- [Announcer] On this episode of "River & Trail," we ride along the Root River on the Root River State Trail.

Learn how the trail has impacted the arts, culture and development of Bluff Country in Fillmore County.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music fades) (water rushes) (water rushes) (gentle music) (gentle music continues) - The Root River is a pretty large watershed.

It spans from the west into Mower County all the way through Fillmore County and then into Houston County where it dumps into the Mississippi.

I would say there's over 120 miles of navigable water where people can recreate.

The Root River has multiple branches that feed the main stem.

There's the North Branch, which comes in closer to Stewartville and through Chatfield.

And then we have the Middle Branch near Spring Valley, and then the South Branch, which flows through Forestville State Park, through Preston and Lanesboro.

And then the South Fork of the Root actually comes in further down near Houston into the main stem of the Root River.

And then basically, the watershed flows straight west to east and then ultimately ends up in the Mississippi.

(gentle music) What makes the Root River unique is that it is set in the Driftless Area of Southeast Minnesota.

It's a Karst topography that was never scoured out by the glaciers when they receded.

And so there's no natural lakes in our area.

We have streams and rivers that flow through it and really tall limestone bluffs and springs and seeps throughout the landscape.

(gentle music) - The rest of Minnesota was flattened by glaciers, three glaciated periods that happened.

So it compacted the ground.

It left that debris they call glacial drift in those areas which created the flat prairies and the dirt and those things that developed.

And as those glaciers receded, they stopped about Rochester, and all that water melted and came through this area and dug the valleys and the bluffs and the coolies going into the Mississippi eventually to the Gulf.

So the Driftless Area is unglaciated area in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa.

And they say a little bit in Illinois, but it's just the corner maybe.

So that's why.

And it did not compact the ground, so a lot of the water runs underground in aquifers through limestone.

It filters through that limestone and it stays cold.

It comes out of the ground about 42, 44 degrees even in the hot summertime.

So it keeps it cold, and that's why there was originally trout here because, and it has created many miles, they say 700 miles of quality trout habitat here.

(serene music) (water rushes) (serene music) (serene music continues) Preston originally was a mill town.

They milled wheat and corn with a water mill that was right down the street here.

And they built the railroad, which is now the Root River State Trail.

The Root River exported a lot of grain and stuff like that to the Mississippi, which, it was hauled on barges back in the 1800s.

Now, it's valued as a trout stream.

They have done some huge habitat improvement projects to improve the habitat because a lot of the things that happened damaged the habitat.

High water.

They did a project through town here.

They shored up the banks.

They sloped the banks so that the water spreads out rather than caving in, trees falling in, debris falling in.

And so the fact that they did that improvement project here in town not only improved the fishing in town, but improved the water quality downstream also.

(mellow music) (mellow music continues) (mellow music continues and fades) (birds chirp) - The Root River State Trail sets the standard in the region for bike trails.

Ask anybody that regularly rides and they'll tell you this is the place to go.

We're gonna explore all the areas around the Root River State Trail in this episode of "River & Trail."

(dramatic music) I must confess, I've been bumming around the beautiful shaded corridors and bluff framed vistas that adorn this highly accessible trail most of my life.

From the seasoned rider to the first timer, anyone who has set foot to pedal here knows there's something special about this ride you just can't experience anywhere else.

- I've crisscrossed the US several times.

And what's unique I think about the Root River Trail is much of it is along the river.

And so you've got the kayakers and the tubers and the fly fishermen.

They're down there fishing and having a good time.

Even in the winter, the river is open.

And with our reduced amount of snow we get, we have a longer biking season than we had even in 2008.

- I would say I've ridden trails up here sporadically on and off for probably ten years.

It's shaded on a hot day.

It's got a lot of shade.

It doesn't have many hills.

- [Dan] Another good measure of a trail system is the quality of the communities and attractions that support it along the way.

On this axis, the Root River Trail is an easy ten.

- There are attractions along the trail.

There is a great coffee shop in Houston.

And if you bike from here to Houston, you've biked 30 some miles and so you have earned a little stop there.

Many of my friends who come down to bike bike from either Lanesboro to the pie shop in Whalan, and that round trip is about ten miles, or they bike from here to the Old Barn where the restaurant, they've got a great bar grill.

And that's also about a ten-mile round trip.

We didn't see ourselves as maybe long-term Lanesboro residents.

We saw ourselves as involved in this project, great place for weekends.

And then after we were here a while and my husband got sick, got leukemia in 2017, and the community just rallied around us.

And so after that, like, no, I'm not leaving.

(Linda laughs) - [Dan] While there are many quaint and beautiful communities along the trail, when it comes to developing cycling related tourism in the area, Lanesboro embraced the concept first and hardest right from the start.

These days, summer weekends are bustling with activity, and the community works hard to foster a hospitable and welcoming culture for everyone who visits.

There's even some residents that have moved here because of the trail.

- Well, when our children were young, we did it infrequently and recreationally.

We moved.

We bought in Lanesboro December 2007 and partly because of the trail.

Also the fly fishing and the beauty.

My husband was a photographer.

And so, I've been riding a lot since 2008, 2009.

And then I retired in 2019 and then I've really been biking.

- [Dan] All trails are amazing here, but most riders have a few select routes they often favor.

- We started here in Lanesboro and we rode to Rushford and back, which is 38 total miles.

We stopped for lunch at the Pedal Pushers Cafe here and now plan to ride to Fountain and back for 22 more miles.

- I ride the Root River system several times a week.

And I've ridden here to Houston and back is about a 60-mile ride.

Here to Harmony and back is about a 40-mile ride.

Up to Fountain and back is about a 22-mile ride.

And then I string 'em together to get a 70 mile ride if I'm really going for some distance.

I like the Root River Trail system from Preston to Harmony, probably the best because I think it's the prettiest.

It's also challenging.

- I have ridden from Harmony to Preston and then onto Lanesboro as well.

So I have done that portion.

- Some hills there, right?

- There are some hills there, yes.

Yep.

(relaxed music) (relaxed music continues) (relaxed music continues) (relaxed music continues) (relaxed music continues) - [Dan] But don't be fooled.

Lanesboro isn't the only little town on the trail worth spending some quality time in.

Virtually all of these communities feature attractions and accommodations to enhance the cycling experience.

There are many bed and breakfasts sprinkled about in and around these little communities, and each town has their own points of interest worthy of a stop.

In fact, on weekends sometimes, I prefer to start my ride from one of these other locations that aren't quite as busy.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) - Here you go.

- Thank you.

- Enjoy.

- Have a great day.

- You, too.

(upbeat music) - Because the area is so rooted in agriculture, farm life often intersects with trail life, (upbeat music) even when you least expect it.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) And don't forget wildlife.

(upbeat music) And of course, there's this kind of wildlife, too.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) So just why did the chicken cross the bike path?

(upbeat music) To get to the other ride.

(upbeat music fades) (exciting music) (exciting music continues) - The Root River is very unique for the amount of recreation opportunities that it has, but also maybe some of the restrictions.

So you're not gonna see boats and motors out on the river.

It's more of a medium-sized river where people are gonna be able to go tubing without running into any other people.

Kayaking is really popular as well, whether you're just floating down or fishing while you're kayaking.

Also canoes, you know.

You can get, if kids aren't comfortable in their own kayak, there's families that can, you know, use a canoe to take youngsters down, and again, either just float down or camp.

There are some spots along the river that there's state forest land where there's access for camping.

And the DNR has a really good Root River Trails map on their website and it's a water trails map that shows not only the river miles, but whether there's carry-in access or these particular campsites.

Another more popular thing is become using drift boats.

So that's probably the biggest kind of watercraft you'll see out on the Root.

There's also spots along that you can just shore fish.

So, which is something I do frequently.

I have two little kids, and if I only have like an hour or two where I wanna go fishing, I don't need to like put a boat in, don't need to have plans of transportation.

I can just simply stop at a shore fishing spot and fish for a couple hours.

- The South Branch of the Root River, which runs right by the shop here, is one of the top 100 trout streams in the nation.

We do guide trips.

We have the fly shop here and we fish it a lot.

Also the tributaries that come in are spring creeks that come in.

We do float trips on the Root River.

We walk and wade and we're really connected to the South Branch for trout.

(contemplative music) - There's a really great mix of cold water inputs and there's also some cool water areas where those are mixing into the Root River.

And then there are pockets on the Root where it might get a little bit warmer.

And so it's a really unique setting for the different species that can inhabit it.

So we have cold water trout that live in the trout streams, brown trout and rainbows and brook trout.

And then once you mix into some of that cooler water, you know, we'll have some of the walleyes and the sauger and the smallmouth.

And then we have shovelnose sturgeon also that come up from the Mississippi that inhabit the Root and use it as a spawning area.

And then there's a lot of diversity as far as any of the native rough fish or minnow species.

So it's a really diverse river and I think it's largely due to the setting that it's in and having those spring inputs and having all those trout streams that are feeding it all throughout the watershed.

- They did a DNA study of the brook trout, and one of the fisheries manager here that was a longtime fisheries manager, he had a theory that the original strain of Minnesota brook trout had been extinct.

They did a DNA study and they found that some of the trout, the brook trout here are descendants of the original strain, which have adapted to this environment better.

And so now they're propagating that original strain of Minnesota brook trout to replant in some of these streams that'll support natural reproduction and, you know, keep that, they call it the heritage strain or the Driftless strain of brook trout, which, it's cool.

- The good part about the South Branch is that it's colder.

So if you're interested in targeting more trout while you're floating down the river, you could target the South Branch, which will have more of those trout species in them.

The North Branch is a little bit warmer, which I personally like tubing on the North Branch 'cause it's not as cold.

And you can target more of the smallmouth bass that reside in there.

There will be some trout, as well, because again, there's trout stream inputs all along there.

So those are probably the two most popular branches to fish, as well as the main stem of the Root River.

If you're tubing, a really popular spot to stop is, they call it the confluence.

So where the North Branch and the South Branch meet, which is just downstream of Lanesboro, people like to get out and fish there.

And you can actually stand in the water and have one foot in the North Branch of the Root and one foot in the South Branch of the Root.

And there's a significant difference in temperature that you can feel.

Anytime you're floating down, there's a lot of good gravel bars where people might go look for fossils or just take a shore lunch break.

You might be getting in at a town or a bridge crossing, but then you might not see another bridge or town for miles.

- You also have the South Fork of the Root River, which is a whole different watershed.

And you can see on the map behind me that a lot of that land down there is undeveloped because it's state forest land.

It's rocky, it's cliffs, so they preserve some of it as the Richard J. Dorer State Forest land.

And it's a little more of a natural watershed and very good fishing.

In the state park, there's several tributaries that come in that are very popular.

The Root River itself within the park is generally pretty good fishing.

You have tributaries coming in along the way, Willow Creek, Duschee Creek.

A lot of those are spring fed and they'll stay clear when the Root River gets muddy.

If you got a fly rod and some flies, you can wade with shorts and tennis shoes and you don't need much.

To me, that's one of the great things about fly fishing is that the process is the same as it was 60 years ago when my grandpa taught me.

Now of course, then we were fishing with a bamboo rod and flies that we tied from our dog's hair and stuff like that.

But the process is still the same.

You tie some stuff on the hook and you try and fool a fish without much other technology.

And the best places to fish get no phone reception.

(exciting music) (gentle music) - [Dan] This year, the Root River Trail celebrates its 40th year.

The success of this most picturesque cycling route nestled into the unique rural landscape of Southeastern Minnesota is hard to deny.

The impact this dynamic trail system has had on the local economy is clearly tangible.

But when the trail was still in the conceptual stages, there was some resistance toward it.

Not because landowners were anti-trail necessarily, but because they had different ideas on how this pristine abandoned railway property should be used.

- I've been here so long and have been a part of the community ever since the late '40s.

And then having property where the proposed trail was gonna go through, I was obviously interested in it and followed the progress as they were working toward abandoning the railroad here.

I looked at it as a situation where since they were abandoning it, I was hoping that I could acquire the road bed and because it went right through the middle of my farm.

So I was interested in using the trail for access to some of my crops and the land.

So I was interested in it.

And interested enough so that I joined with a group that were not so much opposed to the trail itself, but they were interested in acquiring the properties, as I was, and bettering their farming situation.

So, yeah, I was interested in what was happening and I took part in that.

- [Dan] But these days, most residents living in the trail communities have embraced the project.

Some have even gone on to open their own businesses to capitalize on the increasing influx of tourism.

- You could do like we did.

My wife developed a bed and breakfast because of it.

And we thought, well, if it's here, we might as well use it.

And that turned out very positive.

We actually had a property in Lanesboro, too, that we used for a bed and breakfast.

So we were involved in it from the very beginning, especially my wife.

She was very influential in getting the whole concept of bed and breakfast and tourism down here.

- [Dan] These days, practically everyone in the region agrees that trails have been a huge success story.

- It's a big part of the economy now.

No question about it.

It's been a huge benefit to the community.

I would have probably been happy if I could have got the road bed and used it as my private road back to my fields, but I didn't.

So I'm okay with that.

Oh, you'll find people that are still upset about it for some reason, personal reason, but overall, no.

- [Dan] There is, however, perhaps one drawback some of the area long timers have expressed for nostalgia's sake.

- I saw, when I was here, the trains were still running.

I came here in '59 and they were still running.

I'd be choring in the barn milking and I could look out the window and watch the train go by.

And it was kind of hard to see that disappear.

- [Dan] But for every lost form of technology, these days, there's always another eagerly waiting to take its place.

The advent of e-bikes have led to an explosion in trail accessibility.

But like all forms of technology, e-bikes, too, have come with their challenges.

- The bikes are going by lickety cut with big tires, electric.

- I think the biggest change is the advent of our e-bikes.

And we just had a communication from the DNR this week that they've realized that they need to post signs about etiquette on the bike trail.

- If you need an e-bike, more power to you.

I'm not to that point yet.

May never get there, but if that's what you need, by all power, you know, enjoy the outdoors.

- [Dan] Whether you're an experienced rider or just need to unplug and immerse yourself in nature, every Minnesotan should consider a trip to the Root River Trail.

And while you're here, you'll get a taste of freedom that only a small Midwestern rural town like Lanesboro, Minnesota can offer.

(church bells ring) (church bells ring) (bright music) - If you wanna hire a guide, we have to blindfold you in some of, no, just kidding.

In some of the spots.

- I am an old lady in training.

- Al did a great job.

He's perfect.

(Dan hums) - Yep.

(bright music) (bright music fades) (bright music) - [Announcer] Funding for this program is provided in part by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

(loon cries)