Luke Winger utilizes city property to create mountain biking/Nordic ski area
1.34 kilometers per lap of recreational fun – no matter the season.
This past fall, Luke Winger of Mountain Lake, the new kindergarten-to-grade three physical education teacher and Activities Director at Mountain Lake Public School, took his idea and sketches, and with some elbow grease and the help of volunteers, turned those plans into reality, transforming 6.75 acres of rolling hill city property into a recreational-use area for mountain biking and Nordic skiing. The property is located on the west side of Cottonwood County Road 1 and south of the Union Pacific Railroad rail line on the eastern edge of the city.
Now that winter is the season of record, Winger, with the support of Mike Nelson and the Big Bend Snowmobile Riders Inc. of Windom, have opened up a 1.34 kilometers per lap cross country skiing trail on that location. The trail will be groomed weekly by Big Bend, and is currently set up for Freestyle skiing, but classic skis are still welcome. Fat bikes are allowed, but riders should be traveling on the edges of the groomed trail. The steadfast #1 rule is that there is to be no walking or snow shoeing on the trails, but such is allowed off the trails. And snowmobiles are totally snow machine non grata on the property.
According to Winger (who can, at a steady speed, make one lap in five-to-six minutes), “The course is challenging and fun. It is great for people of different abilities because it weaves back in and out, so one can be a half-mile behind another – and yet still be close together.”
He plans on getting rules and restrictions signage posted in the near future.
And, when the snow melts and it is bicycle-riding weather once again, the trail will be prepped for mountain biking.
