Great Lakes Endurance, LLC

History

The Keweenaw Trail Running festival featured its innaugural race in 2000. It started as an idea on a trail run through the Swedetown Creek Gorge in 1999. "Wouldn't be great to organize an event with three trail races in one weekend - a 10 Km to test speed, a hill climb to test strength, and a 25 Km to test endurance," I said to Tom Lindley.

We mapped out a leisurely 10 Km course at McLain State Park that featured a spectacular stretch of beach with long reaching views up the Keweenaw Coast. For the hill climb we selected the trail from the beach in Eagle Harbor to the top of Mt. Lookout because the summit featured the most panoramic, ultra scenic views of any place in the entire Keweenaw. Finally, the venerable Maasto Hiihto became the easy choice for the 25 Km, mostly due to the remarkable glacially cut Swedetown Creek Gorge and the sweet single tract on the adjacent Churning Rapids trail system.

We also decided to organize a breakfast that would be served to runners following the 10 Km. It featured mostly organic and locally made foods and served it with real dinnerware, cups, and glasses. We composted all the food waste and recycled everything else. I had grown tired of participating in races that generated huge amounts of garbage (styrofoam, paper, extra food, etc.). So this was an opportunity to demonstrate that we could do things differently. Runners loved the breakfast and it has become a regular part of the trail festival weekend. In 2005 we moved the breakfast to Sunday morning following the 25 Km in response to suggestions from runners. We were pleased when environmental writer Suzanne Van Dam wrote an article on the breakfast and other ecological aspects of the KTRF in Running Times Magazine (June, 2005).

Van Dam's article was not the only time the KTRF drew attention from the print media. The late and much loved Silent Sports editor Greg Marr wrote an story on the KTRF even before the innaugual race. Nancy Hobbs, President of the All American Trail Running Association wrote an article in Runner's World (October 2000) that featured the KTRF as one of the top five trail races worth travelling to. Later, best selling novelist Tom Henderson, a KTRF veteran, wrote a seven page story on the event in the July 2003 issue of Runner's World. Well known sports photographer Carter Sherline captured some spectacular images for the RW article. By this time the KTRF was attracting runners from over 24 states and Canada. Runners from Austria, Ireland, and England had also participated.

While the McLain State Park venue was a favorite of many runners, the delicate trail there could not withstand the 300+ runners we were attracting to the event. In 2005 we moved the 10 Km to Gratiot River North, a relatively new trail system jointly managed by the North Woods Conservancy and Keweenaw County. It featured some of the most awe inspiring coastline anywhere in Lake Superior. Despite this, the course was too remote and parking was difficult to non-existent. It was a great experiment and brought much needed attention to protecting Keweenaw coastline from development.

Based mostly upon runner feedback, we decided to move the 10 Km course up to Copper Harbor for 2006. The new course started in the grassy field at Ft. Wilkins State Park overlooking Lake Fanny Hooe. The route took runners along the lake and then wound through Clydes Meadow, filled with wildflowers, a large pond, and rumbling creek. Runners then headed up the much loved and serene Garden Brook Trail for several miles before finally arriving at the Keweenaw Mountain Lodge. Sam Raymond and his crew of expert trail builders at the Keweenaw Adventure Company constructed much of this trail, finishing the last stretches just days before the event. Runners enjoyed this route so much that we decided to keep this route for 2007 and beyond.

The second race in the weekend series has become the favorite of many runners from all over the U.S. and Canada. The summit faces northwest and the fierce winter winds limit tree growth at the summit. Rare flowers, wild blueberries, and juniper drape the surrounding terrain. A spin at the top reveals all the Keweenaw's major peaks plus Lake Medora, Lake Bailey, and the world's largest body of fresh water, extending on to what seems like forever. After a warm down run from the summit and a sunset plunge in Lake Superior runners can head back to the Keweenaw Mountain Lodge for lasagna, mixed greens, home made garlic bread, and deep dish peach cobbler. Wild fruit preserves and jams made by the monks at the Jam Pot are awarded to age group winners. Thimbleberry is awarded for first, Cranberry-Ginger for second, and Wild Blueberry for third.

Less than 12 hours after the Hill Climb runners toe the line of the weekend's toughest event, the 25 Km. For the first five years of the KTRF, the Maasto Hiihto (Finnish for "ski land")Trail in Hancock provided the terrain for the long event. Craig Hughes designed the course and Tom marked most of it. Runners loved the Maasto. One runner from Colorado said, " This trail is better than anything in Aspen." Richard Magin, a professor at UIC in Chicago, described running the Maasto course as "a religious experience." The trail featured waterfalls along Swedetown Creek, lush hardwood forests, highland meadows, and winding single track along Finney Creek.

Despite having a world class trail system in the Maasto Hiihto, the City of Hancock seemed more interested in building roads, sewer systems, and a new trailer park than saving their famous, well loved trail system. So, we moved the 25 Km to Copper Harbor in 2005 and hosted the event from the Keweenaw Mountain Lodge. A spectacular trail system leaves right from the lodge and travels along the ridges, streams, and wilderness lakes of the far northern Keweenaw. We received volumes of postive feedback on the new Copper Harbor course and location and will keep the 25 Km here indefintely. A wild thunderstorm visited the area during the 2006 race providing what many participants described as the "running experience of a lifetime" and a "redefinition of epic."

Jim Engel and I had been thinking about organizing this event for several years. We both knew the trail was world class. We had both run the island's trails and kayaked its shores. The logistics would be difficult. The north end of the island was remote and mostly inaccessible, we would have obtain a detailed use permit with the US Forest Service, and then we would have to arrange transportation for several hundred runners over to the island.

In December 2004 we decided to go ahead with it. The U.S. Forest Service was unbelievably helpful, with Dick Anderson providing critical assistance in logistics and trail preparation. Janel Crooks agreed to provide interpretive sessions on the geology and ecology of the island. The island residents graciously agreed to help out by staffing three aid stations. The local mountain biking club, the Anna River Peddlers, volunteered to staff the two remote aid stations (hauling aid via bike trailers!) on the north and west end of the island. Norma Harger, the well respected, long time race director of the Pictured Rocks Road Race, provided absolutely invaluable help in community organizing. The business community in Munising contributed exceptional support in marketing and advertising. Jeff and Nancy Dwyer, owners of the Falling Rock Cafe and Bookstore in downtown Munising agreed to provide their cafe for race registration and the awards ceremony. Rochelle Cotey of Altrans orhestrated a flawless bus service for runners to and from the boat dock. These individuals and countless others made directing this logistically difficult event a breeze.

Two hundred and forty seven runners from 23 states made it to the innaugural event in 2005. They included the likes of Bob Clark from Los Angeles and Robert Parker who flew his small plane from Benson, North Carolina and landed in a small grass airfield outside Munising. Women's marathon winner, Vicki Asmus of Plymouth, Minnesota, said, "This was the most beautiful marathon I have ever run," when interviewed by WLUC-TV's Mike Ludlum. Joel Patenaude, the editor of Silent Sports Magazine, ran three marathons in 2005: Grandma's, Chicago, and Grand Island. He wrote a superb account of his Grand Island experience in the September 2005 issue of Silent Sports.

The 2006 GITM filled in late May. Runners started in cloudy and cool conditions but soon the sky cracked open wide and rain hit the island as a system moved quickly in from the big lake. Although it created tough conditions in some parts of the course, runners embraced the cool weather the system carried with it. About 4 hours into the race the sun came out and the typical clear, cool Lake Superior weather returned.

The marathon and 10K course will be changing for 2007. Marathon runners will now venture out into island's thumb and along Trout Bay, one of the most spectacular stretches of Lake Superior shoreline anywhere. The 10K will now start and finish at William's Landing and feature a long, gradual,downhill finish.

Entries will again be capped at 300 for the marathon. The 10 Km will allow 200 runners in 2007.

Last Updated

01/17/2008