Piedmont
Difficulty: Intermediate to Advanced
Length: 9 miles (but you can make it feel like 20 depending if you ride the trails in both directions)
Story: Planning and construction of the Piedmont trail started in 2007. This project was one of the first COGGS had undertaken in quite a few years where we had a big chunk of land as basically a blank slate to put a trail system in. In the past 3 years COGGS has learned a ton about sustainable trail design and also how to design "flow" into a trail. Piedmont has been a big teaching point for this because many of the mistakes we made at Piedmont are constant reminders of the importance of sustainable trail design. In the past two seasons much of the improvements at Piedmont have been rerouting around wet areas and also just improving the overall flow. While work is yet to be done to elevate the Piedmont trail to fulfill the potential it has, we are getting close and it is great trail with lots of technical options and an increasing number of sections where you can open it up a bit.
The Piedmont Trail has three access points. The best option with the most parking is located at the Piedmont ski trail parking lot. Two other options are along Haines Road at the Superior Hiking Trail and State Trail crossing point and also along Skyline Parkway near the Wheeler Field overlook. This is the most difficult entry point as it leads up the Skyline Climb.
Piedmont has 10 different trails of varying length that compose the system. Each one has a name and also a number that corresponds to the map that is located at three different places. They are:
1 - Entry from the Piedmont Ski Trail Parking Lot. The State Snowmobile Trail brings you to the start of this trail.
Deerslayer (2) - A winding trail descending to meet up with the Stovetop Loop
Scarface (3) - A short, flowing section with several fun technical features. If you take the Scarface Bypass (3a) you can keep them spinning all the way to meet the Upper Burner of Stovetop (5a). If you take 3 all the way you'll encouter a very technical group of rock ledges to descend.
Red Dress (4) - Technical, twisty short section meeting up with the Upper Burner. Several options to huck off some rock ledges.
Stovetop Loop (5a and 5b) - 5a is above the Powerlines and 5b is below. Together they make an intermediate level loop which all other trails spur off from.
Merritt Creek (6) - Technical off shoot of the Upper Burner of Stovetop. A quick loop with very short lollipop that adds distance do doing a complete lap at Piedmont.
Huck Finn (7) - The westernmost trail that brings you out to Haines Rd. A very technical climb or descent with several options to huck off of. This gets very little traffic, as it is quite technical and most people take the snowmobile trail out to Haines. However, with trail construction at Brewer Park in the works, this should see more traffic.
Foxx Rocks (8) - Expert option instead of taking the Lower Burner of Stovetop. 8a option takes several extremely rock and technical sections out to great overlook of the river valley and industrial Duluth. This section is being significantly rerouted at the intersections of 8 and 8a to improve flow and add some fun jumps.
Skyline Climb (9) - This is a burly, rocky ascent/descent to Skyline Parkway. The top of this trail offers several great overlooks and two great places to let the tires leave the ground.
NIMBY (10) - A short lollipop off the eastern part of the Lower Burner of Stovetop. It is seldom used but does lead to the best overlook in the trail system and a great place to take a break and take in the sights of beautiful Duluth. From the top of NIMBY there are also two expert freeride lines back down to the Lower Burner of Stovetop.
The trail is now 9 miles long, with numberous bridges and features. The terrain in this area lends perfectly to technical mountain bike riding. Significant elevation changes and large rocky bluffs provide endless options for the adventurous mountain biker. Building trail for the beginner/intermediate rider has proved a challenge in this area but we feel that accessing the trail from the Piedmont Ski Trail parking lot and riding Scarface (3) (taking the Scarface bypass (3a)), Stovetop (5a and 5b) and Deerslayer (2) loops is a great place for the beginner/intermediate rider to test the waters at Piedmont.
Below is a GPS rendering of this trail, with trail names and difficulty levels. A big thank you to Andrea Grygo for creating this map and to Ryan Nelson for posting them at 3 locations along the trail.
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