Before the Keweenaw Peninsula closes out winter events and starts to prepare for fun in the sun this summer. Many active residents and visitors will chase the bear at the Swedetown Trails. Tomorrow morning hundreds of cross-country skiers will descend onto the Swedetown Trails in Calumet for the 45th annual Great Bear Chase.
The annual event was canceled in 2024 for trail conditions that were devastated by warm temperatures and a lack of fresh snow. Over the last week, Sweden has found plenty of the white stuff fell freshly on the trails. Just in time for one of the area’s largest and most participated events of the winter. Great Bear Chase organizer Dean Woodbeck says the Great Bear Chase offers participants to race in different ski styles over a variety of distances.
Right after they probably a hundred meters after they get out of the start area they’re in the woods and then they’re in the woods for pretty much the whole race so they like that the other big feature that people love is we have a pasty picnic afterward or pasty luncheon at calumet high school and uh… we fill the gym with people and that’s huge attraction pasty are a huge attraction – Dean Woodbeck, Organizer, Great Bear Chase.
Many skiers who visit Calumet during the Great Bear Chase come from Minnesota and Wisconsin. Woodbeck says the Swedetown trail system brings many skiers back each year to get ‘lost’ in the woods. Surrounded by the Keweenaw Peninsula’s dense thickets of pine trees, and plenty of fresh powder, the Great Bear Chase is a premier cross-country skiing event in the upper Great Lakes. Participants can register for the 45th Great Bear Chase sponsored by UP Health Systems through this evening. Registration fees have been waived for the youngest skiers this year through an anonymous donation supporting Junior Bear Chase. Find more information about the Great Bear course here.
Late registration and bib pick up will start today at 4:30 pm at the Calumet High School. Skiers that have already registered can also pick up the race information packet. Late registration and bib pick up will end at 8:30 pm.
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