Over the past 2 months we have been working with the Copper Harbor Trails Club on the “Back 9” trails on the Lodge property for mountain biking activities. We were able to walk the “Back 9” portion of the property on October 10th after the 1 Million Cups event. This group included Ben Ciavola, Nathan Miller, Sam Raymond, Harvey Desnick, and John Mueller. The walk gave the group a base idea of what the cross-country ski trail corridors looked like after not being used much over the past 5-10 years.
Before the snow hit the ground, Nathan and Sam were able to spend more time in October and November on the property confirming that the cross-country ski trails would work well for mountain biking trails, with just minor modifications. Aaron Rogers was also able to confirm the modifications from his trail-building perspective.
In the image attached with this post, you can see the minor modifications that we are looking at doing in the early 2019 season (after the snow melts and the ground is not too muddy) to enable the trails to be classified as “green” / beginner trails.
We then went about developing names for the 3 trails that were identified. We worked with staff at the Lodge and staff at the CHTC group to get generate and short list of names. We posted the short list for each of the trails in a poll (submitted on Facebook) to get feedback from mountain bikers.
https://www.facebook.com/CopperHarborTrailsClub/posts/10156202495298533?__tn__=-UC-R
Here are the names that were decided upon (the poll received 260 responses over a 1 week period).
Back 9 Trails at the Keweenaw Mountain Lodge:
+ Orange loop: Chipmunk Run
+ Pink loop: Moose on the Loose
+ Green loop: Little Loon
Initially we will do basic grooming to have the trails rideable this summer season. Come out and volunteer in May and June to help the CHTC and the KML staff with this.
We look forward to see the activity on the trails this summer.
In the meantime, with snow on the ground, the team is now working on the signage for the trails during the off-season, and look to have these trails available for visitors in the summer of 2019.
Of note: These trails will also be used for cross-country skiing, which was their initial use when the Lodge opened for 2 winter seasons 10 or so years ago.
