In homage to the late Twin Cities musical genius Prince, one person has recommended naming the proposed 325-mile bike route from Grand Portage to St. Paul the Paisley Park Trail.
While no name has been selected yet from the throngs suggested, the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) has scheduled a second round of open houses to gather input on U.S. Bicycle Route 41.
MnDOT received 2,746 responses from the first round of public meetings.
Three open houses will be held to gather further information. The first will be August 8 in White Bear Lake at the Fire Building, 4700 Miller Ave., from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m.
On Thursday, August 11 a second meeting will be held at the Duluth Library Green Room, 520 West Superior St. from 44:30 to 5:30 p.m.
The last meeting will take place Tuesday, August 16 at the Pine Technical & Community College Auditorium, 900 4th St. SE, Pine City, from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m.
Persons who attend these meetings will have a chance to hear progress about the route and have an opportunity to vote on name finalists as well as identify their preferred bicycle route connections between Minnesota and Wisconsin.
For those who can’t attend one of the open houses they will have an opportunity to view the route online and participate in a short route-name and route-connections survey online at www.mndot.gov/bicycle/usbr41.
Following the August meetings MnDOT will create maps of the final route and tally the votes to determine the final route name and begin working with the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials on an application for U.S. Bicycle Route designation.
As far as names go, North Star so far has received the most votes with 78 cast. Superior Bike (42), North Shore (36) and MN Bike 41 (35) are other top vote getters. Not to be left out, Minnesota’s other musical superstar Bob Dylan also received one vote with Bob Zimmerman (Dylan’s real last name) Terranean Homesick Blues Trail, which if it wins, might be the best name of a bike trail ever.
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