(relaxed guitar music) - [Announcer] On this episode of "River & Trail," we cruise the Zumbro River and ride the Douglas State Trail in Rochester.

See how the Zumbro has brought change to the arts and culture of Olmsted County.

(dramatic music) (dramatic music ends) (water sloshes) (relaxed music) - [Host] Many of Minnesota's rivers have interesting histories.

The Zumbro River in the southeast part of the state is no exception.

We will get to know this river a little better on this episode of "River & Trail."

(relaxed music) Several branches run together to form the main stem of the Zumbro River before it flows into the mighty Mississippi.

You may be wondering where the name Zumbro came from.

We spoke with Nick Schlesser, the Lake City Area DNR Fisheries Supervisor to find out more.

- The name Zumbro came about because the early French explorers called it the "River of Difficulties" due to the large amount of logs that they found, particularly down near the Mississippi River where there was a lot of floodplain forest that collected all of the logs coming out of Pine Island.

It wasn't a very good river for moving furs up and down.

Interestingly, that "River of Difficulties" is also where we get Floodwood and the Embarras River on the north shore, which also had that same French name initially.

But Zumbro is an Anglicization, a conversion to English of the pronunciation for that word.

The area where we're at right now is the site of one of the grist mills that was early on.

We're in this town of Oronoco, which was named after the Orinoco River in South America because of the immense power that the person who named it thought that the river had for producing energy.

Initially, it wasn't a particularly good transport route because of all of the downed lumber, downed timber that was in the stream.

However, I'm sure it was used for transport and power throughout time.

Eventually it was dammed in a number of locations and we have hydropower powering things like the grist mill that occurred here and as well as hydropower providing electricity out of the Lake Zumbro Dam currently.

(relaxed music) (relaxed music continues) From the initial standpoint, we've ended up damming the river in a number of places.

However, there's a long history of floods on the Zumbro River.

It's a fairly flashy watershed and it necks down to narrow points in between these rock bluffs on its way to the Mississippi.

So we've had dams that failed, like the one that failed here in Oronoco that's been replaced with the Rock Arch Rapids you can see behind me.

I believe that happened in 2010 when we had our last big flood through the Zumbro and it wasn't a complete failure.

It was a failure of some of the structure at the top that made it an unsafe dam.

The dam was notched after that point to relieve the pressure behind it and it took a number of years before the funding and everything could be put together to remove that dam and replace it with the rapids that you see behind me.

(inspirational music) It's also moved quite a bit at the mouth.

It has a very wide distributary system where it dumps into the Mississippi River and the mouth of the river where it dumps in has varied from the north side of Wabasha all the way down to below Weaver almost to Minneiska over time.

It was channelized and levied at some point by the Corps of Engineers to protect from floods and similarly, that kind of flood protection has occurred in Rochester where a large flood in the 1970s triggered, I believe it was a $92 million flood project that resulted in protection, theoretically at least, against a 200-year flood event for the Rochester area.

(relaxed music) It's a little bit similar to the Root in that it flows through the driftless area so you have a lot of those cold water influences and that provides that interesting mix between warm water and cold water species that can be encountered.

Historically, there's also some interesting aspects in the fact that this is one of the locations of one of the few gold rushes that have occurred in Minnesota throughout time.

There were several years in the 1800s when gold was theoretically at least found in the area here and gold miners descended on it before being washed away in some of those floods that I mentioned earlier.

The only other gold rush that I'm aware of is up on the Rainy system up on the Canadian border in Minnesota.

(inspirational music) (inspirational music ends) (bird chirps) - Whether you're a commuter, recreational or serious rider, Rochester has a bike trail system to fit the needs for all types.

Join us today as we explore some of these paved urban treasures and the people who populate them on this week's episode of "River & Trail."

Rochester, Minnesota is a beautiful and vibrant city.

The truth is in the detail.

Detail which may go unnoticed from the vantage point of a moving automobile.

But you're in luck because the well-developed paved city trails can take you right to or very near almost any key destination.

Have you ridden a lot of other urban trail systems that you could compare to Rochester and tell us how Rochester fares when it comes to trail infrastructure?

- I have, as a matter of fact.

For example, I ride a lot of the trails in the Chicago area and I've done in Albert Lea and Faribault and some of the other cities and Rochester's are pretty darn good.

We have lots of miles and lots of 'em are very scenic and so it's fun to ride 'em.

But I also ride all the trails in the area.

Like I did the Douglas Trail this morning.

I did the Chesterwood Trail yesterday and I did the Wapsi Trail just across the border in Iowa last week.

I did the Elroy-Sparta Trail about a week and a half ago.

- [Host] If you enjoy serious group or social bike riding, there are a number of community-led organizations and events anyone can join at their choosing.

- When I was still working, I was riding every Monday and Wednesday night with the Rochester Active Sports Community.

They have group road rides.

The problem is it's at six o'clock at night and when you're retired, you want to ride earlier in the day.

We Bike Rochester leads social group rides and I've actually been a ride leader for We Bike Rochester over the last several years.

- [Host] The trails here can be a safe space for the novice rider as well.

- [Marty] Well, for new riders, I would definitely have 'em try the trail system.

They don't have to worry about cars.

They could go long distances, a distance that a beginner would want to ride without having to deal with traffic and it's safe and scenic.

It's just a great opportunity.

The biggest tip is just go out and do it.

- Have you ever had any accidents, remarkable accidents on bikes?

- Yes, in fact, I was almost killed about four years ago on an Olmsted County one down by Pleasant Grove.

I had to dive into the ditch to avoid a gravel pickup truck going at full speed and after that, I started riding trails a lot more than roads.

But I've also had a few mishaps.

In fact, I had a mishap last spring just half a mile from here.

I hit a patch of ice I didn't see and I went down hard.

- Do you see a lot of trail use these days?

Is activity increasing, decreasing?

- [Marty] I would say it's increasing and the one thing I noticed the most is you'll see more retired couples with e-bikes riding the trails than you would've several years ago.

But there's a ton of people who walk the trails and there's a lot of people who walk their dogs and then there's runners, a lot of runners.

So we actually see lots of use of the trails.

- [Host] And you're retired now, you mentioned, but when you were working, were you a commuter?

- I was a commuter and I would ride from my house off of Pinewood Road all the way up to IBM and then I would also, when I started working at Lourdes High School, I would ride to Lourdes first downtown and then their new building on the northwest side.

- And did you find it accessible and convenient for you?

- The new Lourdes High School is right on the trail that goes up towards the Douglas Trail and it was very convenient.

I only had to ride less than a mile of streets and then I was basically on a trail freeway all the way to the school and only had to cross traffic three times to get there.

- [Host] Do you find that sometimes you get to work faster by taking your bike than your car?

- It was close but it's a whole lot more fun.

You get exercise so you don't have to go and work out.

You get the exercise.

- [Host] A common thread amongst great trail systems I've come to notice over the years is their ability to actually attract residents to live in the area.

- When we came to decide on retiring, we chose to stay in Rochester and the trail system and the biking capabilities here was one of the factors that led us to stay here.

- [Host] One of the most attractive things about Rochester's urban trails is their constant flow.

There are very few points in the city where it's actually necessary to cross the busy streets thanks to the early planners' vision to incorporate a large number of underpasses.

- They agreed, recommended putting in about 20 underpasses to allow bikers to go unimpeded from one end of the project virtually to the other.

You might have to get off your bike a couple of times but you could go from 55th Street Northwest through down to the downtown and from the downtown down to 20th Street Southwest all without getting off your bike except for about two or three times.

- [Host] Ironically, it was a devastating natural disaster decades ago that triggered a citywide infrastructure redesign that ultimately led to the formation of the trail system.

- The flood of 1978 was the biggest disaster ever experienced by Rochester.

Five people died.

5,000 people were evacuated from their homes and it did $60 million worth of damage to the city and as a result, I think the Legislature looked very favorably on anything that would help Rochester.

- [Host] But Rochester didn't quit constructing trails after the initial flood project was complete.

There have been many expansions, including a significant recreational development around Cascade Lake Park.

- Cascade Lake started as a collection of about five or seven small ponds where contractors, the owners of the property were mining gravel for the development industry in town.

The city acquired the property and then the dredging continued for a few more years while the city owned it with no improvements because the key was making the lake and once that was completed, the city's done some significant park improvements in the area and put a trail around the lake as well.

- [Host] One of the coolest things about Cascade Lake Trail is the huge multi-use pedestrian bridge that connects it to Northwest Rochester.

- [Gary] A person who's knowledgeable on it said it's about 36/100ths of a mile, which would be 1900 feet.

It's a very long bridge.

The significance of the bridge is it provides the only connection between our trail system and the Douglas Trail, the state trail that comes into Rochester and that's why the bridge was constructed.

- [Host] The Douglas Trail is a mostly shaded, straight line corridor that stretches from Northwest Rochester to Pine Island, Minnesota.

- I'm interested in looking into the history of the Douglas Trail.

I do know that the Douglas Trail, Goodyear Pioneer Trail, the Cannon Valley Trail, the Mill Towns Trail and the Sakatah Singing Hills Trail are all segments of the same Chicago Great Western rail line that went from Simpson to Mankato and when you see the those mileposts, the concrete obelisks, they say "M," like "M-130" on the Douglas Trail, that's the mileage to Mankato.

- [Host] I'll be darned.

- So that's real interesting to learn.

- It is, yeah, I had no idea.

- And you see those same obelisks on the Cannon Valley Trail and the Sakatah Trail.

- I never took it in but it makes sense, you know?

I mean, rails to trails.

It's not like they had rails that didn't connect.

They all connected.

- Right.

- So the trails would too.

- Right.

- Yeah, makes sense, yeah.

(relaxed guitar music) (relaxed guitar music ends) (water sloshes) (relaxed guitar music) (relaxed guitar music continues) - The Zumbro River is very popular amongst paddlers.

As you can see behind me, there are spots where the river is relatively shallow, so it makes boating with a larger boat difficult but it's perfect for canoes.

The riffles are easy to slip across with a canoe.

Similarly, a lot of folks like to tube down the river and just relax.

It provides a lot of fishing opportunities, both some cold water opportunities because there are a lot of trout streams that feed into it and trout can come down into the river but it's also on the other end of the spectrum one of the few spots in Southern Minnesota where you can fish for muskie.

We have a stocked muskie population below the Lake Zumbro Dam and it's very popular with muskie fishermen in the local area that don't have to travel to get some fishing in.

Primarily from a game fish standpoint, we have smallmouth bass is probably our most notable warm water game fish.

Again, I mentioned that there's some trout that can be caught in this stream by the mouths of the trout streams and in the fall, mostly when the water's cooler.

We also have catfish and one of the more popular things on the Zumbro River in the spring is it's got a big sucker run.

The Zumbro and the Root have a lot of redhorse species that run up in the spring and it can be very popular for anglers, particularly from shore, to go down with kids and catch a bunch of suckers.

(relaxed music) (soft chanting) There are certainly businesses that rely upon the river.

There's a number of campgrounds, tubing facilities and canoe rental facilities that cater to the river.

It also presents an excellent walking trail opportunity in the Rochester area.

There's a lot of walking trails around the river where it goes through the town and so there's I'm sure advantages for a business that's located in a picturesque area like that.

(relaxed guitar music) - I've been going down the river since my early 20s.

The earliest time, I was probably in my teens but every year since I was probably 19, 20, I've been going down the river so many times.

It started with the 4th of July every year and then we just started coming more often and more often.

So I've been doing it for over 20 years.

(relaxed music) I am the owner of Zumbro Valley Canoe Rental.

I've had it for about a year.

They started it in 1968, so it's been here almost 60 years.

They started it just for recreational use.

They've always been very busy with canoes on the river.

That's what it started with.

Now we've expanded, we have canoes, kayaks, tubes.

We are in between Zumbro Falls and Hammond and we're on the main channel after all three of the forks have combined and then come down to one channel and this goes all the way to the Mississippi.

It's a very scenic, beautiful section of the Zumbro River.

It's all valley, there's no real houses that are there to bug you while you're floating down the river.

It compares a lot to like the Root River and other rivers, the Cannon River around the area.

They all offer tubing and canoeing, stuff like that.

It's about the same flow.

It might be a little wider than the Cannon River.

I think it's about the same as the Root River.

It's pretty comparable.

It's very much smaller than the Mississippi.

The Mississippi is a very, very big river, this is not.

So there's spots that are 10 feet, 12 feet deep and there's spots that are a foot deep.

Average is probably about waist-deep.

But there's deep holes and there are shallower spots.

After a hard rain, it does get a little murkier but after a few days, it cleans right back up and it's crystal clear.

You can see to the bottom.

(inspirational music) On the weekends, it's very busy.

There could be hundreds of people on the river.

During the week, it's a little bit more relaxed, quiet.

You might be one of the only people on the river.

Sometimes it's hours between people leaving from here or personal stuff that they have and so during the week, it's a lot more quiet, serene.

The weekend, it might be a little louder, more people having fun partying on the river.

There's lots of sandbars and beaches to stop at.

You see people with flat-bottom boats.

You've been seeing a lot more of the big tube boats.

Some people do have like trolling motors when it's a little bit deeper.

You see some people with mud motors on the back of their flat-bottoms.

You don't see anything big or nothing like that.

(inspirational music) (soft chanting) There's a lot of wildlife you see on the river too.

It could be eagles, cranes, geese, deer.

There's a lot of fish you see swimming.

About halfway down between here and Hammond, there's a spot called Wall Rock.

It has a very nice sandy beach.

It's a nice sandy spot to swim and then on the other side of the river, there's a nice, large wall that goes straight up just of rock.

You see a lot of people there because it's one of the nicest beaches between here and there, between here and Hammond.

I would say from maybe Mac's Power Dam down to Theilman are the best spots.

It's the most scenic, you're in the valley, you're not up going through a field or anything.

(relaxed music) Bring sunscreen, don't be in a hurry and bring something to drink or eat when you're on the river so you're not getting to the end and you're just famished.

Staying hydrated on the river is very important, especially on a tube when you're there for five hours.

I always have enjoyed just going down the river.

I can't say there's one that's one of my favorite more than the others.

I just really enjoy it, it's beautiful, it's relaxing.

Going on a weekday when it's quiet, going on the weekend when you're partying and having fun, it all has good memories.

I've seen all age groups.

Families with their young children, teenagers coming out and just in groups, young adults coming down and having fun.

I've had grandma and grandpas go down with their grandkids.

I've had grandma and grandpas just come down and go down by themselves in their canoes.

So it's all aspects and all ages of life.

(dramatic music) (dramatic music continues) - [Host] My favorite thing about trail riding anywhere is the interesting folks you meet along the way.

Brad Adkins just happened to be riding across the country when we found him rolling down the Douglas Trail on a gorgeous summer day.

- Well, I started in Washington and I'm going to Maine.

I'm following the TransAmerica Northern Tier route.

But I took a detour to go through from Minneapolis, I went down to Faribault to see where my father was raised and now I'm using the Komoot app to get me to Rochester and then Winona and then back on the Adventure Cycling Trail to Maine.

- [Host] So just how does Minnesota's cycling infrastructure stack up to the other states?

- Well, I'm retired.

I crossed the country in 2018.

I did the Southern Tier route and in 2024, I did the TransAmerica route from East to West and now I'm doing the Northern Tier route.

There's no comparison to the trails in Minnesota, the Minneapolis area and surrounding area to anywhere else that I've been.

The state of Minnesota is awesome.

- [Host] A trip like this requires careful and thoughtful packing.

- Well, all the kitchen cooking and food is in this bag.

Over here, I've got toiletries and medicine.

Old people need medicine.

Up here, I've got a wallet and that's stuff I can grab really quick.

Sunglasses, tools, repair tools.

This is my tent here and over here is a sleeping bag and this is warm weather clothes, which I haven't been using the last couple weeks very much and over here is clothes and off-bike shoes and more biking clothes over here on this side.

It's about 40 pounds of gear, the bike weighs 35.

A lot of people can do this.

A lot of people, they can't but I think more people can do this than they realize.

- [Host] And let's not forget about mountain bike trails.

Rochester certainly didn't.

Gamehaven Park located in the scenic hills of Southeast Rochester is a well-developed trail with challenges for all skill levels.

(steady tempo country rock music) (steady tempo country rock music continues) (steady tempo country rock music continues) Or if the smell of pine trees is more your thing, head over to Eastwood Park just off of Highway 14.

(steady tempo country rock music) (steady tempo country rock music continues) (steady tempo country rock music continues) (steady tempo country rock music ends) (relaxed music) (relaxed music continues) - They have an acronym for people like me.

They call me EFI.

- EFI?

- As in "every freaking inch."

I record every freaking inch that I ride.

(host laughs) (relaxed music) - Nailed that.

- Are we brothers by any chance?

'Cause I feel the same way, I like running... (relaxed music) (relaxed electronic music) - [Announcer] Funding for this program is provided in part by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

(birds chirping)