Photo courtesy of keweenawinfo.org The Copper Harbor Trails system currently provides over 37 miles of scenic single track through Keweenaw County.

COPPER HARBOR — Copper Harbor Trails Club (CHTC) Executive Director Nathan Miller expressed his thanks to the Keweenaw County Board of Commissioners, and to Chuck Miller, attorney for Keweenaw County, for working with the trail club to open the trails. Miller spoke at the regular monthly board meeting Wednesday evening.

“I know that we went through a lot of challenges this year,” said Nathan, “trying to figure out all the liability and the opening, and we’re glad that we were able to work something out here and give us the opportunity to open a week or two early, before the sale to the Keweenaw Mountain Lodge.”

The bulk of the temporary trail closures revolved around liability concerns from Keweenaw County and Grant Township. Both of these units of government were concerned that they could be sued for injuries that take place on the mountain bike trails, and requested a delayed opening until their concerns could be addressed. The CHTC spent the time educating their local officials on their liability insurance and protections provided by the Michigan Natural Resources and Environmental Protection act, usually known as the Recreational Use Statute.

To avoid any or all possibility of liability exposure, Keweenaw County decided to sell 383 acres of public land to the now-privately-operated Keweenaw Mountain Lodge. As part of the deal, the Copper Harbor Trails Club negotiated a trail easement to protect the trails on this land in perpetuity. Additionally, a deed restriction from 1943 will continue to require the property only be used for public purposes.

The sale is set to close just before Memorial Day weekend, at which point the CHTC expects all trails on the property will be fully open, except those undergoing maintenance or updates. In the meantime, CHTC and the County have entered into a short-term agreement to open most of the trails.

“We have a license agreement with Keweenaw County, now,” Nathan said. “I think it’s intended to be temporary, because the (land) sale is hoping going to go through with the Keweenaw Mountain Lodge soon.”

Nathan said the template language that was created with the Mountain Lodge to establish the trail easements, was essentially the language used to negotiate the license agreement.

“We worked with Chuck (Miller) to tweak that language a little bit, and so, that will allow us to open our trails,” said Nathan. “For the most part, there’s going to be a couple trails, namely: the Double Black Diamond jump trails, Overflow, Flying Squirrel, Danimal, and Downtown will stay closed for now.”

Nathan said the county remains a bit concerned with the liability issue, because not all of the questions have been answered yet, but “almost all the trail system that is going to be on the county’s land is going to be able to be opened.”

Grant Township is still reviewing their insurance and liability concerns but Nathan said the CHTC hopes to be able to open all trails on their property soon, as well. Overflow in particular will remain closed until the all-clear has been given, and the trail club is working to make that happen as quickly as possible.

“The trail may remain closed until crews from Rock Solid (trail-building company) complete a previously planned rehabilitation of the 8-year-old trail,” said Nathan.

The trail club also had to renegotiate a land use agreement with a private landowner at the heart of the trail system after a portion of their land was sold. Nathan said the finishing touches are “being put together on the updated agreement, but in the meantime, Downtown, Stairway to Heaven, Here We Go, Der We Went, and the lower portion of Garden Brook below the East Woopidy Woo intersection will remain closed. We hope to be able to reopen some of these to hiking or reroute them soon.”

The trails opened as of Wednesday.