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COPPER HARBOR - Saturday, cross-country ski and snowshoe racers made the trek from the Keweenaw Mountain Lodge 11 miles across the Keweenaw just to get up and do it all over again Sunday.

The first Backcountry Snow Race was held Saturday and Sunday. Hosted by the Copper Harbor Trails Club, the race is open to cross-country ski and snowshoe participants and follows paths around Keweenaw's wilderness.

Nelson Sommerfeldt, co-director of the race, said Saturday about 15 participants started at Keweenaw Mountain Lodge and finished at Fort Wilkins State Park.

"It was an 11-mile course and people were allowed to use skis or snowshoes or a combination of both," Sommerfeldt said.

With the temperatures in the 40s Saturday, most participants used skis and Sunday, more people strapped on snowshoes for the race.

"We had great conditions," he said. "You couldn't ask for better weather."

Sommerfeldt said he was shocked by how quickly people ran Saturday's race. In fact, during the race, a participant broke his cross-country ski pole and made a makeshift one with sticks. Racers participated in a river crossing on a log and had to scramble up a rockface at one point.

"Everyone had a good time," he said. "Times were very, very fast. Faster than we expected."

Saturday night, racers participated in a bonfire and a heater was set up in a large white tent where the racers ate dinner and talked about the day's race. After breakfast in the tent Sunday morning, the racers got up prepared for the second race - a trek across Lake Fanny Hooe into the forest and back to the Mountain Lodge where they attended an awards banquet.

"The path goes up the hill all the way to the Mountain Lodge and then comes around the lodge back down into Copper Harbor and covers about 7 miles," he said.

The Backcountry Snow Race has been an idea in the making for quite some time and has finally become a reality for Sommerfeldt.

"In the future, we'd like to do the same concept except our base camp would be out to the tip of the peninsula and racers would go out into the wild and then come back in," he said.

Ben Mitchell of Ripley and Fred Knoch from Hancock were strapping on snowshoes and cross-country skis Saturday morning accompanied by some stretching exercises.

"It's exciting and lot of fun," Mitchell said. "It was definitely tiring."

"It went pretty quickly though," Knoch added. "It took around two or three hours. It was a little treacherous at some points. Got the heart pumping."

Stacey Kukkonen can be reached at skukkonen@mininggazette.com.