TOWER- A self-titled “rant” on the “What’s Up Tower” Facebook page this week asked a question that volunteers in the Wagoner Trails Club have expected was coming for some time. The club had developed the new Pine Ridges Trail on the north side of Tower using a few short segments of old forest road, along with newly created single-track trails that follow the rugged rock ridges, featuring overlooks of Lake Vermilion. A couple short segments saw occasional use by ATV riders, although the segments were never officially designated for ATV use.
Volunteers with the Wagoner club asked the Tower City Council last year to designate two short segments as closed to ATV use to prevent conflicts with hikers on the Pine Ridges Trail. The council agreed. Then, after a review last fall, council members added an additional roughly mile-long segment, that loops around the base of the hill on the city’s north side, for non-motorized use only. That segment, which had largely fallen into disuse, had seen little if any ATV traffic in years. But when Wagoner volunteers cleared the old corridor last year, they worried that their efforts might attract more ATV use.
The signs announcing the closures went up last fall after hunting season was over. With the ATV season just getting underway, the blowback arrived more or less on schedule. More than three dozen comments on a Facebook thread, all posted this week, rail against the designation of the trail sections as non-motorized. Others, however, posted comments in support of the designation.
“Is there a trail committee for the Pine Ridge Hiking Trail?” an ATV user asked on the thread. “What gives them the right to hang no ATV signs, and on top of that, bury trails with trees to stop people from going down them.”
The trail closure
“The decision to close off about a mile of old forest road and trails to ATVs was made by the Tower City Council,” said Mary Shedd, former club president and a longtime volunteer with the trails club who spent many hours clearing the Pine Ridges Trail.
The council as a whole made a decision to close a roughly 200-foot segment of an old forest road at the top of the hill last June and gave an ad-hoc council committee the authority to review the trail and make any further decisions. Last fall, council members Kevin Norby and Bob Anderson, along with Michael Schultz, hiked the trail with club volunteers, and made the decision to designate the lower trail, dubbed the “outer loop” as non-motorized. According to Shedd, the decision was made mainly for safety concerns and to provide a more accessible and less steep route to the top of the overlook.
Council members also reasoned that the creation of the Prospector’s Loop Trail, just south of Tower, had created significant additional opportunity for ATV riding in the immediate Tower area, so the limited closures along the hiking trail would have little impact on ATV enthusiasts.
A history of use
Most of the old forest roads in that area were never formally designated as ATV routes, although the DNR had maintained a winding route up the hillside from behind the Tower-Soudan Elementary School that connected to many of these old trails, most of which are still used by ATV riders. Out of about seven miles of trails previously used by ATVs around the Pine Ridges area, the council’s decisions affect less than a quarter mile combined, and both closed segments were effectively dead ends. The “outer loop” trail added to the closure hadn’t been used by ATVs in years.
Two of the newer trails developed by the club, including the Ancient Cedars Trail and the Pine Ridges Trail have seen increasing use, as evidenced by traffic counters set up on the trails. From spring to late fall of last year, 260 people were recorded walking on the Pine Ridges Trail, 819 on the Ancient Cedars Trail, and 162 on the Wagoner Ski Trails for a total of 1,241 people using these trails.
During that same time period, 1,397 ATVs were counted on the Prospector Trail section south of Tower. “So non-motorized use was roughly equivalent to ATV use,” said Shedd.
Hiking trails and ATV trails require different trail surfaces as well as having different maintenance requirements. ATV trails require a rockier trail surface, and require regular maintenance to address erosion, rutting, and mudholes. Hiking trails can follow a narrower trail, with a grass-covered surface.
“They looked at the plan and decided it was reasonable to diversify the trail opportunities,” Shedd said. “The proposal pointed out there might be some ATV users upset with the decision.”
Tower City Clerk-Treasurer Michael Schultz noted that portion of the trail in question was a dead-end route for ATVs, and was not used very often, since it only took a few minutes to go up and then back down.
“It was a pointless trail for ATVs,” Schultz said. “I’ve driven it many times, but it’s easy to get up the hill using the other route.” The path to the hilltop itself is still open, albeit through an alternate route that runs parallel to the “outer loop” trail and then cuts towards the hilltop where there is a picnic area (the dotted line on the trail map).
A short section of former trail that had been used occasionally by ATVs was blocked with brush so that hikers do not get lost. The area is crisscrossed with old forest roads and unofficial ATV trails, which can make following the Pine Ridges Trail somewhat more challenging than it would otherwise be.
The Prospector Trail, a new 130-mile ATV trail connecting Ely, Babbitt, Embarrass, and Tower, now has an official, and city-approved path through the hillside north of Tower.
“These trails were built to sustain ATV traffic,” said Shedd. “A natural trail can’t sustain regular ATV use.” The trails club has already seen issues with the portion of the cross-country ski trails that are used as part of the Prospector Trail. The Prospector Trail group has been repairing damage and rutting on the ski trails that occur during the ATV season.
Tower-Soudan trails planning
The city of Tower created a plan for trail development in the Tower-Soudan area in 2022. The plan conducted a survey of area residents which showed that 69 percent used walking trails, and 52 percent used hiking trails. 32 percent of survey respondents said they used ATVs or other off-road vehicles.
Tower and Breitung are currently working together to secure funding to complete the Tower-Soudan, McKinley, Hoodoo Point paved trail loop. And Breitung Township recently completed a project which created a safer paved trail from the existing paved trail to McKinley Park. The city of Tower recently completed the area’s first water trail, a signed trail that runs from the East Two River to the Lake Vermilion-Soudan Underground Mine State Park shoreline. The Wagoner Trails Club recently repaired and updated the lighted loop at the ski trails, and while the snow did not cooperate for skiing this winter, the lighted trail was used for evening group hikes by the recently formed Vermilion Area Activity Club (weekly hikes are posted on Facebook).
The trails club is working with Breitung Township to dedicate a portion of an existing trail that runs through the township gravel pit by the campground to non-motorized use.