We only walked a very small part of this trail. Parked at the end of Huber Park "under" the bridge and walked to Memorial Park and back. We wanted just a short walk to check out the area and while it was nice and dry on the trail, it was through a swampy area and when the paved walk ended the footing was really uneven. A lot of bugs already at just the beginning of April.

You can get on this trail either at Huber Park or Vet's Memorial Park, both in Shakopee. The eastern end is now paved & goes across the MN river into West Bloomington where there are mountain bike trails. There is new pavement in front of Valley Fair & Murphy's Landing. The trail then goes along the river over to Chaska which can sometimes be flooded out.

Also, from Huber Park you can get on a new segment of trail & go across a much wider span of MN river and go up Flying Cloud towards Eden Prairie. Also, there is a connection to the LRT with a new river bridge and much new road construction in that area. Shakopee has many good paved trails in town to connect to if you want to stretch out your ride.

Beyond Chaska you can now go to Carver on a short paved trail. Going to Jordan or Belle Plaine is on poorly maintained dirt trails--maybe good for mountain or fat tire bike?

Took advantage of our unseasonably warm November weather to try out this trail. The trail was in excellent shape, smooth and mostly flat. Rode from where trail picks up again on the west side of Waterville to a little past Madison Lake, and back, about 28.5 miles.

The trail was great!!! Not alot of people so very peaceful

The pavement around the lake was in good condition. A section was thru city streets but marked. In the south east is Mable Wood Park, on a huge wooded hill for hiking.

I am not sure what they are doing with everyone's $5 as both trail heads were a very rough ride. The trail is mostly flat and straight which gets quite boring. Our ride was less than 700ft of elevation for a 50+ mile ride if you go down the Hayward trail as well (which was smoother than the CVT).
The trail was very busy to the point of being a nuisance.

Pros would be a view of the river, few road crossing and the trail is sheltered/shaded for 95% of the ride.

I will not do this ride again, there are too many better rides out there.

Rode from Hay Creek Campground along riverbank and horse trail. In good condition and a fun pig tail under Pioneer Road.

I rode this trail as it branched off of the Cannon Valley Trail going into Cannon Falls. The first segment looks like an ancient city trail that is very narrow with rough pavement. After a mile or so it sends you into a little park on dirt, down a hill then back up on gravel. I bypass this by going through the parking lot and then the road where the new segment starts which has smooth pavement and a few hills with an underpass under Hwy 52 and a view of the Cannon River.

This leads to a nice park/campground--Lake Byllesby. It has recently been re-modeled. There are a few old sites along the lake that have shade & grass. The rest of the new sites (over 60 of them) have no shade or grass, just an asphalt pad, some gravel, electricity and a grill or fire pit. It has very nice bathroom facilities. The swimming beach was closed when I was here in late July, although you can swim on the Goodhue side of the park.

As far as the rest of the trail goes there are some huge gaps once you're done with Northfield and Cannon Falls. Some day when it's all connected it will be worth the extra effort.

This is a nice, pleasant trail but is in need of TLC. Lots of ruts & broken cracked pavement. There are several very nice new bridges west of Welch into Cannon Falls which also have new pavement nearby. It's mostly uphill towards Cannon, so if the wind isn't opposing you it will be almost a coast back to Welch.

The trail fee at least keeps up basic maintenance such as mowing, blowing, cutting fallen branches, etc. The trail head at Welch could definatly use some upgrades such as the rest rooms which probably go back 30-40 years. The water is awful but there probably isn't much that can be done about that. The cell coverage is very poor at Welch but improves at both ends.

As far as any amenities along the way, there isn't much--bring your own water & snacks. Much better choices are available if you ride into Red Wing which also has some scenic trails along the Mississippi River.