Volunteers prepare Iron Belle Trail for season

IRONWOOD — An enthusiastic group of workers came out Saturday morning to work on cleanup and preparation of the Iron Belle Trail for the busy summer season.

The project has generated such enthusiasm that a number of participants had done a lot of the work before the scheduled event. The Friends of the Iron Belle Trail were led by Sam and Anne Davey, who coordinated the day’s activities.

A group met at Depot Park in Ironwood and a second group met in Bessemer, and worked their way toward one another, trimming brush, moving rocks out of the grass and picking up garbage. Sam Davey said a lot of brush trimming had already been completed, and volunteers were already starting to mow the grass along the trail.

“The big work has been done,” he said, adding there was a lot of work needed due to the first storm of last winter, which bent down and broke a lot of brush.

The maintenance of the trail is all done by volunteers, said Davey, but the work is well served.

“Hundreds of people use the trail each day,” he said. “The biggest thing that has been done around here. It is used morning and night.”

“It’s used for biking, rollerblading, skateboarding,” said Anne Davey. “It’s a safe place to take your kids.”

“It’s amazing how many new people you see on bikes, older people that bought bikes, because it’s safe,” said Sam Davey.

He said the trails have been a boon for bicycle shops and dealers in the area.

In addition to the spring cleanup, volunteers go around regularly to empty garbage and recycling cans, and keep the trail area healthy and enjoyable as needed.

Last winter, volunteers groomed the trail for cross-country skiing, so the trail gets year-round use.

Besides the Iron Belle Trail crew, another group of volunteers from the Gogebic Range Trail Authority was doing cleanup to the adjacent motorized vehicle trails as well on Saturday.