Small leg, big step for East Gull Lake Trail

The vehicles motoring along this short stretch of Cass County Road 77 will still be very real.

The hazard, however, will be greatly buffered.

Long-anticipated work to complete the loop on the East Gull Lake Trail started early last week and, weather permitting, the grading portion of the project should be completed early this week, with paving due come spring.

The project involves a small strip of the trail - about 1,500 feet, according to Neal Gaalswyk, East Gull Lake City Council member and the deputy mayor of East Gull Lake - and runs along County Road 77 from the driving range at Madden's Resort to across from the entrance to Cragun's Resort. There it will connect with an existing portion of the trail to complete a loop of about two miles, Gaalswyk said.

Currently, the trail winds from Kavanaugh's Resort off County Road 77 to the Gull Lake Dam Recreation Area on County Road 70. In between, a portion of the trail runs to a stop sign/dead end at 77, across from Cragun's Resort. Once completed, the paved extension will run west along 77, in the ditch on the opposite side of Cragun's, to the completed portion of the trail at the Madden's driving range and the East Gull Lake airport.

In the past, if trail users wanted to make the loop, they were forced to use the shoulder of the road along 77 for about a quarter of a mile.

"Before this, if you were coming from the east, unless you wanted to take a mile-and-a-half detour, most people would have to get back up on the road," Gaalswyk said. "The goal is for them to not get up on the road to do any part of it."

Late fall work isn't unusual on the trail. About this time in 2007, work began on Phase II of the trail. That next spring, the trail was paved off 77 along Dade Lake to County Road 70, then north past The Legacy golf courses to the Gull Lake Dam Recreation Area. Phase II also included a short leg from County Road 77 south on County Road 18, near the entrance to The Classic golf course.

"The fall has kind of worked for us," Gaalswyk said. "Letting it set over the winter has showed some problems we've been able to prepare for before we've had the hard surface down.

"Why we're doing it now is the funding - we have enough money to put it down now. With the other extensions we're still working on getting grants. ... We need to come up with another $30,000 to $40,000 in additional grant funds to get the rest of the trail finished to the west edge of the city limits and south to Sylvan along County Road 18. We hope to do that next spring. But we have to get the money secured.

"We have what we need in the bank to do this part of it. We didn't want to spend money that we didn't have in hand. We're taking a conservative approach here. We're committed to getting it done, but there's a prudent way to do it."

Gaalswyk said there will be signage on both ends of the new leg this fall indicating that it's a minimum-maintenance trail, should trail-users wish to give the unfinished segment a whirl yet this year.

In all, the paved trail will run 7.25 miles, Gaalswyk said.

"It (the completion of the short stretch) really is (a big deal)."

BRIAN S. PETERSON may be reached at brian.peterson@brainerddispatch.com or 855-5864.