This summer Three Rivers Parks completed the section of the Luce Line Trail in Golden Valley and Minneapolis connecting Theodore Wirth Park to the now 75 mile trail going all the way to Thompson Lake Park in Meeker County. The trail now goes west from Theodore Wirth Parkway in Minneapolis to about a mile past the town of Cosmos, MN.

The trail is part of the rails to trails program started in the 1970’s where old unused rail lines were converted into multi-use trails for hiking, biking, horseback riding and snowmobiles. The current trail has been a major collaboration between Three Rivers Park District, various city park organizations and the Minnesota DNR. There are currently a number of old railroad lines in Minnesota being used for recreation and as commuter lines for bicycle traffic. Some of the trails are completely paved while others are a mixture of asphalt, crushed limestone and crushed aggregate. The Luce Line is one of the mixed trails.

Last month I put the panniers and homemade travel case on my bike and headed out for Cosmos from my home in South Minneapolis.

The new section starting at Theodore Wirth is paved. It rolls through the wooded area in Theodore Wirth Park and on through Golden Valley and Plymouth through city parks and along roadways until it finally turns into a crushed limestone trail. The trail from Theodore Wirth can be a bit confusing. There were a number of places in Golden Valley and Plymouth where there were trail intersections that didn’t have signs telling me which way to go so I had to ask people. There was an area in Golden Valley where the trail seemed to come to a dead end near the golf course. I asked a couple of kids if they knew which way to go. “I think you’re going the wrong way. Follow us. It’s this way.”

I followed them for about a block and realized they thought I was trying to get to Wirth. We parted ways and I turned back with instructions on how to get where I needed to go. “Take a left at the golf course. There’s a sign after that.” a girl said. After I got past that part I found a couple that lead me through a myriad curves and intersections in parks and along roads that brought me to the crushed limestone trail. After that there was no mistaking where to go. I parted ways with the couple and headed out to the (town of) Cosmos.

The section between Plymouth and Hutchinson is crushed limestone. I flew along easily on my cyclo-cross bike with 35 x 700c tires. Because the trail is an old railroad bed there are a couple things that come into play. The first is that the trail is completely void of hills. The second it that its also straight as and arrow.
This makes for some very easy riding even though the surface is crushed limestone. The limestone is packed down pretty good. It’s not like riding on a dirt road. It’s a fairly smooth hard packed surface. It doesn’t have those nasty piles of sand that make your tires want to dig in slowing you down or make steering difficult. It’s really not much different than riding on a pave trail.



Crushed limestone after Plymouth

I rolled out of Plymouth and on through Wayzata passing suburban areas. Then I found myself on a trail that could be called the “where your food comes from” trail. There were farms, lakes and old wooden bridges going over creeks and probably irrigation channels. I really expected the trail be fully out in the open but I was happy to find it lined with trees that kept the hot sun out of my eyes most of the way.

The trail rolls through the towns of Watertown, Winsted, Silver Lake and Hutchinson finally arriving at Cosmos. This leaves plenty of opportunities to stop and refill on water and lunch at a restaurant if you don’t want to eat on the trail side.





Trail views

When I got to Thompson Lake Park the first thing I noticed is that it’s not really much of the campground I expected. I expected to see more people and actually campsites with fire rings. This was actually a pleasant surprise. Then I noticed this sign. Look at the rule for camping and the fine. Ouch!


Sign at Thompson Lake Park

That was a great disappointment to say the least. I had just ridden my bike a total of 89 miles between the trail and jumping off to get water and such and now it appeared I had to ride about 20 miles backwards to either camp for the night in Hutchinson or try and find a motel if campground registration was closed for the evening. It was also about 8pm, getting dark fast and I had two bald tires on my bike.



Bald tires at Thompson Lake Park

I headed back to Cosmos and found a police officer. I asked about the sign and showed him my DNR map which has a camping symbol at Thompson Lake Park. The officer looked at my map, the bald tires on my bike and said this – “I’ve never even seen that sign. People camp there all the time. Sometimes there are two hundred boy scouts there. They even have spots to pull up RV’s. I’m not going to give you a ticket for camping there. It’s a campground.”

With that permission I headed back to Thompson Lake Park, put up my tent and watched the sunset with the entire park to myself. The ride was certainly worth the views along the way and the sunset at the end was great.


Sunset at Thompson Lake



Things worth knowing:



There are two sections I opted out on due to not being very ride worthy at the time or not being completed. One section is on the east side of Winsted. The trail basically ends but there is a trail kiosk explaining how to get to where it continues. Pay attention for that sign. You’ll know you’re there when you approach a road after Winsted Lake and the trail doesn’t continue across the street. There is a map right behind you on the kiosk. The other place was west of Cedar Mills.

I had to bail off the trail after Cedar Mills for two reasons. One was that the trail resembled a cross-country ski trail in the summer. It was mostly grassy and in need of a good mow. I also had eaten through the rubber on my tires that I should have replaced before I left. They weren’t going to last at all on the crushed aggregate and grassy trail. It was also very slow riding because of the grass.

When you get to the The town of Cosmos get what you need before continuing on or head back before 10pm. (It's only about a mile back from Thompson Lake at most) Cosmos shuts down at 10pm except for the bar, which does sell off sale beer. If you need something from the gas station get it before 10pm.



Hutchinson Campground



The campground in Hutchinson on Otter Lake is more of a family campground. It has all the standard amenities like showers and such. It's also a fairly well used park. There will be many people who are not campers using the area. It's basically right in town and has walkers and bikers riding through. It would be like camping on Lake Calhoun in Minneapolis for that area. If you're looking for that type of campground or a ride that's twenty miles shorter stop there and camp. There are also a number of motels in Hutchinson if you don't want to camp out.


Thompson Park rules-



After I returned home I spoke with the park director for Meeker County on the phone about the sign that said “No Camping” Myron, the parks director for the county said that he had never seen the sign. He asked where it was and was going to check on it. He said they definitely do want cyclists to use the park and that they can camp there. He had concerns in two areas though. One was the number of people in the park. If you are bringing a group larger than ten – twelve people you should contact them to let them know. The park has neighbors directly to the north and people need to be respectful when it comes to noise.



My tent at Thompson Lake Park

The other things had to do with water and facilities. There is a water pump in the park that is certified by the Minnesota Department of Health every year but the water is a bit rusty. It is ok to drink but he said it looks kind of funny. I mentioned that I had pumped the water into a container and ran it through my backpacking filter to get all the impurities out. You’ll want to bring a filter or get water at the gas station. There are also no showers at this park. There is a nice beach though!



Resources –



DNR trail Map - http://www.luceline.com/graphics/lucemap.pdf

Luce Line Trail website with history - http://www.luceline.com

My photo set from the trail -