Trail Builder Ed Solstad
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. Though his humility won't allow him to take sole credit, Solstad is widely recognized as having conceived, helped site and helped develop the Border Route Trail. Now 37 years after the trail was established, Solstad still leads trail maintenance trips to care for the trail he helped build.
Q: How did you get involved in park and trail building efforts?
My trail building days started out with some members of the Minnesota Rovers Outing Club getting together in my basement and talking about the need for more backpacking and hiking trails in Minnesota. A couple of people there had been up to Eagle Mountain and had done some bushwhacking where they found the remains of an old footpath. We got some old 1948 timber maps that showed the footpath and that began my interest in trails. That trail, which we worked on developing in 1971, was an extension of the Eagle Mountain Trail. We added another six miles to it bringing it to a total of nine miles.
Q: Talk about your involvement in the Border Route Trail and where the inspiration to build the trail came from.
The Border Route Trail became a reality due to the efforts of hundreds of volunteers putting in countless hours – especially during the construction phase. Without them, it would never have been completed. We got our inspiration on how to lay a trail out from the South Lake Trail, which was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) back in the 1930s. We tried to emulate them. None of us had any formal schooling in this sort of thing. We were hikers and backtrackers, so we had used a lot of trails but didn't necessarily pay too much attention to how they flowed. I guess I would have to thank some of the people who laid out the CCC trails for inspiring us to build the Border Route Trail.
Q: Do you have a favorite spot on the Border Route Trail?
I have very eclectic tastes, so I like a lot of different things. I hadn't been on this one ridge out of McFarland Lake for three or four years, but when I was doing a maintenance sweep out of there last fall I realized that I had forgotten how many nice overlooks there were there. It is an area that hadn't been damaged very much from the Big Blowdown of 1999 so all the trees are still there. You have good timber coming up and you have a large open area there that is still semi-meadow where you can get good views that you didn't have before. I like waking through the woods, but it is nice to have a variety and be able to see longer distances occasionally.
Q: Why is volunteerism so essential to trail building and trail maintenance and how would you suggest people get involved with a trail near and dear to them?
In today's natural environment it is imperative for volunteers to do trail maintenance because if there are not enough volunteers to maintain the trails, the government agencies for the most part don't have enough money to do it. If you want to be able to continue to use these trails you have to volunteer to help maintain them. The Border Route Trail would not have been built or maintained without volunteer labor.
Q: Why have you personally invested so much of your time and energy in the Border Route Trail?
I like to give something back. Working on the Border Route Trail has given me a great sense of accomplishment. It was creative, and it satisfied a lot of things of that nature for me. You might say that parts of it are artistic. I've actually spent far more time doing trail maintenance and construction than I ever have hiking or backpacking. I get a lot of enjoyment out of doing maintenance, and I really enjoyed the construction phase because you are doing something very creative.
Border Route Trail Basics
The Border Route Trail is a 65-mile long hiking trail that crosses the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) in the far northeast corner of Minnesota (Arrowhead) and follows the international border between Minnesota and Ontario, Canada. The trail connects with the Superior Hiking Trail on its eastern terminus and with the Kekekabic Trail on its western end at the Gunflint Trail. The trail was planned and built in the early 1970's by the Minnesota Rovers Outing Club with the help of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Forest Service. It was the first long-distance, wilderness backpacking and hiking trail in Minnesota planned and constructed by volunteers. For more information about the trail, please visit www.borderroutetrail.org. For more information on the Minnesota Rovers, please visit www.mnrovers.org.
