County Road 243

Trail Overview

This trail is a wide, well-maintained gravel route that passes by a few rural homesteads and remains mostly straight, with occasional gentle curves. It is designated as an OHV trail and includes several smaller offshoots for those looking to explore further. The trail winds through attractive forested areas and serves as a connection between the towns of Marcell and Blackduck. Blackduck is noted for being home to what is claimed to be the world's largest Blackduck statue. While the trail is suitable for off-highway vehicles and offers scenic surroundings, it does not provide any formal or dispersed camping opportunities. There are no amenities such as trash disposal or drinking water along the route, and cell service may be inconsistent.

Photos of County Road 243

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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.

Technical Rating

County Road 243 can be accessed by the following ride types:

• High-Clearance 4x4
• SUV
• SxS (60")
• ATV (50")
• Dirt Bike