2025 Copper Harbor Trails Fest was another amazing stop on the Lake Superior Gravity Series schedule.
The weekend was littered with amazing events! Thursday afternoon Trails Club hosted a group ride with a dinner after. It was a beautiful evening and three groups of people went out on the point trail. With well over 50 people joining the ride, it was a super nice way to start the weekend off. If you haven’t checked out the Highlands trail, you should! There is a beautiful overlook and some cool rock features on the way up. The way down has some fun flow and is a fun ride.
Friday the Otter Belly Lodge crew put on a stopwatch race down Thunderbolt! This was a part of their Eric’s Downhill Series this summer. Which was a free to race, afternoon downhill event to promote community and downhill racing! Almost 50 people showed up to take a hot lap down, and it was a blast! Transition bike demo driver Ian took the win for the night!
Saturday race action kicked off for the main Trails Fest events! The XC started off the morning with a bang, while the downhill riders headed up Brockway for some practice laps on Overflow. There might have been some rain earlier in the week, but by the time practice was over it was hard to tell. Corners were loose, the trail was dusty, and some of us sure were happy to have a dry race weekend!! (It’s me, I was very very happy!!)
The Trails Fest downhill race is a best of two run format. So the best of your two runs counts for your race time. The top spots in the men’s field would have looked different if the first run times had been used. Which, at the end of the day, the top 5 men were within 0.8 seconds of each other! Talk about tight racing!! Bode McFadden was able to sneak his way to the top of that battle. The women’s podium was separated by less than 4 seconds! Mara Breeuwer claimed victory over the other ladies!
You may have noticed, this wasn’t the Lake Superior Gravity Series Downhill Finale. It has many years marked the end of the Downhill season, but this year they’re doing something different. They’ve added a Downhill specific weekend to celebrate the end of the series. Go check out the Downhill Midwest race September 12-14 for something a bit different than we’re used to in the Midwest!
Sunday the 10K run took off early in the morning. Then the Enduro started out at East Bluff. Expert enduro got 4 stages at the bluff and they were all fantastic! Thunderbolt and Loam Rider – Eh Horizon may be two of our favorite trails in the Midwest! Plus some Citrus Tech and Whipsaw will make you want to not have to leave the Bluff!
This year riders were allowed to take their vehicles back to the community center in Copper Harbor from East Bluff. This was to help alleviate the congestion out at the Bluff for the rest of the day. After a nice little break racers pedaled up to Overflow for another fast stage! The downhill race course was modified slightly to make it more approachable. The Overflow gap was taped off, and riders skipped over to Flow at Dyno Rocks. Missing The Pants feature. After the downhill race on Saturday, some of the berms were very dusty!
Back up Brockway yet again to get to East Woopidy, and ending with the ever classic Red Trail. A techy, old school singletrack trail with a couple punchy climbs!
If riders took the ride back to Copper Harbor, they ended the day with around 24 miles and 4,000 feet of climbing on the day! Not too shabby!
After all that riding, Mara Breeuwer took the women’s win and Ryan Zinzow took the men’s!
Racers got to end each day with live music, food and a beer garden! What an awesome weekend!
Thanks Copper Harbor Trails Club for another amazing Trails Fest!!
Riding photos by Dylan Juchemich. Podium photos by Copper Harbor Trails Club. Words by Alex Anderson.
Check out Alex’s 4th place run from the Downhill race on Saturday.