Chain Drive Supports Swedetown Trail Purchase

Organizers of the Portage Health Keweenaw Chain Drive mountain bike race have provided $3,500 to the Copper Island Cross Country Ski Club in support of land acquisition at the Swedetown Recreation Area in Calumet Township. The funds will help match a $100,000 grant the township has received from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality to purchase 280 acres adjacent to the recreation area.

Portage Health Keweenaw Chain Drive organizer Christine Young (right) presented a $3,500 check to Ed Kraai (second from right) to support land acquisition at the Swedetown Trails. Also present were (from left): Rick Oikarinen, Swedetown trail builder; Arnie Kinnunen representing Portage Health, title sponsor of the Chain Drive; and Marc Norton, Swedetown mountain bike trail builder.

The Chain Drive is a mountain bike race held each June with more than 250 participants. Funds raised by the event support the acquisition and maintenance of trails in the Keweenaw.

The land in question has been used as part of the Swedetown ski trails and mountain bike trails for years. The ski club, which grooms and maintains the trails in the winter, has committed to raising $34,000 for the matching requirement of the DEQ grant. With these funds and the cooperation of the landowner, the township will add the land to the recreation area.

“We’re pleased to support this project,” said Christine Young, co-director of the Chain Drive. “Mountain biking has become much more popular at Swedetown in the last two years and volunteers have spent a lot of time creating new trails, including many on the land in question. We’re happy the township and ski club are working to make this happen.”

The Portage Health Keweenaw Chain Drive Festival hosts 16- and 32-mile off-road mountain bike races using the Maasto Hiihto and Churning Rapids trail systems north of Hancock. This year’s event, to be held June 16, will begin at the Best Western Franklin Square Inn and roll through downtown Houghton. Cyclists use the waterfront trail in Hancock and M-203, making their way to Maasto Hiihto. The races end at the Portage Health campus in Hancock.

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