Find the top rated fishing trails in Brainerd, whether you're looking for an easy short fishing trail or a long fishing trail, you'll find what you're looking for. Click on a fishing trail below to find trail descriptions, trail maps, photos, and reviews.
As fans of public radio can tell you, this trail’s namesake is the fictional town of Lake Wobegon, made famous by author and radio personality Garrison Keillor of A Prairie Home Companion. Along the...
Paul Bunyan State Trail, stretching 119 miles from Bemidji to Brainerd, is one of the longest rail-trails in the country. The multiuse, fully paved trail is mainly for nonmotorized use; however,...
The Cuyuna Lakes State Trail winds its way through northern hardwoods and spruce/pine forests along the shores of 6 natural lakes and 15 clear, constructed lakes that were former mine pits. The...
The Cuyuna Lakes State Trail winds its way through northern hardwoods and spruce/pine forests along the shores of 6 natural lakes and 15 clear, constructed lakes that were former mine pits. The...
Paul Bunyan State Trail, stretching 119 miles from Bemidji to Brainerd, is one of the longest rail-trails in the country. The multiuse, fully paved trail is mainly for nonmotorized use; however,...
The Soo Line Trail Southern Route is more popularly known as the Soo Line South ATV Trail. The converted rail-trail runs for 105.6 miles in Minnesota between Royalton and the Minnesota–Wisconsin state...
As fans of public radio can tell you, this trail’s namesake is the fictional town of Lake Wobegon, made famous by author and radio personality Garrison Keillor of A Prairie Home Companion. Along the...
The Soo Line Trail Southern Route is more popularly known as the Soo Line South ATV Trail. The converted rail-trail runs for 105.6 miles in Minnesota between Royalton and the Minnesota–Wisconsin state...
Paul Bunyan State Trail, stretching 119 miles from Bemidji to Brainerd, is one of the longest rail-trails in the country. The multiuse, fully paved trail is mainly for nonmotorized use; however,...
As fans of public radio can tell you, this trail’s namesake is the fictional town of Lake Wobegon, made famous by author and radio personality Garrison Keillor of A Prairie Home Companion. Along the...
The Cuyuna Lakes State Trail winds its way through northern hardwoods and spruce/pine forests along the shores of 6 natural lakes and 15 clear, constructed lakes that were former mine pits. The...
We, my husband and I, rode a 20 mile round trip on this trail on August 31, 2019. The stretch of the trail which we were on, from Brainerd and Merrifield, was safe, clean and well maintained. It is fairly flat, so no real chances for coasting! I call it a Zen Trail because I felt safe enough in my riding to let my mind relax and simply take in the natural surroundings.
It is a good stretch for families, walkers and even slow bikers. There were several benches and one picnic table by a shelter.
We’ve done several sections of this trail. Some parts north of Brainerd are a little bumpy through the small towns. Our favorite section is the 8.5 miles going west towards the Heartland trail, north of Hackensack, south of Walker.
Great ride out of St Joseph’s to Albany, pick up the Soo line and ride to the covered bridge. Round trip ride is right at 50 miles of fairly flat and straight, well maintained asphalt trail. Few road crossings and wide path in scenic farm country. Everything you would expect from a rural trail - but in great condition!
As a connection trail it’s good and parts out of town are nice. But there are a lot of crossings and the highway one was crazy. Pretty high speed traffic, could use an overpass or some safer way to cross.
This trail is ideal! It runs through mostly wooded areas to keep you shaded but does also have several spots through grasslands! Perfectly flat and wonderful!!
We ride the Lake Wobegone trail at least annually. This year we've been riding twice! We usually start in St. Joseph at the the trailhead, and bike to Albany, and then turn and ride to Holdingford. The trail and towns along the way have nice resting areas with bathrooms and drinking fountains to refill your water bottle. This route is very peaceful-small towns, lakes, and countryside. The Lake Wobegone trail also continues from Holdingford to Bowlus. At one point, the trail switches to the Soo Line trail. This route goes on to just north of Royalton. We've started at the Royalton (Soo Line) access off Highway 10 and ridden the trail in reverse. We've also been on the trail starting at Sauk Center and biked to Osakis where it links to the Central Lakes Trail. More beautiful views of Minnesota. Minnesota is not just the Land of 10,000 lakes, but the home of many great biketrails!!!
My friend and I biked from brainerd to pine river . 64 miles round trip. The trail is flat which is awesome. Also most of the trail from Brainerd is straight for miles. Easy to bike and lots forest. Scenic from nisswa.
I started on the northeast side of Crosby on the paved trail. This was flat and easy to do, mostly shaded with trees & bushes. The west end trailhead was nothing but a paved parking lot--no biff, no water, no shade, no signs. From this point you can supposedly get on "Easy Street" the beginner mountain trail but there were no signs or indications, so I just turned around and headed to the main trailhead.
This is a huge, amazing trail head for the mountain trails--lots of people and activity. But finding a trail suitable for novices like me was impossible. So I gave it a shot on a more difficult mountain trail without the right equipment or skills. I made a short loop but it wasn't much fun. There needs to be a place for novices and kids with easy access to practice on and acquire some basic skills.
This whole layout is really impressive but there needs to be updated maps and signs.
Toured this trail and was shocked at how poorly maintained it was. Heaved pavement everywhere and overall bad surface. I broke 3 spokes and gave up the trail halfway through in favor of riding the roads. Roads in Minnesota are beautifully maintained. The trails should be too. The state does not live up to its bicycle friendly reputation.
We are from Missouri in our 60's and look for rails-trails (preferably paved) where we can stay comfortably along the trail and park our car in a safe location. In Sept 2017 we stayed at a resort in Backus MN before riding and arranged a 4 day ride from Backus to Bemidji and back, which would result in about 30 miles per day. Weather was unusually warm on day 1, but misty for the rest of our tour. Fortunately it rained only at night while we were under a roof. Day 1 we biked to Walker, a town on shore of Leech Lake with a brief stop in Hackensack for breakfast. On the way to Walker, rather than taking the Shingobee shortcut, we took the Paul Bunyan trail through the Chippewa Forest, which is not a rail-trail- it is a paved mountain bike trail with some steep sections for 9 miles before joining up with the Heartland rail-trail into Walker. But that Chippewa stretch was well worth it, beautiful scenery. We stayed at Walker Hotel, nice facility with good breakfast about 3 blocks off the trail. Anyone interested in outdoor sports must go to the Reeds sports store in Walker! (about 6 blocks from hotel but no biking stuff) And there are nice tourist shops and a brewery in Walker. Then on to Bemidji on day 2, with a brief stop at the LaPorte grocery, as there aren't many places to stock up on that stretch. Contrary to previous reviews, we found the trail in Bemidji to be well marked all the way to the new bridge over highways to our hotel, which is close to the lakeshore park where statues of Paul Bunyan and Blue Ox and downtown stores are. Lots of good shopping and restaurants in downtown, check out the cooperative store and the Bemidji Brewery, maybe also the Minnesota Nice Café. Day 3 was back to Walker with a stop for pizza at the PoppleBar in LaPorte. Day 4 we took the Shingobee shortcut out of the southeast corner of Walker, to connect with the Paul Bunyan back to Backus. Note that the Shingobee also has some short but very steep sections. Overall, the trail was well maintained, no bugs, only a few sections of bumpy roots, and we met some nice folks. Will come back to do the southern section of the PB trail someday.
We used panniers to carry our things and did laundry along the way. But if you don’t want to do that you can use the shuttle service Dennis at Embracing Pines provides. He also has a terrific B&B right along the trail you can stay at and get shuttled to a different stop each day.
First Day:
Flew to Minneapolis / St Paul and took the Executive Shuttle to Brainerd / Baxter MN. Shuttle driver was great though and dropped us at LifeCycles where we rented bikes (pre-arranged since their rentals are in Nisswa) – call and talk to Zach the owner. We rode the 2 miles to our hotel and stayed at the Baymont Inn. Dinner was at the Boulder Tap House the first night and they have 36 beers on tap and have avocado fries – so delicious. Staying at the Arrowhead Lodge would have been better since the shuttle drops there. Hunt around for the trail on Google Maps – you have to cross 371 – be careful. Rode 10 or 15 miles on the trail and checked out the small town of Brainerd. Lots of food establishments.
Second day
Rode 47 miles from Baymont Inn in Baxter to Crow Wing State Park and on to Nisswa. Walked around a little bit of the tourist shops and saw a Barbie collection and other nostalgic items. Drank a flight at Axe Brewery and learned that they play 18 holes of golf on the lake here in the winter. Each hole has a restaurant or brewery to taste and there are thousands of people. Ate pizza at Raffertys. Stayed in the Nisswa Hotel right there and the owner is Bob. Right after you leave Nisswa there is a Laundromat literally feet from the trail in Pine River about 5 miles north of Nisswa. There is another one in Backus just after Pine River.
Third Day
Rode 32 miles to Hackensack.
Stayed in Hackensack at the Owl’s Nest hotel. Right in town there is a statue of Paul Bunyan and his girlfriend Lucette. Also a beautiful etched marble bench. Owls Nest motel is small but clean and generally ok. Ate spaghetti at Lucette’s Pizza of course. Dinner was at Udom Thai and then breakfast the next day was supposed to be at Joe's Vittles. Those are the three best restaurants here and there are only like 5. One is called Butts and Buns and the other is Char Broiled. At Char Broiled the food looked really good too and they have lots of beer on tap and allow you to try them with a flight. We also keep seeing signs for a meat raffle. Weird. Also in every town there is a water tower with the town name on it. This is a very small town and not nearly as nicely kept as Nisswa.
Fourth Day
Rode 39 miles to Park Rapids
Left Owls Nest at 8:30 after skipping Joe's Vittles due to a steady drizzle of rain. We rode 38 miles through the Chippewa state forest. The forest section is 9 miles or so and slightly hilly and very beautiful and remote. Made our way to Park Rapids by turning onto the Heartland Trail. We made a point of stopping in Akeley to see the memorial to veterans and an enormous statue of Paul Bunyan. Arrived in Park Rapids at the Red Bridge Inn and host Chris was there to meet us. You can see this B&B from the trail. Chris and Robyn are the hosts. Chris was so wonderful and brought our bikes and us inside. Let us do laundry and helped us with getting settled. This is definitely the place to stay in Park Rapids. We ate a quick lunch at Subway and ate a terrific Mexican dinner at Vallartes. Relaxed the afternoon away with tea in this beautiful B&B.
Fifth Day
Rode 28 miles to Walker MN after an enormous breakfast at the Red Bridge Inn. Stopped in Dorset (lots of restaurants) and Nevis (giant fish statue) and Akeley (home of the largest Paul Bunyan statue and a museum. We saw a small beaver swimming in one of the many lakes. Arrived in Walker and stayed at Chase on the Lake. The resort is beautiful with flowers and the town is kept up. We found three tall cryptmaria like bushes against a bank where there were a hundred or so finches chatting. Very cool. We went to Portage brewery and had a sampler flight and a stout pint. They use wild yeast and this is the best beer ever. Then we went to the Superone grocery store and got dinner. There are a lot of restaurants in town – but we were tired out.
Sixth Day
Rode 32 miles
Next day we rode the Shingobee connection trail and then came back to town. We got a Subway sandwich and rode an hour or so towards Cass Lake. Turned around at mile 38 or so (11 miles from the lake) and came back. Took great photos of purple martins. Ate dinner at Zona Rosa. It was definitely only one or two stars. Got more breakfast and snacks at SuperOne. Walked around town and looked in the little shops – but this town closes up early.
Seventh Day
Rode 32 miles to Bemidji
After leaving Walkter we stopped in LaPorte and bought water and ate snacks and the grocery there makes lunch and is very good. Rode to Bemidji and rode through the college town and along the lake. Stayed at the Country Inn and Suites literally 20 feet from the trail. Had beer in the hotel bar called JJ’s (great) and rode bikes to Dave’s pizza for a veggie pizza and spaghetti and it was super. There is a brewery and Tara Bemidji restaurant we really wanted to try but they were closed that day. There is also a very cute B&B in town called Lake Bemidji B&B but we didn’t stay there. Rode back and after sunset the bugs were horrible so we used the guest laundry. Tomorrow we go back to Brainerd on the shuttle with Dennis from the Embracing Pines B&B.
Eighth Day
Rode the 26 miles again to Crow Wing State Park from Baxter / Brainerd.
Ninth Day
Used the Executive Shuttle service to return to Minneapolis Saint Paul airport.
TrailLink is a free service provided by Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (a non-profit) and we need your support!
Map Search
