May 9, 2013: North East Gateway Trail Hike (North St. Paul/Oakdale)

Join the group for a hike along the northeastern portion of the Gateway Trail, a State developed "rails to trails" trail, in North St. Paul and Oakdale. The Gateway Trail is the Metro area portion of the Munger Trail. The trail was originally a Soo Line RailRoad rail line. The rail line was abandoned over 20 years ago and, after much controversey and some lawsuits, was converted into a biking/hiking/horse-riding trail by the State Department of Natural Resources. Willard Munger (1911-1999) was a long time State legislator from Duluth, the last Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party member elected to a State office, and an ardent environmentalist. His political accomplishment include a authoring a ban on the pesticide DDT in Minnesota before a national ban was enacted, creating sewage sanitary districts, rivers and wildland protection, recreational trails, and authoring legislation that created the state's Environmental and Natural Resources Trust Fund. The Soo Line RailRoad was initially established to provide Midwest grain farmers with an alternative rail transportation route. Because the east terminus of the line was Sault Ste. Marie, the railroad took the "Soo" name. The Soo Line incorporated the Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic RailRoad early in the 20th Century, assumed much of the former Milwaukee Road trackage and rolling stock in 1985, and suffered the subsequent spin off of the core of the original railroad to Wisconsin Central Ltd. The Soo Line was owned by the Canadian Pacific RailRoad and the Soo Line rolling stock is being redesignated and repainted as CP equipment.

If driving: Take Hwy. 36 to Hadley Avenue in Oakdale. Turn south and go 1/4 block to 55th Street North. Turn east (left), and go ½ mile to the parking lot on the south (right) near the I-694 overpass. The parking lot for the trail is located near the intersection of Hwy. 36 and I-694.

Map to hike start point: Hadley Ave N At Highway 36 Blvd N
Oakdale, MN 55128

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This webpage was last updated on May 1, 2013.