Nevis, MN / Paul Bunyan & Heartland State Trails (6/23 - 6/30/23)

We came to Minnesota to ride another Hall of Fame Rail Trail. This time it was the 115 mile Paul Bunyan Trail and the cojoined 49 mile Heartland Trail. We stayed at the no-frills Nevis Campground and RV Park. This RV park had very large sites and great hook-ups and was close to the trails, so that is all we needed.

The Paul Bunyan trail is the Hall of Fame trail of these two, but this statue of Paul Bunyan was found off of the Heartland State Trail in Akeley.

The nearby town of Nevis was our homebase, right on the Heartland State Trail. These trails double as snowmobile trails in winter as well.

Both trails were fully paved asphalt and the Heartland seemed to be in better condition and maybe newer. South of the town of Hackensack, the Paul Bunyan trail had many of those horizontal cracks that are common in cold weather climates on asphalt trails.

Since we were in the land of 10,000 lakes, the trails weaved through lakes and woods that provided many great views. Although we didn't ride every mile of these trails due to weather, we did manange to ride 180 miles while we were here.

The Paul Bunyan travels north/south from Bemidji to Brainerd. The Heartland travels east/west from Park Rapids to Walker. The trails join near Walker which has the Portage Brewing Company from which you can take a nice break.

On our way up to Bemidji, we stopped at a park to rest and came upon something I didn't know existed anymore. My memories of this thing seemed that it was bigger in the day.

Paul Bunyan's sweetheart Lucette was found in the town of Hackensack where several restaurants/brewery could also be found to take a break.

At times the trails seemed remote and lake views were common, the trails did have frequent towns with plenty of amenities.

One of our favorite stops was at the Iron Horse Bar and Grill in Nevis. Great patio!