Trail Overview
This trail is mostly composed of well-maintained gravel and travels through a mix of open fields, forested areas, and a few scattered homesteads. It includes one notable ascent followed by a descent, with the route being roughly half straight and half winding. The surface is generally smooth with very few bumps, making for a relatively easy drive. Local traffic may be present, so it's important to drive with caution. There are no formal or dispersed campsites along the trail, and no amenities such as water or trash disposal. Cell service is limited, so it's recommended to check your onX app for coverage.
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.
