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HONORA BAY—The rain did little to dampen spirits during the official opening of the Manitoulin Island Cycling Associates (MICA) new North Channel Mountain Bike Park as a good-sized crowd joined organizer and driving force behind the project, Maja Mielonen, in celebrating the milestone.

“I’m really happy, thank you for inviting me out here today,” said Northeast Town Mayor Al MacNevin. “I know you’ve worked very hard as an organization to make this come about, and it’s nice to see that the former downhill ski club location is back into providing some additional recreation for people that are on bikes and maybe some people that have never been on one in terms of a park like this. I think it’s obviously going to attract more tourism to the Island to our community, and we appreciate your efforts and your organization’s attempts to make this a new adventure.”

“I also appreciate the impact of the funding that the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation and FedNor have made toward this happening,” he said. “I do know that all the years that I can remember back we’ve tried to support your efforts in terms of making biking on Manitoulin a real tourism opportunity. Especially those trips that come off the Chi-Cheemaun ferry and hold us all back for an hour when we’re driving,” he joked. “Anyway, I know you’ve worked very hard Guy, as well, and I appreciate it all. Thanks for inviting me here to enjoy the opening.”

“I guess this is the day,” said Ms. Mielonen. “We have two minutes of no rain, so we’re doing it now. Welcome everybody! There’s been a learning, wonderful experience to get this venue that used to be a ski hill (and still a music area) to offer something for young and old to be outdoors.”

“We have beautiful hiking trail (the bike park is also home to the EBC Tom Bingman Hiking Trail), we have a pump truck, we have five kilometers of awesome trails built by Treadscape (the renowned Ontario-based trail-development firm operated by professional builder Zane Davies) and the volunteers that helped out our board member volunteers.”

“So, there’s so many thank yous to go out,” she said. “My biggest thanking goes to this gentleman here,” she said referencing her partner, Guy Nielen. “We’re looking at a thousand hours at least and being a non-stop. So, thank you, Guy, thank you very, very much for that.”

“Trails can be built, but then they take maintenance and they get better and better,” said Ms. Mielonen, noting that the trails will always be a work in progress. “Rome wasn’t built in one day. So, this is a really beautiful foundation that we’ve been given that we can build on that we can expand on and we hopefully, my hope is, that this will just be a hangout for young families to play and be outdoors. For hikers that want to sit in the chalet and hang out with each other. That it could be a place where teenagers can be feeling good about it, hanging out and be outdoors.”

“If we can have one or two teenagers to stay on track and stay healthy I feel we’ve done our job,” she said. “I just wish I was way younger because I would love to do these trails. To me, they’re like a self-guided roller coaster where you can each time you go up, you can find a new, better line,” she said.

“MICA has been receiving funding from the province and federal agencies for decades,” noted Ms. Mielonen. “And we’ve accomplished paved shoulders on three out of the four highways, which was probably our biggest accomplishment. Definitely, the most expensive accomplishment. We’ve got funding for the Georgian Bay Cycle Route, a thousand kilometers, which 10 years later now it’s signed.”

Ms. Mielonen also noted the organization has worked with Island municipalities on trailhead signs, and other informational panels.

“Now, EBC has partnered with us,  there’ are 14 EBC trails on our map and on our trailheads, so now, it’s not just cycling, it’s also hiking,” she noted. 

In order to encourage local cycling enthusiast to come out and volunteer to maintain and improve the trails, Ms. Mielonen has a plan. “If you put in 10 hours of volunteering with us, you get the base price five dollars to ride every time, because we figure if you’re a rider, even if you are a volunteer, you want to keep this alive.”

“The media is here,” said Ms. Mielonen, referencing The Expositor contingent that was on hand for the opening. “Thank you for the ongoing support in the media that you’ve been given and us for decades as well,” she said. “I remember this gentleman (referencing former publisher Rick McCutcheon who was in attendance with his wife Julia) there you came to our first rally with your whole family on Highway 6, and I thank you for that, I remember that clearly, and you helped us. We had zero dollars in the bank and you helped us with your ads that that rally was happening.”

Ms. Mielonen suggested that riders should offer their suggestions on how the trails can be improved.

Treadscape owner Mr. Zane Davies offered a few remarks. 

He noted that he originally started out with just biking trails, but that “the chances of building only mountain bike trails is very slim, so when you do get a nugget every now and then, you grasp it,” he said. “It’s really a mix of art and science.”
“Specifically to mountain biking, there’s two aspects of the art when I build a trail,” he said. “There’s a certain style of trails, which is why we brought in another guy, Rampage Builder, to do some stuff in here in order to make a variety of trail experiences for you because it’s only five kilometers.”

“There’s also the art as a rider in this case,” he said. “When you’re mountain biking, you’re experiencing the trail, and that’s personal to you. What you see might be different than what I was seeing. And that’s the neat part. Then there’s the challenges. There’s the sustainability, so anytime we entertain something, it’s generally positive, safe, sustainable, and its designed use is for mountain biking.”

 And that’s the hard part, because generally mountain biking is natural surface trails.
“I’m appreciative to everybody that made this work and there was a heck of a lot of work,” he said. “And there still is a heck of a lot of work, but yeah, just remember when you’re in here, it’s generally designed for mountain bikers, there’s different levels of difficulty, so ride within your limit.”

“The Manitoulin Nordic Ski Club is also not-for-profit organization,” noted Ms. Mielonen. “They worked hard for years and years and Roy Jeffrey couldn’t be here as he is visiting his family in Ottawa, but Kerrene Tilson is here and they did wonderful work here for decades, and we were really fortunate to join two not-for-profit organizations, you know, doing both outdoor things.”

“Wow, it’s like a foggy dream, I guess, because I’ve been thinking about it for so long,” said volunteer construction crew member and MICA board member Rebecca Laurenti. “I will be biking these trails for sure.” Ms. Laurenti notes that there is still a lot of work to be done on the trails, especially given the damage caused by recent floods. “To see this dream come together for the community, and for people to come together to make it happen. To see it actually happening today is a huge gift.”
Emily Weir, Mario Gauthier and Jan Eddie travelled from Sault Ste. Marie to check out the trails. “I’ve been kind of scouting around to see what areas are developing for new trails, just to try different stuff, said Mr. Eddie. “And based on the descriptions, it sounded really interesting here. The way they were building and everything, so I figured I’d come check it out, see what it’s like, and have some fun.”

“We ride a lot of Hiawatha in the Sault there,” he said. “They have a big trail network.”

Following a ribbon-cutting, riders were invited to explore the trails.

The bike park is located south of Little Current at 2619 Hwy 540.