NORWAY, Mich. (WJMN) – Following over three years of development, Dickinson Trail Network (DTN) will feature Norway’s extensive Ogee Trail Network in bike races titled “The Ogee Challenge” on October 15-16.
The two-day event is aiming to raise money for grooming equipment and the continued development of trails around town.
“As the trails expand, we’ve got 25 or so miles to maintain versus the couple of miles we had before,” said Jason Morgan, a Director on the DTN board. “So our equipment needs keep expanding.”
Friday night’s opening events will feature criterium races, a bunny hop contest, and a Huffy bike toss.
The main event on Saturday will include 8-mile, 12-mile, and 24-mile difficulty options for adult riders. Youth riders will have 1.5-mile and 3-mile routes to choose between.
While the Ogee Trail Network began as a 1.5-mile trail at Marion Park in 2018, DTN has continued its expansion rapidly in years since.
“I got involved around 2019,” Morgan said. “A small group of us got together and started looking. Between the school forest properties, the land the city was holding onto that could be used for recreation, and the state land that’s all beyond here, we’ve got a lot of great terrain and possibilities. We have plans to really keep expanding for several more years to come and we’re set up pretty well to do that.”
After the amount of time and effort put into the trail’s development, DTN is excited for the spotlight the event will put on Norway and is encouraged by the feedback from those who’ve put the new routes to use so far.
“It gets old traveling,” Morgan said. “We love Marquette, we love Copper Harbor and all the other trails in the UP, but having them in your backyard is priceless in my book. So it’s worth the little bit of work.”