Valley Spur Trails in Munising to expand

Building a sustainable trail that is not harmful or invasive to the environment is goal of the Munising Bay Trail Network.

In a few weeks they will have some pretty heavy hitters in town from the Subaru International Mountain Bicycling Association to assist with their inaugural trail building session on the Valley Spur Trail. Everyone is invited out to work and learn trail building techniques.

After quite a few years of negotiations, discussions and fundraising, the Munising Bay Trail Network is getting 11 miles of single track bicycle trails along the Valley Spur Recreation Area in the Hiawatha National Forest. Those associated with the undertaking say they have been chomping at the bits to get this project underway.

“Right now we are going through and taking up the sod, vegetable matter off the top and trying to carve in the general area where we want the trail to go and then we will come back and sweep it out,” said John Swanberg, Trail Leader, Munising Bay Trail Network.

“It is a big deal to have them coming to Munising, they travel around the country and they help groups like ours build bike trails.  I am an avid mountain biker, I like to hike, bike, ski, snowshoe, any of the things that will get me outdoors,” said Rhonda Lassila, Volunteer Coordinator, Munising Bay Trail Network.

A matching funds recreation grant from the Department of Natural Resources made this new trail possible.

While the complete project will take a few years, they are projecting portions to be completed and rideable by this fall.

‘It’s very exciting, you see people all around us, NTN (Noquemanon Trail Network)  has trails in Marquette, you have Copper Harbor with the trail system up there and Munising just wants to get in on it and hopefully we will have a whole U.P. destination for people to come and ride trails, it’s very exciting.

As the work continues money are volunteers are still needed as the M.B.T.N. (Munising Bay Trail Network)  is looking to purchase a mini excavator. If you would like to help out building the Valley Spur Bike Trail, you can attend and upcoming Work Bee session on Saturday, June 14, 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. will be the work session. Lunch is provided, then you will head out with the experts from the International Mountain Biking Association Trail Care Crew to build trails.

You can sign up by going to www.MBTN.org or by visiting their Facebook page.