Skiing & Snowshoeing
Keweenaw County receives a few hundred inches of snow each winter, so much so that we erect giant "snowmometers" to celebrate it. While shoveling that much snow isn't the most exciting outdoor exercise we could participate in, skiing and snowshoeing are near the top of the list. Your options of where to explore are limited only by where you can (legally) park to begin your journey. Estivant Pines, Mount Baldy, Brockway Mountain, and Horseshoe Harbor are popular destinations for the ambitious. Closer to home, both Copper Harbor and Eagle Harbor have several miles of groomed ski trails available to the public for a small donation. Extreme downhill skiing can be found at Mount Bohemia, where cross-country ski trails also meander their way to the summit for epic views of the surrounding landscape. Once winter begins in earnest, our base isn't measured in inches: tallying up the feet under our feet is a quicker estimate.
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Cross country ski and snowshoe trails are more often than not located on Township or County property. However, building a substantial network of trails is tough when those public lands are limited in size. Private lands and challenging terrain often dictate where winter trails can go, and there's no bigger obstacle to constructing new trails than the extensive forests held by faraway investment funds. Obtaining permission to build trails on these lands, even for human-powered activities, is very difficult or impossible due to arcane or arbitrary rules dictated by hedge fund managers with no direct connection to our community. Hard as we try to change their minds, there is no budging these corporate landowners. To them, the dollar is king.
We have the opportunity to make positive change for our community by taking local control of as much of the corporately-owned interior of Keweenaw County as we can. We encourage you to join KORC today to help us establish new trails for future Keweenaw explorers to enjoy!