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Come test your skills on the outdoor climbing wall at YMCA Day Camp Manitou at the Bertram Chain of Lakes Regional Park this summer.

  • Ages: 6 & up
  • Cost: $5 per person
  • Times: Saturdays from June 17-August 19 from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Click here for more information about YMCA Day Camp Manitou.

 

 

 

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YMCA Day Camp Manitou’s premier aquatic center located in the Bertram Chain of Lakes Regional Park is open to the public June -August

  • Saturdays 11:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Fees:

  • $7 per Individual Pass
  • $25 per Family (up to 6 people)
  • $5 per YMCA Member, Seniors 65+, Children under Age 2, and Wright County Residents

Click here for more details about the YMCA’s Aquatic Center.

color me fall
Join us for a free family fun day at Bertram this fall!
Date to be announced soon so stop back!

There will be hay rides, fall games, archery, crafts, a campfire, DJ, food trucks and more!

Sponsored by Wright County Parks, Monticello Community Center, Friends of Bertram, and YMCA Day Camp Manitou.

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12366121_557254011095951_8747187994255498271_oThe full off road triathlon consists of a 1/3 mi open water swim, 6 mi mountain bike course, and a 3 mi trail run. 
Individuals may register for the full course, the bike and run only(duathlon), or for only the trail run. Teams of 2 or 3 may register for the duathlon or triathlon.

THE SWIM begins with a wave start from a gradual wide sandy beach on Lake Bertram, used as a swimming beach for a YMCA camp. The lake is non-motorized and the triangular swim course is staffed with multiple lifeguards along the course. The water is warm midsummer and wetsuits are not required.

THE BIKE course is a mix of beginner and intermediate dirt (no rocks) singletrack and grassy doubletrack with rolling ascents and descents. Any type of mountain bike including fat tire bikes are allowed.

THE RUN consists of a blend of wider doubletrack and narrow winding singletrack. The majority of the course is shaded and will include an aid station. Individuals doing the trail run only will have the option of joining friends or families’ duathlon/triathlon waves in transition in order to run and finish together.

Schedule:

6:30 am   Transition opens

7-8:30am Registration open

8:30 am   Mandatory race briefing

9:00 am   Race start

11-12:30  Concert/meal served

12:30 pm  Awards ceremony

FOR THE 2017 RACE, FOR TRIATHLETES, THERE WERE 10 WAVES WHICH STARTED EVERY 5 MINUTES. YOU WILL RECEIVE YOUR WAVE ASSIGNMENT (BASED UPON YOUR ESTIMATED FINISH TIME YOU SUPPLIED WHEN REGISTERING) AT PACKET PICKUP RACE MORNING. DUATHLETES  STARTED AT 9:15 AND 9:35 AND TRAIL RUNNERS AT 9:55 AND 10:00 (OR LATER IF WISHING TO WAIT AND RUN WITH SOMEONE FROM TRANSITION).

Registration Now Open, Click Here to Register.

Registrations closes at 7pm on July 19 (or when we reach capacity of 300 racers).

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Members Only Open House

MEMBER APPRECIATION DAY-01

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you would like to participate in our Membership Appreciation Open House but are not yet an official Friends of Bertram member. Please join and RSVP by May 10th. click here to print the membership form and mail or drop at at Monticello City Hall. Thank You!

Schools II

I have mentioned before that there were two country schools that serviced the students of the Bertram Lakes Area 125+ years ago. One was the Hanaford Country School which was located on Cahill Avenue, a fifth-mile south of County Road 106. This school was open from around 1870 to 1952. Then students began attending Oakwood School in Monticello. The Hanaford Country School was torn down some time in the 1970’s.

The second school was the Prairie West Country School located along County Road 39 West, approximately two miles from the I-94 underpass. The school met its demise on March 10, 2018. I wrote a letter to the editor of the Monticello Times which reads as follows:

letter to the editor

These schools represent a time gone by, yet they also show that they were important in the development of the area.

 

Pine Plantations at the Park

ymca christmas treesIn an earlier tidbit I talked about the YMCA’s harvesting and sale of Christmas trees but I did not mention how this all came about. As the YMCA began purchasing land from the farmers surrounding the lakes, they also began talking about the creation of a Christmas Tree Farm to help them in their fundraising efforts. Since many of the fields were open areas (crops and pasture) they began massive plantings of seedlings of pine, spruce and fir to be used in the future as Christmas trees. The average time for seedlings to grow into usable Christmas trees is 7-9 years so the YMCA was very far-sighted in their plans. But in order to be the beautiful trees that people would buy for their families, the trees had to be groomed. This is a meticulous process that takes time and energy, mostly man hours because of the sheer number of trees. To accomplish the grooming, the YMCA had to use razor sharp machetes (knives) which were able to slice through the branches of the trees with ease.

Beginning in early June of each year, the YMCA would use the “knives” to top off excess growth from the year before. It had to be in June so the remaining branches could set the buds again for the new growth (usually 2-3 buds). In order to groom the trees, the men doing the work had to learn the proper way to prune the trees. Using the knife they had to make a sweeping motion from top to bottom following the angle of the tree to create the cone effect that was desired. They would work around the tree moving to the right and finish by lopping off 2/3 of the top spike. If the worker was left-handed, they would go left around the tree. The process not only created an aesthetically pleasing tree, but one with thicker branching (remember the 2-3 new buds).

The finished trees were usually harvested in early November each year. The men working had access to a bundling machine so they would put the tree through the machine which would compress the branches and encase them in a mesh for easier transportation. The Christmas tree harvesting went on for many years until the late 1980’s. After that, sales dropped due to the time, cost and commercialization of the Christmas tree business.  The tree farm (or plantation) has since become mostly pine and new growth areas. In future years, the plan is to reforest some of the areas into the original Oak Savanna woodlands of the past. There is much to do to accomplish that transition.

The Source of Otter Creek?

A few months ago, I wrote about the importance of Otter Creek to the park. In that tidbit, it was stated that the creek’s source was in the swamp area southwest of Birch Lake. It was supposed to say the swamp area southeast of Birch Lake. But, by doing some further research and looking further into the archives at the Heritage Center in Buffalo, Minnesota, I have learned that this has not always been the case.

I located two maps; 1) An 1874 Andreas Atlas map; and 2) The Public Land Survey map of 1907. First, the 1874 map that shows three lakes – Bertram, Long and Mud as one. Otter Creek is shown running through all of the lakes as it does today, but it also shows something very different. Otter Creek is shown entering Bertram from the west but it then curves south, across 90th Street into North Cedar Lake and into Cedar Lake as its source.

Secondly, the 1907 Public Land Survey shows a similar pattern with one major exception – it shows Otter Creek coming into Bertram from the west but flowing through the swampy areas that exist today. It also shows the creek meandering from the south under 90th Street and coming from the Cedar Lake area. This map does not show roads but it is still easy to orient oneself.

So, the mystery continues ~ where exactly does Otter Creek begin?
• Has nature itself made changes?
• Have farmers and agriculture altered the land?
• Has technology in mapping improved?
• Are there other reasons?

Whatever the reason for the changes, we will always enjoy what we have.

1874 Map
1907 Map

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