water or trash disposal are not available. Cell phone coverage may be limited.
Difficulty
This trail is well-maintained and regularly used by other OHV riders, road users, including residents in the area.
History
Covering more than 1.6 million acres of glacial lakes, red-pine uplands, and sphagnum bogs, Minnesota's Chippewa National Forest lets motorists experience the North Woods at an unrushed pace. Paved state highways soon yield to a lattice of numbered forest roads, most of them well-graded gravel that thread between kettle ponds and stands of towering white pine, the tree that helped earn the forest its 1908 designation as one of America's first national forests. The forest harbors one of the highest breeding densities of bald eagles in the continental United States, and patient drivers often glimpse loons, black bears, and white-tailed deer as they move from shoreline to clear-cut regrowth and back again.
