 If you watch Common Ground online consider becoming a member or making a donation at lptv.org. Lakeland PBS presents Common Ground brought to you by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota. Production funding of Common Ground is made possible in part by First National Bank Bemidji, continuing their second century of service to the community, a partnership for generations, member FDIC. Welcome to Common Ground. I'm your host Scott Knudson. In this part two of our special season nine finale, we detail the off-road biking culture in Lakeland's Brainerd viewing area. The cycling in the Brainerd Lakes, Cayuna Lakes area has really evolved over the years and what we have today between all of the recreational trails that exist and our roads. There's so many opportunities and I think that going forward we're going to see a continued improvement. We're going to see the cities and counties look more and more at cycling as a way of transportation and as a source of recreation. The Cayuna Country State Recreation Area's trail system is going to continue to grow. There's trails growing up around it. The Cayuna Lake State Trail has yet to connect to Brainerd, which is its long-term goal and to Aiken so there's room for development along that. So I think going forward we're going to see a continued growth in cycling in the area and I think we're also going to see a continued economic growth that surrounds that whole biking activity. My name is Bruce, Father Clunker Swanson. I'm known for riding an old 1949 Montgomery Wards bike out in the woods that I've turned into a mountain bike. This place where we're standing at is the Cayuna Pump Track. Several years ago the city fathers at Cayuna had some empty land here and they decided, well what can we do to kind of you know build traffic and be fun for people to play on. And it started out one of the council members, his name was Dan Cruiser, thought well maybe if we just pile some dirt up the kids will ride their bikes on it and play on it. Well the city of Cayuna built a pump track and that's really a cool story. First of all a pump track is a bicycle track that has several rollers and corners and berms to go around but the idea on a pump track is once you start riding to pump your bicycle instead of pedal it and be able to ride around the whole track without pedaling hence the name Pump Track. The origin of pump tracks kind of goes back to the whole BMX scene in the early 70s and people noticed as the bikes were going up and down rollers you didn't need to pedal. You could use physics and body motion to get your bike going. What you do on a pump track is you use body English to kind of kick the bike away from you then you get to a roller or a bump and you pull the bike up so that you don't waste that energy that you put into the bike so you kind of pump the bike. And if you're really good at it and I'm not but if you're really good at it you can actually make the bike go around the pump track without more than one or two pedal strokes. You're pumping your bicycle much like you'd pump a swing. You conserve your momentum and the city of Cayuna wanted to build a facility for kids and now what kind of facility would that be? Well you know I suggested a pump track and a reasonably simple one a few loads of dirt dumped out in the field and we'd shape it and keep the costs down and give a place for kids to ride without a really huge commitment. And there are several other folks that that kind of resonated with them and that project grew bigger and bigger and more refined. And fast forward a couple years and a guy named Lee McCormick got hired to design a pump track. They learned about how to build a pump track how to use it and we're getting to the point now where people are coming from more than just this area. I was talking to a fellow this summer from Cedar Rapids, Iowa that came up here basically just to help me work on the pump track. So the city of Cayuna right now has one of the largest pump tracks in the entire country. The city council basically is the maintenance crew. You look around and you see all the mowing etc here that's the mayor. The city council helped move some of this red dirt tailings around. They maintain the campground part of it. The Cayuna mountain bike crew were responsible for the maintenance of the Cayuna pump track. Assigned the duty as lead dirt man is Bruce Swanson. And Bruce brings to the pump track an amazing amount of analytical skill and enthusiasm both. And so with Bruce leading the charge there are a number of us that assist him every Tuesday night in maintaining what the city of Cayuna has created. In a big piece of the pump track for me and most places in the world it's about building community. It's about guys get together and ride a little bit. They do what's called slapping dirt and building it optimizing it having fun and just hanging out with each other and having a good time. In addition to the pump track the city has also made a campground and they have a picnic shelter and a playground for kids so it's become a complete community center. This pump track takes on a whole nother meaning because the Cayuna lakes mountain bike crew is in the process of adding trail from the Cayuna recreation area to the city of Crosby mountain bike trail that would connect the Cayuna pump track to the Cayuna state recreation area plus additional trail in the city of Cayuna. So with this pump track now we'll be sitting right in the middle of a whole system of mountain bike trails. So it's a really neat opportunity for families who want to come their camp ride the pump track ride mountain bike trail catch the Cayuna lake state trail makes for a pretty complete cycling experience. I am Terry Fabian and I am the trail development manager for the Cayuna lakes mountain bike crew. I became involved just because I was out here riding them every day it felt like as a mom of five it was kind of a bit of a sanctuary if you will and that's kind of the way that I would explain or describe this place it's absolutely beautiful it's so close right in basically your very own backyard lakes and streams and trees and trails and it really just couldn't be better so I became involved because I was out here and I felt a little bit of guilt and was using the trails and decided I needed to do something to give back and then through meeting all of the people from the climb crew it really is a family we call ourselves a red dirt family and we are. I've seen people from 7.5 to 75 it's just about people that love to get together and have a good time. Well out here at the Cayuna state rec area we have nearly 30 miles now of single track mountain bike trails so many little mine lakes and streams and rivers if you're out on the back roads. The term single track refers to a kind of bicycle trail that has room for a single bicycle therefore the name single track there is one track that one bicycle can fit on an old road and old mining road and old logging road those would be called two tracks they were made by two sets of tires and bikes can ride side by side but the single track is a very specific kind of trail design for mountain bikes the international mountain biking association has developed a real well-defined set of standards for how a single track should be built in terms of its slope its angle the corners and the whole idea is to build a trail that's fun safe and sustainable. The trail system in Cayuna is constantly evolving the thing that makes it really unique among other trails is there's been a constant movement toward eliminating all two-way traffic and getting to the point where the entire Cayuna system is one way when I say one way that means all cyclists are going on a trail in the same direction and that's unusual because in most systems you have two-way traffic so what is your uphill is somebody else's downhill in doing the one-way traffic what we've been able to do in Cayuna is first of all put a lot more people on the trail and still create a feeling of being out there on a low traffic experience because everyone's going in the same direction so not only is the experience enhanced but there's a great increase in safety as well. Well Ormageddon is our biggest race event of the year it happens the first weekend in October this year it brought in about 350 riders we had riders from Canada we had riders from Alaska this year it was sponsored by Terravail we had Surly Brewing there. Ormageddon has become a real major player in the mountain bike racing scene within Minnesota the Cayuna single track is well known as being extremely well designed and as a result it's also a very fun course to race on the Ormageddon then brings some of the Minnesota's top cross country biking racers and compete against one another. A race like Ormageddon or the white out in the wintertime or there's a mountain bike series race in the summer is all about the competition cyclists bring their bicycles they compete with each other in the race there's camaraderie during the race and then when the race is over they pack up their stuff maybe go and you know spend a little community time with each other and leave. When you're at Ormageddon what you'll find are a group of cyclists who have come to Cayuna for one purpose cross country bicycle race. Well from start to finish they start Friday night if they come out to the pre-race registration party this year we had it out at Rutgers it was back on the lake it was absolutely stunningly beautiful the leaves were changing they had a young gal out there playing the ukulele with an amazing amount of talent everybody was kind of a little awestruck actually she was super talented girl they serve food Surly Brewing was out there again our partner Freewheel was out there with their mobile unit selling merchandise and bonfires and s'mores were going and it was just an all-around amazing place to just kind of come out and hang out and spend some time before the race the next morning. First morning well this year it was a nice foggy beautiful morning there's a lot of anticipation it always seems like in the air a lot of people kind of milling about eating placing all their packs and their water bottles the 300 and some odd racers all lined up at the starting gate. Five, four, three, two, one. The start of the race immediately went up miners mountain miners mountain is a very long tough climb but something like that right in the beginning of a race really separates the field out and once you hit the single track it's hard to pass because again it's only got enough room for one cyclist at a time so anything that can be done prior to that to sort the field out and get the fastest people up front and the people who aren't quite as fast behind them is very important and there's nothing that will sort a group out quicker than miners mountain. Well they could choose from three different lengths of race so the 50 mile the 25 mile or the 12 mile we call it the hot lap I think we had five total waves this year everybody started out and climbed nearly to the top of miners mountain road where then they jumped on the single track grabbed a piece of bacon if they wanted it and headed on down to basically start the course from the other side then depending on their race they rode either 12 25 or 50 miles the 50 milers did actually two laps of nearly all of the single track here at the county lakes wreck area. Racing on a single track is one step up from riding on a single track by one step up I mean at this point you're going as fast as you can go you're going at your limit and at a limit that you can sustain for the entire length of the race which could be up to 50 miles. When racing on a single track you try to get out as quick as you can at a pace you hope you can maintain and then throughout the race hold that position or improve it if one starts off too slow then you have such difficulty passing people that you're at a disadvantage for the whole event and on the other hand if you get out ahead of people that are faster than you then you spend a fair amount of energy allowing them to get by and so it just works better as a strategy to go out hard but go out at a pace where you feel you can maintain this pace throughout the race. When racing on a single track you'll have one bike right in front of you and they're going as hard as they can go you're going as hard as you can go trying to stay with them or looking for an opportunity to pass they're very well could be someone right behind you trying to stay with you or looking for an opportunity to pass. So you've got the dynamics of the other racers and the dynamics of the course itself so as you're doing this at 100 effort you have to be watching for opportunities to pass opportunities to increase your speed but always trying to stay on the bike. Cayuna was never designed for racers only. Cayuna is designed for a mountain biking experience and ideally mountain bikers that possess a wide variety of abilities so you can gain challenge on the Cayuna trails by just going faster. The Cayuna single track has designed into it a really really neat concept and that is the challenge of the trails is determined by how fast you ride so if you go slow and take your time the trails are quite rideable for everyone. As you go faster all of a sudden the corners become sharper or they feel like they're sharper. The hill becomes a little more challenging because you're trying to go up it faster. There might be two rollers in the trail for the slower rider they ride over both rollers for somewhere with enough speed they go off the front side of the front one and land on the back side of the second one. So the trail is designed that you add challenge by virtue of your speed not by the difficulty of the terrain itself. As you're riding the trails there's a certain sense of speed that you get just by nature of the trees whipping by they're so close to your handlebars and there's so many different things that you need to keep track of yet if you again slow down just a little bit then that disappears. Well the trails can be anything from sharp punchy little climbs rocky and ruddy to nice smooth sandy flowy trails. We have some really nice trails over on the rally side that are windy so people get to experience going through trees and tight cornering and then of course the amazing downhills that everybody is so fond of up on bobsled and sandhog mountain with the big sandy berms. On the Cayuna trail system there's only two races in an entire season. Most of the riding are recreational people who either from the area or drive from other areas but they come there to ride the trails right at their own pace and create their own experience. A lot of the trails use a construction method called a bench cut where the trail is cut into the side of the hill and it traverses along the hill so as you're riding these bench cuts on the uphill side you'll have a slope that comes up to your side but on the off slope side you'll have a drop off and these drop offs can be gentle and they can be rather steep and in Cayuna we have both. In all cases you still have a wide area to ride on maybe up to 30 feet in some cases as wide as four other places it may be down to 24 inches. It's safe but it can give the feeling of not being safe so I kind of look at it as feeling like you might be in danger and you aren't. I guess the experience is to feel like you're 10 years old again that's really for me what the root of it all comes down to. You put forth effort you know you climb the hills and then you go on the downhill and you feel like you're 10 years old and so it keeps you young it keeps you happy. Mountain biking really has no age barriers and so in Cayuna we see all ages and genders. One of the things that's really really a nice thing to see in our area is the Cayuna Lakes High School mountain bike team and coach Sean. How you doing? I'm Sean Anderson head coach for the Cayuna High School mountain bike team this is Mari Cavisto my assistant coach. The high school mountain biking team is new to Minnesota six years ago Aaron Haudel I came to us about five years ago and said hey I've got a great idea we have a really great set of trails and we would like you guys to start a team up here being that you have kids that ride so at first we just went yeah we like to ride bike with kids didn't really think much about it or where it was going to go and took a step to get the team started. It's exploded since then I think we almost doubled our participant count from last year we're up at 49 riders we have anywhere from 15 to 20 ride leaders who are adults that help us. What is a typical day for a student on the mountain bike? Well they go to school and then they show up here they get their bike ready they get inflated they get hip what we call it hydrated inflated protected with their helmets and then they get in groups and we split them up by their ability level and then our ride leaders also break into those groups and take them off into the trails some days it's easier some days it's harder and it's all structured to ensure they have peak performance by the end of the season. Well the team policy that we're getting at is no child doesn't play everybody participates everybody contributes to a team's score everybody contributes to the team spirit and we really really focus on inclusivity with everybody that this is a place where they can go and have fun and be treated fair and respectful and get something out of it it's been really life-changing for a lot of families that have been involved with us. All right everybody else send these rock stars out as they go on their adventure. There's a fair amount of diversity out on the trails men women kids I could say everyone out there is a kid in some way but nonetheless there's a lot of diversity so it's not a guy's sport or the women's sport or just for kids it really is for everyone and we see that so on the trail you'll see everyone from a teenager who's on the high school mountain bike team to somebody who's in their 60s or 70s and everybody's doing the same thing they're riding their mountain bike and having a really good time. I'd like just to see more women out here we've got some ladies out here that are older that are so inspiring and you just meet these women and they're just happy and healthy and it just makes you realize that you probably do have quite a few more years than you actually do. The trails have invited and they've encouraged a lot of people to come to the area that maybe didn't have a route here or maybe renewed their routes here they ride their bikes on the hills they ride their bike on the trails they maybe visit grandma they maybe bring their friends and then they hang around town and they have a hamburger or they have a beer or whatever suits their fancy and maybe the next day they're going to windsurf on one of the lakes or do something else but it gets people off the couch get some out having a good time enjoying mother nature in ways that maybe they didn't expect a few years ago. For myself and my family we have just recently made a move down here because of the trails and their recreation it's so beautiful and there's so many things to do so I think it's bringing new people to the area it's bringing new businesses to the area it's kind of bringing a new fire and a new energy that this area needs. It also gives residents a reason to be connected so I can go into town and we can talk bikes where before we may not have had a reason to say hi how are you doing it also gives us a reason to spend our time together so if we're volunteering or you know collaborating on new projects they're centered a lot around this area and it gives us a place to put our passions. The mountain bike trails were developed in Cayuna and the thing that has become real obvious is this was something that people enjoyed and I say the obvious because the huge number of users that come to Cayuna and so that original trail system that was built in 2010 opened in 2011 has been expanded a few times and there's two more expansions that are in the process of development so the Cayuna state recreation area as a mountain bike destination has come totally into reality. Thank you so much for watching join us again next season on Common Ground. If you have an idea for Common Ground in North Central Minnesota email us at legacy at lptv.org or call 218-333-3014. To watch Common Ground online visit lptv.org and click local shows. Sodes or segments of Common Ground call 218-333-3020. Production funding of Common Ground was made possible in part by First National Bank Bemidji continuing their second century of service to the community a partnership for generations member FDIC. Common Ground is brought to you by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund with money by the vote of the people November 4th, 2008.