Volunteers repair bike trails following historic flooding

MANKATO, Minn. (KEYC) -Behind the dog park and pavilion area of Kiwanis Park in Mankato sits the Kiwanis Recreational Bike Trails, a complex of trails and obstacles that the Mankato Area Mountain Bikers call home.

A volunteer effort has gradually built up the area since flooding hit it almost two years ago, but this year’s historic flooding put the entire area under ten feet of water, setting the repair efforts back to square one.

“The current pushed trees over so we’ve got to keep those out of the way, and then it just caused erosion issues which just trenched out some spots,” said volunteer Jason Thate. “The other problem is you’ve got mucky layer on top and that’s just that river muck, it’s got a lot of clay in it and it just doesn’t dry, it takes forever to dry.”

The trails have been closed since the flooding hit this summer, and the club wants riders to stay away until they give the go-ahead.

Crews are starting at the front and slowly working their way through the nearly seven miles of trails, a process that volunteers said will take them the entirety of the fall and beyond.

While the trails sit on parkland owned by the city of Mankato, maintenance is done entirely by volunteers with the bike club.

Monday saw the first of many work days since the trails closed due to flooding, and a group of around fifteen volunteers started chipping away at the long project.

Those volunteers said that they take pride in their work maintaining the trails, and the fact that if they don’t do the work, no one will.

“Everything is volunteer driven out here. Basically if we want a place to ride we’ve got to do it ourselves, that’s why we’re here today. We’ve got to rebuild the trails ourselves, nobody’s going to do it for us,” Thate said.

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