Fundraiser benefits Copper Peak Bike Trail

The Western Michigan Mountain Bike Club hosted a fundraiser at the Maplewood Steakhouse on Sunday to raise money for five miles of new bike trail near Copper Peak.

"If we can continue to build nice bike trails around here, that will bring more people to the area," said Maplewood owner Peter Palm. "It takes people like us to go ahead and make that stuff happen."

Palm donated all of the food and the staff needed to pull the dinner off.

He said there were also volunteers who helped host the games, as well as a silent auction for items donated from local businesses, and a raffle to win a new bike and other prizes.

All of the proceeds from the fundraiser will go to the project's second phase, which involves clearing, bridging and grading five miles of trail leading up to the Copper Peak jump.

Phase one, which began summer 2013, included about 1.7 miles of trail east of the hill. The club also has plans for a downhill trail.

Palm has been an avid biker since 1980. He said there is a lot of good stuff being talked about for Copper Peak and this trail is part of that.

The club is encouraged by the excitement around Copper Harbor's trail system, which is certified by the International Mountain Bike Association. Palm said he visited the trails last year and was amazed by the hotels, camping and shops that were full of people.

Someone from IMBA looked over the Copper Peak trails and consulted the club on where to build.

"So they're actually internationally certified trails," Palm said, adding that a lot of the trails in the area aren't. "A lot of them are on cross country trails, so they're just wide, big and long."

The certified trail would have a number of curves with outlets for water running downhill to prevent washouts, Palm said. The IMBA also requires that trails can't be steeper than a 10 percent incline, and corners be banked much like a stock car racetrack.

Brad Kusz is an employee at Hobby Wheel and member of the WMBC. He's done a lot of work on the project so far, and said the purpose of the IMBA is to build more sustainable bike trails.

"They actually set standards and actually created standards on how to build trails, and it's being adopted by everyone," Kusz said. "Anyone who's doing any type of trail work, whether it's hiking, horseback trails, whatever, everyone is adopting IMBA's standards on how to build trails."

Kusz said he's seen the growing movement behind the standards set by IMBA in three particular areas – Copper Harbor, Duluth, Minn. and the Hawyard-Cable area of Wisconsin.

"With those three places we're almost direct center of all three of them," Kusz said. "People that are biking are willing to travel, and when they're traveling to these places they're willing to stop and ride other places, so we're trying to key in on that."

The club's next fundraiser will be "Tour Da Lake," a 38 mile bike ride around Lake Gogebic, on June 28.