Trail Builders

By Linda Picone

Once he got on a bicycle, David Minge was hooked. It's not that he was into racing, or that he had all the fanciest bicycles and equipment. He just loved the feel of getting himself from place to place on his own two wheels. "As long as I can remember, I've enjoyed bicycling," he says.

By Brett Feldman

Millions of people across the globe have drawn inspiration from world-renowned educator and polar explorer Ann Bancroft. The Minnesota native's accomplishments shatter stereotypes of age, gender and size. In fact, at 53 years old and just under 5'4" tall, Bancroft has proven that the most certain path to success is the one that comes from an inner desire to follow the heart.

By Linda Picone

It was birds that first got Dudley Edmondson interested in the outdoors in a big way. As kind of an unusual urban high school senior living north of Columbus, OH, he got interested in birdwatching. As he got older, he started traveling around the United States to see birds in other environments, especially the migratory shore birds in the Chesapeake Bay area.

By Linda Picone

Jim Massee is an upbeat kind of guy, but even he was surprised at what the Minnesota Legislature did for the Minnesota River State Trail this year: "It's just crazy; we were blown away," he says. "When they were trying to whittle things down, we were at $690,000 and we thought, ‘OK, that's good, but it's not really going to do what we need.' When we got $1.5 million, we thought, ‘Now we've really got to start working.'"

Inheriting a love of the outdoors

By Linda Picone

There was no way Kathleen Connelly was not going to love the outdoors. Her father, who grew up in St. Paul, started going to the North Shore—“to one of those areas we’re now trying to preserve”—as a child, with a father who valued the outdoor experience.

Visit every park

Behind every successful park or trail effort you will find a Trail Builder, an individual that shepherded the dream into reality, giving time, money or both in pursuit of the goal. The following is a Question & Answer feature with a dynamic pair of Trail Builders – Elaine Elnes and Charlie Silverson.

Mr. Border Route Trail

Behind every successful park or trail effort you will find a Trail Builder, an individual that shepherded the dream into reality, giving time, money or both in pursuit of the goal. The following is a Question & Answer feature on one such Trail Builder - Ed Solstad.

Energy and determination

Behind every successful park or trail effort you will find a Trail Builder, an individual who shepherded that dream into reality, giving time, money or both. The following Question & Answer features one such Trail Builder – Peggy Lynch. Lynch is the executive director for the Friends of the Parks & Trails of St. Paul and Ramsey County. She has been instrumental in helping to create the Lilydale and Samuel H. Morgan trails and she helped lead a successful effort to protect Crosby Farm/ Hidden Falls Regional Park from a housing development in the early 1980s.

Giving back to the community one trail at a time

Behind every successful park or trail effort you will find a Trail Builder, an individual that shepherded the dream into reality, giving time, money or both in pursuit of the goal. The following is a Question & Answer feature on one such Trail Builder -- Steve Flagg. Flagg is the founder and co-owner of Quality Bicycle Products (QBP). He also serves on the boards of the International Mountain Biking Association (IMBA) and the Bikes Belong Coalition. Steve recently sat down with Minnesota Trails magazine to answer a few questions.

Making a difference

Behind every successful park or trail effort you will find a Trail Builder, an individual that shepherded the dream into reality, giving time, money or both in pursuit of the goal. The following is a Q & A feature on one such Trail Builder -- Mike Prichard.