Tag Archives: Michael Lehmkuhl

The flood-destroyed Milltowns Trail bridge continues to give back: Caron Park is the latest beneficiary

The Milltowns Trail bridge along Armstrong Road in Bridgewater Township was destroyed in the July 2013 flood. (See photos of the flood on the Locally Grown Northfield blog.) The wood was salvaged and ultimately donated to CROCT by the Minnesota DNR, thanks to Peter Hark.  Back in May, a crew of CROCT volunteer trail workers fashioned timbers and planks from the bridge into two bridges along our Sechler Park trail.

Last week, CROCT members Todd Amunrud, Kevin Herman, Marty Larson, Michael Lehmkuhl, and Galen Murray fashioned some of those timbers and planks into a bridge along a new segment of our mtb trail in Caron Park.

CROCT bridge construction at Caron Park

CROCT bridge construction at Caron Park

CROCT bridge construction at Caron Park

CROCT bridge construction at Caron Park

CROCT bridge construction at Caron Park

 

Skills park changes in Sechler: teeter totter, dirt pile, and skinnies

We now have a small teeter totter in the Sechler skills park area, approved by the City of Northfield. Props to Jim Wellbrock and fellow volunteers for making it happen:

Galen Murray riding the mtb teeter totter in Sechler Park Jim Wellbrock with mtb teeter totter

We put it to use during Monday night’s youth group ride with great success:

Michael Lehmkuhl watching over the Sechler MTB skills park teeter totter

The nearby dirt pile (used for the baseball fields) now has 5 ‘lines’ on it, providing 5 levels of difficulty for riding over it:

Sechler MTB skills park dirt pile

After watching the problems that some of our Monday night series youth have had on the beam skinny, we’ve started work on reconfiguring it. We don’t have it all worked out but in the interim, there’s now just a single line of 3 beams. We’ve piled the rest of them on the river side of the trail.

Sechler MTB skills park skinny 

The fatties (and CROCT) turn out for River Bend Nature Center’s Fat Bike Event

Five above zero and windy? No problem.  River Bend Nature Center held their first Fat Bike Event on Saturday and it was a hit, even for those like me who spent most of the time in the cozy confines of the RBNC Interpretive Center.

It was a first for CROCT, too: our volunteers staffed a table, complete with our new CROCT banner and CROCT brochure (PDF):

RBNC Education Coordinator Kaytlan Moeller, CROCT Board member Carl Arnold CROCT Board member Scott Koehler, Faribault Flyers member Mark Thacher CROCT brochures

Props to CROCT board members Galen Murray and Jeremy Bokman, as well as member Michael Lehmkuhl for getting the banner and brochure created in time. And special thanks to RBNC Education Coordinator Kaytlan Moeller (pictured above/left with CROCT board member Carl Arnold) for hosting us. She posted a thank-you note on the RBNC Facebook page, along with 18 photos.

CROCT member and blogger Christopher Tassava wowed the crowd with a presentation on his recent fat bike adventures:

Christopher Tassava Christopher Tassava Christopher Tassava

And two local bike shops, FIT to be TRI’d and Milltown Cycles, were co-sponsors of the event, providing demo bikes, on-site maintenance, and group ride leadership. Travis Seeger, Tom Bisel, and their minions rocked!

Travis Seeger and Todd Trembley, Milltown Cycles River Bend Nature Center's Fat Bike Event Tom Bisel, FIT To Be TRI'd

Milltown Cycles FIT To Be TRI'dHere’s my album of 30+ photos of the event:  Continue reading The fatties (and CROCT) turn out for River Bend Nature Center’s Fat Bike Event

CROCT organizes a group ride at the Minnesota River Bottoms trail in Bloomington

I polled our ridership last month, asking them to indicate which weekend days in Feb. would work for them to participate in a group ride along MORC’s Minnesota River Bottoms trail in Bloomington. Yesterday, ten of us showed up at 1pm at the Lyndale Ave/I35W trailhead. This group photo in the parking lot was taken by Pat Sorenson,  president of Penn Cycle who happened to be heading out on a ride with some buddies at the same time:

L to R: Griff Wigley, Curtis Ness, Michael Lehmkuhl, Joe Thorman, JC Ingebrand, Dave Wolf, Bill Nelson, Gary Duden, John Rinn, Scott Parker

L to R: Griff Wigley, Curtis Ness, Michael Lehmkuhl, Joe Thorman, JC Ingebrand, Dave Wolf, Bill Nelson, Gary Duden, John Rinn, Scott Parker.

We opted to ride 8 miles west to the Bloomington Ferry Bridge (Hwy 169) trail head since several of the group had never ridden that route.

Bike repair by Curtis Ness; photo by Michael LehmkuhlWe took our time, stopping several times for socializing and a little exploring on the railroad swing bridge.

There was one mechanical, a broken chain. But one group member had a chain tool and Curtis Ness, CROCT board secretary and manager of Milltown Cycles in Faribault, did the trail-side repairs. Whew!

There wasn’t much snow, and with temps in the low-to-mid 30s, the trail was a bit sloppy in places. The camaraderie, however, was first-rate.

We do it again on Saturday, Feb. 28. Deets here.

Photo album: first CROCT trail work day at Sechler Park

We had lively and hard-working crew show up at Sechler Park river bottoms for our first ever CROCT trail work last Saturday.  We clipped branches and cleared brush and leaves on a demonstration trail that we plan to show members of the Northfield Parks Board (PRAB) in the next month or so.

CROCT trail work day, Sechler Park, April 19. L to R: Jeremy Bokman, Galen Murray, Marty Larson, Lisa Neitge, Michael Lehmkuhl, Ryan Hutchinson, Kevin Herman, Josh Seifert

Back row, L to R: Jeremy Bokman, Galen Murray, Marty Larson, Lisa Neitge, Michael Lehmkuhl, Ryan Hutchinson, Kevin Herman, Josh Seifert. Front row: Marty and Lisa’s girls.  Not shown: Michael’s wife and two kids who later showed up to help, too.

Album: