A Whole New Animal

Story by Jan Lasar

Photos by Pathfinder Trail Building

Beginning in the late 1980s, the newly formed Ely Nordic Ski Club began the process of building cross-country ski trails at Hidden Valley Recreation Area on the edge of Ely, MN. This 15-mile network of ski trails has become a central part of the community, but not just during the cold months. When the snow is gone these wide, mowed trails also see hikers and mountain bikers who enjoy the rugged scenery close to the Boundary Waters. Last year, the addition of about eight miles of purpose-built singletrack has been well received by locals and visitors alike and sparked a mountain bike boom that led the local ski club to change its name and logo.

Brett Ross, chair of the renamed Ely Nordic Ski and Bike Club, has seen the sport of mountain biking become an overnight success in Ely. “These trails are a whole new animal,” he said. Inspired by Dr. Scott Anderson, a retired dentist, a local group formed to raise money to hire Dirt Candy Designs, a mountain bike trail designer and builder from Grand Marais, MN to rough in a potential trail and make a design plan for a 10-mile system of interconnected, purpose-built singletrack at Hidden Valley.

In 2020 Dirt Candy built a skills area near the club chalet. This mile-long practice run with boardwalks, rock gardens, drops, berms and two small gravity runs served as an introduction to riding singletrack while the group raised more funds to build the rest of the trail system. After the city of Ely signed a long-term lease with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Forestry Division (MDNR) and received a substantial grant from the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board (IRRRB) Trails Grant, the project was ready for the next phase.

Between May and October of 2021, Pathfinder Trail Building, an Eagan based trail design and build firm, finished the initial four loops, totaling about eight miles. Owner Adam Buck calls the resulting system a Choose Your Own Adventure Trail. The easier sections are geared toward the novice mountain biker while the other loops get progressively more challenging. “The loop closest to the trail head is a good beginner trail with some fun, challenging climbs and a couple of fun downhill sections, kind of like flow trails with jumps and rollers,” he said. As you get further back into the park, the look and feel turns more natural to blend with the landscape on the edge of the Boundary Waters. Here, Buck said, riders will have to navigate roots and rocks on a narrower, low impact singletrack. “It’s going to feel more like a backcountry trail,” he said.

Working around the existing ski trails without negatively impacting them was a key element in the construction of the trails and Buck’s crew put a lot of extra effort into removing brush, yet keeping the natural look of the area. “One of the things with singletrack is, you don’t necessarily want people to realize that someone even built a trail,” he said. The resulting system, he said, is as unique as the landscape around Ely and will provide a good experience that’s fun for any level of rider. “The challenge will be that it’s not a perfectly groomed trail. It’s meant to be a real, raw cross-country trail experience.” He added that because the soil is made of glacial deposits, meaning rocks and gravel, trails should hold up very well to wet weather.

Buck and his crew will be back in May of this year to finish the final loop and bring the total length up to about ten miles. While details on the 2022 construction are still pending, Buck said it will be an intermediate level jump trail with ridearounds, to allow inexperienced riders to take a look before attempting a jump. “We’ll make sure both routes are fun and flowy and give you a chance for some air time,” he said.

“We went into the whole mountain bike thing head first,” said Harold Langowski, Clerk, Treasurer and Operations Director, city of Ely, who saw the new loops being used as soon as they opened to the public. “Every day there were cars in the parking lot and people biking these trails,” he added.

Compared to other trail projects around the state, the Ely trail system came together remarkably fast. Langowski credits all the parties involved for their dedication to the project. Ely Nordic, trail builders, the city of Ely, Saint Louis County, IRRRB, Minnesota Forestry Department and the US Forest Service all worked together through the often-complicated process of permitting and financing. “It’s not as simple as just hiring somebody to cut a path through the woods and make a trail,” he said. The total cost of the project was $ 521,500. $190,000 of it came from The Federal Recreational Trail Program, the IRRRB contributed $260,000 and the balance came from the city of Ely and the fundraising efforts of the Ely Nordic Ski and Bike Club.

With the Hidden Valley Mountain bike trails so close to completion and the final connection of the iconic Mesabi Trail into town just around the corner, Langowski is excited for future biking opportunities coming to Ely. “What we’ve tried to do is look at diversifying the amenities and what’s available for the visitors. Mountain biking is certainly one of those features that have caught on fire,” he said.

Ross is also looking to the future. 2021 marked the inaugural season of Team Borealis, the high school and middle school team with about 18 kids, traveling as far as Mankato for races, and the club plans to establish a youth mountain biking program similar to the ski program already in place. Because the new trails were designed to coexist with the prized ski trails, they will be groomed for fat bikes in the winter. A grant from the Northern Saint Louis County Trails Task Force enabled the club to purchase a Trail Tamer groomer. Without actual trail use counts it’s hard to say what the impact of the new singletrack trail has been so far, but Ross has also noticed more cars in the parking lot of Hidden Valley. “I’ve been using those trails for almost 24 years now and this past summer was the busiest I’ve seen it in all previous summers combined,” he said.

The long-term goal is to have many more miles of singletrack in the Ely area. “One of the things we want to do is make [Ely] a specific destination for mountain biking,” Ross said, but he puts the threshold at which a trail turns into an economic development tool at about 20 miles in length. “While we had the crews here, we actually took them out to a couple of other tracts of land that we’ve been eying up as potential future singletrack.”

Ely has long been a hub for outdoor recreation and a staging point for trips into the Boundary Waters. The new singletrack at Hidden Valley is only the beginning of what could become Minnesota’s next big mountain biking destination. Paired with the arrival of the Mesabi Trail, the future there looks bright for pedal-powered recreation.

NEW HIDDEN VALLEY SINGLETRACK LOOPS

1. A-LINE: Any level of rider. Balance of climbs and flowy downhills.

2. THE BIG PINES LOOP: Scenic views as you drop into and climb out of a narrow slot canyon.

3. ERRATIC BEHAVIOR: Good climbs, big boulders and rock gardens with challenging terrain.

4. THE OUTBACK: The most difficult and longest trail into the far corners of Hidden Valley. Great vistas, good drops, opportunity to get some air, rocks to climb.

COMING IN 2022: Intermediate level jump trail loop, trail kiosk, maps and enhanced signage.