Minnesota is the “Land of 10,000 Lakes”. With that comes challenges when building ATV trails.

By Dean Schliek

Whether you’re crossing the Vermilion River outside of Crane Lake, or making the connection from Emily to Blind Lake, you’ll come across many different styles of bridges.

Boardwalks, also called puncheon bridges, use a simple design of sleepers, stringers, and decking, built to set on top of wetland vegetation. Puncheons on Minnesota ATV trails range in length from 50 feet to three-quarters of a mile.Ranging from free-standing bridges to treated-timber floating boardwalks, to old train trestle bridges, they add a lot to the experience of riding Minnesota’s ATV trails.

LInking Communities
These bridges are a vital piece to the puzzle in linking many ATV trails to each other and to local communities. Volunteers with ATV clubs spend many hours designing, building and maintaining the bridges on their trails, to help make the riding experience a memorable one for families and ride groups. It takes huge amounts of time, money and work to get these segments built, but it’s all worth it when we get to enjoy the tranquil beauty of what makes Minnesota so great.

Hundreds of miles of rail trails in Minnesota feature trestle bridges, many providing scenic views of creeks and rivers.Bridge Types
Each type of water crossing poses its own unique challenges. Many water crossings are small but still important to help us keep the trails open and passable. Clubs are starting to design new and improved ways of making these crossings possible with boardwalks, also called puncheon bridges. These sections are a much more cost effective way of spanning lowlands and small water crossings found on many of our trails.

Small steel bridges are another great tool clubs use to cross smaller creeks and streams. Many of these bridges are built right in the local communities that the trails connect to and are long lasting and easier to maintain than the wooden bridges. Then there are the big dogs! The large, steel bridges that everyone loves to ride across. You’ll find them scattered throughout our trail systems. Most of them are in very scenic locations and offer a great opportunity to stop and take in the views. Some of these bridges are worth a moment to just marvel in their construction! These are the bridges that take many many months and sometimes years to design, engineer, and construct, often becoming a trail destination all their own. All of these types of bridges play a role in making Minnesota an ATV rider’s paradise. And, all of them came about because of the hard work and dedication of club volunteers! So next time you’re crossing over the Big Falls River on the Blue Ox trail or making your way through the puncheon sections in the Lawler Loops, remember its ATV clubs that make it possible!