Redhead Trail Winter Experience and Expansion Efforts

CHISOLM, Minn. – “It’s awesome to be breathing new life into the Iron Range, offering new opportunities for generations to come,” Minnesota Discovery Center and Redhead Mountain Bike Park Development and Marketing Director, Jordan Metsa says.

Placed in the Iron Range adjacent to the Minnesota Discovery Center, this is the first winter season for the Redhead Mountain Bike Park that consists of 25 miles of trail, 10 of which are groomed.

“Redhead’s a little bit different than other parks in that it is in a descending down into a mining pit and that descend can create some sharp turns which you know, can be difficult on a fat bike. But overall, very excited to be offering a year-round experience,” Metsa says.

Staff say it’s been a successful first winter season so far for fat bikers and snow shoers’, as the weather has remained mostly mild.

“As temps rise and we start seeing this transition in weather, we call that the shoulder season. And we like to remind folks stay off the trails when temps are up, if it’s raining, or rained the night before, give it some time to drain, give it some time to freeze,” Metsa says.

An expansion plan is in place to grow the trail an additional 12 miles as well as add off trail experiences, a skills course, and directional signage.

The Phase 2 expansion is set to be done through campaign efforts of both crowd funding and capital grants.

“We’re pleased to say that our Grant for nearly 1.6 million dollars was approved by the LCCMR committee this year, but it still has to move through the House, the Senate, and eventually the Governor’s desk for a signature,” Metsa says.

Since the campaign launched in 2021, the trail has raised over 60 thousand dollars in public donations. To help add to that number, staff at the trailhead created a short film called ‘Reclaimed’ which gives a history on how the parks are being built.

“2022 was our first year open. To come out of the gates and have funding for Phase 2 a year later in the mountain biking world, that’s almost unheard of,” Metsa says.

‘Reclaimed’ is streaming on YouTube and to find out more about Redhead’s Phase 2 expansion plan, you can check it out at goredhead.com.