Stillwater Paved Trails / Gateway, Brown’s Creek, and beyond

You can go for miles upon miles in the St. Croix Valley—across the river to Wisconsin and back over the historic Stillwater Lift Bridge.

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STILLWATER — You can go for miles and miles and miles here along the border of Minnesota and Wisconsin.

The town of Stillwater has long been a bucolic tourist daytrip destination for Twin Cities and outstate weekenders looking for a quaint, old fashioned and walkable Main Street filled with local shops and restaurants.

But Twin Cities road riders have known the best kept secret of the St. Croix Valley is the miles upon miles of paved trails and wide county roads that can turn an avid cyclist’s training ride into a beautiful daylong power ride, complete with a stop for lunch and recuperation while taking in some of Minnesota’s most beautiful landscapes.

The Gateway Trail that connects to Stillwater runs largely uninterrupted nearly all the way to the Saint Paul Capitol — a good 20+ straight miles that pass through not just the Capitol City but through White Bear Lake, Oakdale and beyond to intersect with the Brown’s Creek State Trail that will deliver cyclists right into the downtown corridor of Stillwater.

But wait … there’s more!

The hard-core roadies out there also know if you’re looking to explode your quads, look no further than Stillwater’s Chilkoot Hill, a 700-foot leg-busting climb estimated at about a 17 to 20 percent grade, rising some 700 feet.

In the mid-2000s, the Nature Valley Grand Prix road races would annually culminate the final stage of their week in the Twin Cities with a criterium in Stillwater that would include Chilkoot — where spectators could watch racers crack as they sprinted up what easily could be recognized as perhaps the single toughest climb in the Twin Cities region.

If you’re not quite up to the superhuman challenge, not to worry: It’s not the only climb in Stillwater, and there are plenty of more gentle inclines that will still spike your heartrate and give you some breathtaking views of the valley. If you’re lucky on any given early morning or sunset evening, you may even see scores of hot air balloons that regularly launch over the river and valley as well.

But wait … there’s still more!

From the top of Stillwater proper, you can drop down to Minnesota State Hwy. 95, which features a pedestrian/cyclist walkway entrance to the (relatively) new St. Croix Crossing Bridge, a giant span of a bridge that will take you across the St. Croix River through tiny Houlton, Wisconsin, which then can connect you — all by paved trail! — back to the Stillwater Lift Bridge, now a dedicated pedestrian and cyclist walkway that will deliver you right back to downtown Stillwater and the Brown’s Creek State Trail.

That alone can be a nice 90-minute to two-hour loop out of Stillwater proper and you can make it as scenic to your heart’s content — all while also giving your heart and lungs a good pump as well.