Keweenaw Report Your Source for Local News and Sports
As the summer rolls along, so do the Keweenaw ATV club’s projects. Over the summer the Keweenaw ATV club hosts gatherings in the community, trail-side ride days, and picnic. But more often you’ll find club members out on the ATV trails having fun and maintain the trail system. But some project are too big for the club to handle on its own, such as the Trail #3 project in Lake Linden.
“Most of the work to be done is in Lake Linden, most of it on the southern part. On M-26, running south is complete. So from it’s called Corey Dam road, going south to Hubbell there’s still some work to be done in there. A couple of big washouts. And that’s progressing quite well. And then through Hubbell and Tamarack there’s some work left to be done there. For the most part things are moving well. In fact because things are moving so well, and the money is there, north of M-26 the DNR decided to add another project. An upgrade to an area that has potential for failure in the future.” – Daryl St. John, President, Keweenaw ATV Club
The ATV Club still has a few work sites left in the area of trail three. And most of the work involves replacing culverts that were heavily damaged in the 2018 flood, and due to age.
“There are culverts that are quite functional right now, but they show signs of wear. And they could potentially fail in the future. Most of them are steel. but they’ve been in place for over a hundred years. and they’re showing signs of erosion.” – Daryl St. John, President Keweenaw ATV Club
The project remains on budget and on schedule. President of the Keweenaw ATV Club, Daryl St. John, says that even though the price of materials and other costs have risen, the club will be able to accomplish the main goal and function of the project.
“Well, we are probably at the nine million dollar mark right now. And there have been no major changes, which is usually expected with any sizable contracted job. By the time you are halfway through, something is going to change, and there’s additional costs. Since the money was allocated two years ago, everything from fuel costs to the cost of the culverts has increased substantially. but changes were made to stay within budget, and stay within the money that is allocated, and again the contractors are doing quite well.” – Daryl St. John, President Keweenaw ATV Club
St. John President of the Keweenaw ATV Club, says that a big factor in how long it took for the project to get started was due to a lack of hard data to show how the trail impacts local economies. The club intends to work with the Copper shores community foundation to understand how much of the local economy is affected by trail access.
“I live in the area, and it’s obvious to people who live in the valley what the impact is. But to put it on paper is pretty hard to do. For that reason we contacted Kevin Store with the Copper Shores Community Health Foundation and they’re going to do an economic study of the whole area, as to the impact of snowmobiling and ATVs, what money do they bring into the area. We know it’s substantial but we just don’t have a dollar figure. So they’re are going to sit down and study it. And for us it’s going to give us some hard numbers to work with. That was a major factor in pushing for the funding for this trail project, Trying to explain it, Markkanen and McBroom, said the hardest part of the whole deal was trying to convey to those downstate what we are going through up here without any hard data.” – Daryl St. John, President Keweenaw ATV Club
Keweenaw ATV Club anticipates that Trail three will be available to the snowmobile club come winter. Until the snow starts flying though, the club’s leadership asks that riders still refrain from using trail three while construction continues.
