Tour de Essex - 7K Trail Run
9 AM - Saturday, October 22, 2016
Essex Park, Rochester, MN
Experience the rolling hills of the Essex Park trails at the Tour de Essex. Support the trail maintenance by RASC volunteers at Essex Park and Quarry Hill when you participate in the Tour de Essex. All entry fees go towards trail maintenance.
Click here for more info.
Attention RNST Skiers: Here are the key Lettering Changes for the RNST for the 2016/2017 season
- · The 1st year of participation on the Rochester Nordic Ski Team is an introductory year. Skiers will be learning the techniques of skate skiing and building skills and endurance. First year skiers will not be eligible to earn a Varsity Letter.
- · The 1st year skiers do NOT need to meet the usual lettering requirements (attendance, meets, etc) during this 1st year.
- · The 2nd year and every year after that, the usual criteria will be used to determine if a skier is eligible to receive a letter
- Full details can be found here
Here is the new Ditch Witch which RASC secured through a grant from the DNR (thanks to a lot of work by Jeff Robertson on this grant application).
A trail crew led by Jeff just completed a new section of the trail at Gamehaven which is just under 1/2 mile using this unit. The July 2nd Trail crew consisted of (left to right) Marian O'Donnell, Jim Kelly, Dakota Kelly,Jackson Raynor, Emma Raynor, and Gary Gross. These are the parents and members of the High School Team along with Coaches Marian and Gary. They rough cleared a new section of the trail that will be used in the next High School mountain bike race to be held at Gamehaven on Oct. 2.
At the request of many bicyclists, the Minnesota Dept. of transportation has developed a series of county level bicycle maps. There are 125 maps with some counties split into more than one sheet. You can click on a county name to see trails, road conditions and more. Print the maps on 8.5x11 or 11x17 paper to take along to help navigate your trip.
Go to www.mndot.gov/bike/maps.html to scope them out.
RNST alumnus Ian Torchia was recently selected to the U.S. Development Nordic Ski team. Only 2 U.S. skiers were selected to this group and it places Ian in a strong position to continue his development as one of the top U.S. Nordic skiers. At (almost) the other end of the age spectrum, Joey Keillor is far from being over the hill as he displayed at the Drake Relays last weekend. In the 800 meter race, Joey finished a comfortable 0.5 second ahead of the 2nd place finisher. you can see a full replay of the race here:
https://www.facebook.com/centurygirlstrack?fref=nf
(scroll down a ways, Past Aly Welch and Kaitlin Miller, until you see a video on a blue track. It should just start playing without needing to hit the play button.)
Thanks to all the work put in by Dave Halloway, we raised $7490 for fat bike grooming in Rochester! And we're the top 45NRTH fund raiser!!! That means we have won an additional $3000 to fund the grooming equipment and trailer. Thank you to everyone!
$3000 check from 45NRTH that goes to our new Fat bike grooming equipment
With outstanding fall weather, our mountain bike trail crew has completed another challenging loop. Most recently we have added a connector section that will allow us to make a long loop with the new trail going around the “south” point. This is a scenic ride along the lake with a challenging climb at the end.
Temporarily, we will use the Scout road (in red) that will take the riders to the “Rolling Thunder” campsite. Proceed through the campsite to the trail connector and have a fast downhill ride to the trail below. Trail markers – black arrows on a yellow background have been placed to guide you. Please refer to the map below.
Many thanks to all who have worked hard on weekdays and Saturday mornings to make this happen. The temporary trail will be replaced with a trail that will run through the woods behind the scout camp sites. This section has been rough cleared and will be ready for grading in the spring.
Gamehaven now has close to 7 miles of trail.
The City of Rochester Parks and Recreation Department is in the beginning stages of creating a parks and recreation master plan to guide future improvements in parks and recreation programming for the next 20 years. Your input is needed to help develop recommendations and priorities. Please follow 
