If you’re yearning for some good endurance-type cyclocross training in the Twin Cities metro area, then consider the “Bottoms Plus” route.  It’s a grand loop around Minneapolis with plenty of offroad/single-track action, long enough to test your stamina, but short enough to ride in an afternoon.  The highlight of and the inspiration for the route are the trails of the Minnesota River Bottoms.

Map of Bottoms Plus Route

We put our first Bottoms Plus loop together on a sunny Friday afternoon in early January.  I started from my place near downtown Minneapolis and rode southward on East River Parkway toward Fort Snelling, at the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers.  I met a friend at the south end of the Mendota Bridge, and we rode eastward half a mile to the beginning of the Fort Snelling State Park Trail.  It was our first time on the trail.

Travelling west, we plunged…