NEWS BLIPS
Minnesota Park Accommodates Bike Campers With Specific Site
Editor's Note: This news item was retrieved and first published through Star Tribune's website.
Carver Park Reserve has installed a campsite specific for bike campers, developed byThree Rivers Park District in Minnesota, catering to those who prefer to roll into Lake Auburn campground in Victoria, MN. Bike campers don’t need to reserve the entire site at all, but rather pay $10 for tent space if they plan to set up camp. Tom McDowell, the recently retired associate superintendent, acted on feedback from bike tourists. Three Rivers introduced its bikes-only campsite last year at the Lake Auburn campground in Carver Park Reserve in Victoria, MN.
According to a Star Tribune article by Doug Shidell, "The idea solved the reservation problem by creating a site that is large enough for a half-dozen tents and a couple of hammocks." On a quiet night, there may be one tent. On busy nights, campers share the site with others, all of them arriving by bike. Darren Dummer, a Three Rivers Parks operations supervisor, summed up the concept: “Bike campers … can look at the weather and say ‘Let’s jump on our bikes and go camping!’? All the amenities of the campground are available to the bike campers: swimming beach, play area, fishing pier, canoe and kayak rentals.” The site also has some bicycle-specific amenities. “We realized that first-rate campgrounds for RVs and car camping aren’t automatically ideal for campers arriving by bike,” says recently retired associate superintendent Tom McDowell. McDowell and others acted on feedback from bike tourists. Dummer adds that the park also delivers a stash of firewood to the bike site for free.
For the full article and some tips on bike camping/touring, visit the Star Tribune.