Itascatur.org~ Ski, bike and run club in Park Rapids, MN

Itascatur is a ski, bike and run club from the Park Rapids, Minnesota region. We are a social and active group that has an organized bike ride twice weekly in the summer and also has gatherings during the ski season.

Proceeds from our events and input from member volunteers have allowed Itascatur to build and maintain the Soaring Eagle Ski trails and Nordic Center north of Park Rapids Mn. Itascatur also sponsors the Headwaters 100 bike ride, a 45, 75, or 100 mile route that showcases the beautiful fall scenery of North Central Minnesota, as well as the picturesque Wilderness Drive through Itasca State Park.

Itascatur's latest endeavor is the donation of ten spin bikes to the Park Rapids Century School and Community Education. The bikes are meant to promote healthy activities amongst youth and the community at large, as well as provide opportunities for athletes to winter train. Itascatur members are very excited to be able to provide this resource to our community! You can read about the gift at the Park Rapids Enterprise website.

Bike Friendly Park Rapids: April 23, 2013

Park Rapids scores 3 out of 5 as a "Bike Friendly Community"!

Natalie Gille, Northern Minnesota Bicycle Friendly Community Program Manager, had a brief bike tour of Park Rapids set up to better understand our community's biking advantages and challenges. Afterwards we met to evaluate and take part in the BFC (Bike Friendly Community) application which was divided into 5 categories: engineering, encouragement, education, enforcement and evaluation. Happy to report Park Rapids scored high in 3 of the 5 categories! This leaves room for improvement in certain areas, one of them being a maintained bicycling network. The meeting helped to open up communication lines between different organizations, businesses ,clubs and city officials and get the ball rolling with hopes of forming Bicycle Advisory Committee. There will likely be more updates on this over time, if any member is interested in finding out more please go to BikeMN.org. It is good to be a part of building a more safe and bike friendly Minnesota and in turn paving the way to a better quality of life!