Ready to ride!
Orbion x Copper Harbor Trails Fest this weekend
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GRANT TOWNSHIP -- The 33rd annual Orbion x Copper Harbor Trails Fest is scheduled for Friday through Sunday. The event, hosted by the Copper Harbor Trails Club, celebrates the trails, community and adventure that make Copper Harbor a premier mountain biking destination.
The annual Labor Day weekend event features races, music and non-racing events. This year’s festival is backed by a multiyear partnership with Houghton-based aerospace company Orbion Space Technology, which secured its role as the title sponsor through 2028. The company provides critical financial backing to help fund the multi-day festival and support the long-term maintenance of the local trail system.
Main races Saturday and Sunday include cross-country mountain bike races (long, medium, short and junior distances), a downhill mountain bike race on the Overflow trail, enduro races (expert, sport and beginner) and a 10K trail run.
Non-racing events will include mountain bike film screenings on the lawn, a farm-to-trail community dinner, vendor booths, ArtBike poster auctions and cheering areas.
Visit Keweenaw Managing Director Jesse Wiederhold said there are lots of activities free for the public.
"From our perspective, we know that this is the weekend to 'go big or go home' for mountain bikers, especially in the lineup in the greater Midwest trail fests,” Wiederhold said. “A lot of people put it on their calendars every year to come to this event."
He added that the annual three-day event draws hundreds of mountain bikers, particularly for the race lineups in town.
Grant Township Supervisor Meg Vivian North said she feels the fest is a big part of the community.
"This event in particular, the Trail Fest, it started out as a grassroots event that the locals were the volunteers,” North said. “As a resident who didn't even own a mountain bike at the time, I was the timekeeper."
"People have really, really showed up for this event, historically," she said.
North said the event has grown significantly since it first started.
"It's grown beyond what our volunteerism can do, considering our aging population," she said. "But the trails club itself has generated its own volunteer base, which is key -- you need that for an event that brings stuff to the people."
Wiederhold speculated that the event will continue to grow.
"With all expansions created along East Bluff," he said, "there are certainly new trails for people to ride."