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The Chippewa segment covers about 23 paved miles from Hackensack to Walker and is the one stretch of the Paul Bunyan State Trail that is not rail flat. North of Hackensack the route leaves the old grade and follows former logging and forest roads through the Chippewa National Forest for about nine miles of curves and rollers, with short pitches the DNR rates at up to 8 percent. A Forest Service lot off County Road 50 near the Shingobee Creek crossing and an Adirondack shelter break up the hills, and the trail meets the Heartland State Trail just south of Walker. Beyond Hackensack the Pine River segment runs south on the open grade; beyond Walker the Bemidji segment heads northwest.
Paul Bunyan State Trail: Chippewa
Your comfort. Prognosticated.
-Cory
In a typical year the Paul Bunyan State Trail: Chippewa has about 85 to 136 days of excellent weather for popular activities such as hiking, dog walking, e-biking, running, biking, walking, and birding, with May, June, and September the best months.
Hourly comfort scores for the next 15 days of weather, tuned to your activity and your own thresholds.
Plan your visit to this trail. Get the best windows for a comfortable outing.
Enjoy the Paul Bunyan State Trail: Chippewa!
In half of past years, color along the Paul Bunyan State Trail: Chippewa peaks September 30 to October 7, typically around October 3. The trail has 38% deciduous coverage, with the majority being quaking aspen, northern red oak, and bur oak.
The Brainerd and Northern Minnesota Railway laid this line north out of Brainerd in 1893 to reach the pine forests around Leech Lake. Red River oxcarts had already worn the Woods Trail past the village of Crow Wing at the south end, and George Barclay's 1873 trading post on the Pine River marked the way north. The rails reached Bemidji in December 1898. In 1900 the Northern Pacific folded the line into its new Minnesota and International Railway, a through route to International Falls. Logs and lumber were the first cargo, and Pine River still took daily carloads of western lumber in the line's last years. The Northern Pacific became part of Burlington Northern in 1970. In 1983 Burlington Northern decided to vacate the line, and the Pine River Chamber of Commerce asked the state to buy the whole corridor for a trail. The last train ran on August 15, 1985. The Legislature authorized the Paul Bunyan State Trail in 1988, and the first 50 miles from Brainerd to Hackensack opened in October 1992. The trail has since more than doubled in length, reaching Lake Bemidji State Park, and a six-mile extension reached Crow Wing State Park in 2012. The Rails-to-Trails Conservancy inducted it into its Hall of Fame in 2011. This segment is where the trail leaves the railroad. Through the Chippewa National Forest it follows old logging and forest roads rather than the grade, then rejoins the corridor at the Heartland State Trail junction south of Walker.
Heartland State TrailShingobee Connection TrailNorth Country National Scenic Trail
