Tag Archives: Single track

Lebanon Hills

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I was over in Minnesota the last few days and had a chance to run at Lebanon Hills Regional Park. Lebanon Hills is a 2,000 acre Dakota County Park that features a pretty extensive network of trails. The area is not all that hilly but there are many lakes on the property that the trails weave in and out of making for some pretty scenery. The park is located just south of St. Paul making it a very doable drive for anyone living in the twin cities area. The frozen ground made the dirt trails fast and firm and I was able to cover about seven miles or so at a good clip. The trails are not very technical, they just gently wind through the woods making it possible to get a good tempo rolling. The trails are very well-marked however there are so many trails branching every which way that it really breaks up your run if you keep stopping to check the map. I basically just went which ever way I felt like going until I was ready to head back to the car and then paid attention to the maps. It is nice to have made it all the way through december without having to worry about trudging through snow. I am back in Milwaukee and will probably check out the River Trail in the morning. We are getting a mix of snow and rain tonight so we might have some messy trails on our hands in the morning. Below are a few pictures of the run at Lebanon Hills.

O Muddy Night

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I totally missed wednesdays wacky adventure. I do have a few awesome adventures that I would like to high light so I’ll try to pick one and get a post up about it tomorrow. I made

The dam crossing on to the island and then Eastabrook Park. The sky turns to darkness and I ran the east side of the trail in the dark. Pretty typical for an evening run this time of year.

another complete lap of the Milwaukee River Trail last night . I took the GPS this time and was a little disappointed to see that the route was slightly under 9 miles. I believe all that bicycling has thrown off my internal running clock. The trail still is quite soft and muddy in many areas which can get annoying if it gets dark. The last four miles I was traversing the trail in complete darkness. Which is a fun experience of course. However, with a muddy trail you seem to plow right through the worst parts completely oblivious until you feel your feet just sinking into the muck. 1:17:25 will be my official PR of the route and hopefully it will be an easy mark to bring down. The Milwaukee River trail is just so crazy technical you have to really attach it to keep any kind of decent pace. Some of you have emailed me about the best place to get on and access the trail. Well as you can see

The old dam crossing at Eastabrook Park, The parking lot I was talking about is pictured in the upper right corner.

the trail runs  right through the city so there are a lot of access points but if your driving to the trail the best place to park would be near the northern most point of the trail in Estabrook Park. If you take Estabrook Pkwy then turn on to  Old-76 Bike Tour rd. That will dead-end in a parking lot. You can then hoop on the east side trail which enters the woods in-between the yellow 8′-6″ sign and a huge leaning tree with big knots on it. If you want to run on the West side then run north a little and cross over the river via the dam. (You have to hoop two 5 foot high gates and some big logs so this might not be an option for everyone) I always jump on the trail at the Urban Ecology Center just because it’s the closest to my house. (Less than a mile) If you have any question just shoot me an email or post a reply comment on this post.

Baird’s Creek

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Well I just ordered 375 books yesterday. I am so excited to ship them all out and hear what everyone’s opinions are of it. Thanks for all the pre-orders, I will have some on hand to ship out as orders come in over the next few weeks. After that I will hand it over to Amazon on other online outlets. However, you will still be able to direct people to www.abrahamlouis.com/runningwater to find it.

Abraham Louis

This past weekend I ventured north to the home of the undefeated Green Bay Packers but, more importunity to where my brother Josh is living next to an awesome single track trail. Baird’s Creek is a single track trail network in Green bay. If there are any “High points” around Green Bay they would by found here. However, rather compare the trail to mountain single track it is better to describe it as typical Wisconsin woods with many bluffs that over look the creek. If it is your first time running in Baird’s it is easy to get confused because of the vast network of single track that are continuously branching off every which way. Unfortunately I didn’t have the GPS map going to post our route but basically all trails follow the creek on both sides if you’re looking for a more challenging route stick to the high ground. You will get a lot of short climbs and winding descents.  If you’re looking for easy route there is now a paved bike path that goes along the creek for a bit. The path is new and the first time I have ever seen it, it is very nice for a leisure stroll. From there, are many places to hope off the main path and explore a bit.

We made about an 8 to 10 mile loop on a route that Josh has worked on perfecting for the last few months. A task that you will understand a challenge if you ever go and run there. The creek was starting to freezer over in spots attempting to keep the swift moving current under its icy layer. Open section come and go depending on the severity of the small rapids. Now is probably the one of the best time’s to run there. It can get extremely muddy in the spring and in the summer a bit over grown. However, in november the ground freezes providing excellent footing on summer beaten path. It is always fun to rediscover an old place. I have spent hours and hours on this trail through out college but have not run on it in at least a year. It seems every time you go down there you see something a little strange. As we ripped down a technical winding decent that ended with crossing a small contributory to Baird’s creek before shooting back up another ridge. Josh yelled that waaaas AWESOME! We shot around a switch back and a group of about 5 to 6 men where standing off the trail a bit around a fire. I’m not sure if it was a little Packer forest tailgating or what. Nevertheless we flew past them leaving to probably converse about “wow! those guys REALLY like running”

All in all it was a great weekend run and if your ever in the area I recommend checking it out. A good access point is Beverly Road. It is a dead-end with a parking lot. You can hop on the trail on the west end of the parking lot.