{"id":1832164,"date":"2026-03-18T10:02:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T07:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1832164"},"modified":"2026-03-18T10:02:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T07:02:00","slug":"the-all-new-carlson-park-in-decorah-iowa-offers-the-regions-first-flow-trails","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1832164","title":{"rendered":"The all-new Carlson Park in Decorah, Iowa, offers the region\u2019s first flow trails"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo: Benji Nichols<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no history associated with this land. So it\u2019s a blank slate to try to introduce Decorah to new trail building techniques and hopefully, get something that beginners can use, but advanced riders will also find it a lot of fun too.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s Brian Fuhrmann, Project Manager for Pine Creek Trail Builders. Pine Creek is in the process of building a brand-new eight-mile trail system in the town of Decorah, Iowa, in Carlson Park<\/a>. The 110-acre park was donated by the Carlson family, a multi-generational family from northeast Iowa with deep ties in the region.<\/p>\n

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Photo: Pine Creek Trail Builders<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Increasing Decorah\u2019s trail diversity<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Decorah is home to some of the oldest mountain bike trails in Iowa. The classic trail system \u201cfeatures 20 miles of some of Iowa\u2019s earliest hand-built MTB trails, lovingly cared for by the community for over 40 years,\u201d said Benji Nichols, Secretary for Decorah Human Powered Trails<\/a> (DHPT). \u201cBut the [traditional] trails are real tight and rocky, as you would think of [\u2026] first gen [traditional] singletrack. So a lot of fun, but very challenging. Not a lot of beginner trail, as we would think of at this point in time, and not a lot of good places for especially younger riders to kind of get their feet underneath them and learn skills besides \u2018just go.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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The trail development at Carlson Park is going to change all of that. The park already contains a 2.5-mile, 14-foot-wide core trail encircling the property, and Pine Creek and DHPT are in the process of building 5.5 miles of new beginner and intermediate-friendly singletrack. While advanced riders should have fun on these trails too, beginner riders are definitely the target audience.<\/p>\n

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Photo: Pine Creek Trail Builders<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What will riders find at Carlson Park?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u201cThe original plan that we had gone to IMBA Trail Solutions [for] was to design us a Northwest feature zone, which would be like a hub style network of trails, a couple gravity trails, and a return trail that would also serve as the pedestrian entrance to the park, because that corner of the park is closer to the city and then requires less ride time on pavement to get to the park,\u201d said Fuhrmann.<\/p>\n

The \u201cNorthwest zone\u201d includes beginner and intermediate gravity lines, which are \u201ckind of like gravity pump tracks,\u201d according to Fuhrmann. The park only offers about 115 feet of vertical drop, so \u201cthey\u2019re not super high-speed gravity trails.\u201d But they are designed to help riders maintain momentum so they can hit all the features.<\/p>\n

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The trails include features like rollers, limestone-faced tabletop jumps, wooden rollers from American Ramp Company, and a wooden wallride. There\u2019s also a \u201chammock jump,\u201d which is like a jump on\/jump off whale tail that\u2019s tilted about 30 degrees, so the dip is almost on the ground.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Riders entering the Northwest zone will pass through a one-of-a-kind trailhead shelter: the \u201cRotary Binzebo,\u201d a purpose-built grain bin gazebo built by Sukup Manufacturing and donated by the Decorah Rotary Club. \u201cIt\u2019s a neat feature that lends some of the traditional Iowa landscape and is also visible from Highway 9,\u201d said Nichols.<\/p>\n

Construction on the Northwest zone was largely completed in 2025, with the City still needing to do some native grass seeding. In 2026, Fuhrmann will continue building additional classic singletrack in the rest of the park, with completion anticipated before the end of this year\u2019s build season.<\/p>\n

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Funding and future potential<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The current Carlson Park build-out cost $480,000. Of that amount, $150,000 was raised from citizens locally, and $293,000 was secured via an RTP grant. In addition, a private family \u201chad given a chunk of money that was kind of waiting,\u201d said Nichols. \u201cThey really wanted it to go towards the trail project as well.\u201d Finally, additional funds were raised via local hotel\/motel tourism taxes. Ultimately, DHPT raised more<\/em> money than they needed to complete the project, which is not something we commonly hear.<\/p>\n

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There\u2019s still room in Carlson Park for even more trail development. The IMBA plans had identified a section of the park for black-diamond trails, which could add another 1.5 miles of singletrack. However, DHPT isn\u2019t currently working on that section.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, whether or not more trails are built in the park depends on what the City chooses to do with the property. The trail development is essentially the first amenity built on this land. The City could choose to build ball diamonds, camping, yurts, or any number of other recreational amenities. There\u2019s still plenty of room in Carlson Park \u2014 but with these first trails, DHPT worked to ensure that mountain bikers were very visible, as this will help secure future access.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes in mountain biking, you may have 15 people in the woods there mountain biking, and nobody knows they\u2019re there,\u201d said Fuhrmann. \u201cBut with this Northwest feature trail, the public is able to see that this thing is getting widely used.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Know about a new trail project we should cover?<\/strong> Whether you\u2019re breaking ground on the next must-ride destination or putting the finishing touches on a neighborhood flow trail, we want to hear about it. Drop us a line at [email\u00a0protected]<\/span><\/a> with high-quality photos of your build, plus details like trail mileage, location, difficulty, and what makes it special. We\u2019re always on the hunt for the next great trail story, and there\u2019s a good chance your project could be featured in an upcoming article.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<!–<\/p>\n

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Photo: Benji Nichols \u201cThere\u2019s no history associated with this land. So it\u2019s a blank slate to try to introduce Decorah to new trail building techniques and hopefully, get something that beginners can use, but advanced riders will also find it a lot of fun too.\u201d That\u2019s Brian Fuhrmann, Project Manager for Pine Creek Trail Builders. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,274],"class_list":["post-1832164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-singletracks-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1832164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1832164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1832164\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1832164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1832164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1832164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}