On Saturday, June 1, east of Cable, there was a Trail Dedication event on the grounds of the former Telemark Lodge now called Mt. Telemark Village, a $10.2 million development.
Mount Telemark Village is described as a “a world-class trail center anchored by a new Base Camp building — complete with a rollerski loop, cross country trails with snowmaking, biathlon, mountain bike cross country and enduro mountain bike trails, an observation tower” and more.
Saturday’s featured event was the dedication of the George Hovland Paved Training Trail and the opening of the Trek Trails Powered by OTM (One Track Mind).
Base Camp open house
Prior to the trail dedications, there was a open house of Base Camp, a 12,000-square-foot community center still under construction featuring space for bathroom and showers, along with a Tony Wise Museum, a large open atrium space along with retail spaces for Trek bikes, New Moon Ski and Bike Shop and Backroads Coffee and office space for American Birkebeiner Ski Foundation (ABSF) staff and more.
Ben Popp, executive director of the ABSF, the organization overseeing the Mt. Telemark Village, recognized partners, which he said were instrumental in the development.
“The reason this is going to work is that it’s a whole bunch of partnerships,” he said. “It’s not one entity doing everything. The Birkie is going to continue to do a lot of trails and a lot of events, and we think by having a bunch of really great partners, it’s going to be pretty awesome.”
He noted partnerships with Trek Bikes, New Moon Bike and Ski Shop, Backroads Coffee and the Cable Natural History Museum.
Jesse Cain of Royal Construction, the general contractor of Base Camp, spoke about the building.
Cain noted the large commons the group was standing in would feature a fireplace.
He also noted that the space for Backroads Coffee would feature a serving area to the commons room and also a trailside window like a drive thru.
He noted that after entering the Main Entrance the Birkie retail store would be on the left and on the north side of the Great Hall would be the Trek Bike store.
The long hallway to the north would be the Hall of Champions featuring photos of past Birkie winners and would “mimic the old Hall of Champions at Telemark Lodge.”
Near the end of the hallway is the location of the new Tony Wise Museum featuring a wood ceiling and a mini IMAX auditorium displaying the Birkie experience.
Cain noted in the bathroom wing there would include spaces for men and women and families, along with changing stalls and showers.
Near the bathroom/shower space will be an office for Birkie staff.
Popp took questions about Base Camp and the Mt. Telemark Village and noted the development wouldn’t be fully complete for another 12-18 months, but also noted the Base Camp facility would be open this summer, possibly late July, with exact dates to be announced, but the ABSF’s annual meeting on August 10 would be held at the site..
Popp said Base Camp hours would eventually be similar as those at the Samuel C. Johnson Family Outdoor Center at the OO Trailhead near Seeley.
Trail dedications
Popp kicked the trail dedication off noting that none of the $10.2 million for Mt. Telemark Village is from ABSF but from donations and partnerships.
“These are all dollars donated from you, the community and partners, so we are honored to be able to do a bunch of these things because we think you, the community, want them at the end of the day and are helping to make it happen,” he said.
Then Mike Mandli, an ABSF board member, speaking in behalf of Board President Paul Eckerline who wasn’t able to attend, spoke about the development of Mt. Telemark Village and noted it had progressed in a series of “baby steps” or a series of incremental decisions.
Mandli noted he came on the board in 2014 and began raising the idea of snowmaking, and in 2018, ABSF invested $160,000 in snowmaking for a 1.2K loop and eventually expanded snowmaking ability that created the 10K loop for the 2024 Birkie.
Mandli also recounted Eckerline proposing in 2020 the ABSF purchase the Telemark property that would include $1.2 million for the land and $750,000 for the demolition and removal of the former lodge.
“Once again I went to Ben and said, ‘$2.2 million, man how are we going to do that?’ and Ben said, ‘Baby steps, baby steps.’”
Mandli then named several who assisted the ABSF with the purchase of the Telemark property.
“You know when you say baby steps, it’s a cliché, but it’s something that we’ve done so well with Ben as our leader,” he said, “and also the other thing is, it takes a village; it’s a cliché; you hear it a lot, but these guys who are on this list, they’re part of the village and the village is really much larger. We wouldn’t have this without the thousands of people who are in the village that make up this community.”
Popp said when Telemark was purchased a decision was made to provide some of the best mountain bike trails possible partnering with Chequamegon Area Mountain Bike Association (CAMBA).
Joe Vadeboncoeur, trail development & strategic partnerships member of the ABSF, said when the Telemark property was purchased he was the chief operations officer (COO) and then he moved away, but was asked by Popp to become the project manager for mountain bike trails including putting trails on both sides of the former down-hill ski slope, a $1.2 million expense.
Vadeboncoeur said he reached out to Trek Bikes and it responded by offering up to 50% and then another organization stepped in called One Track Mind (OTM).
He noted six miles of trail have been created with up to 10 miles to be soon available, and the long-term goal is building out to 15 or 16 miles of trail over the Telemark property with some of the trails extending into CAMBA areas and also the nearby golf course and county forestland.
He noted that CAMBA had already built two connecting trails to the Telemark property.
“We at Trek like to say ‘ride bikes, feel good and have fun,’” said Goeff Snudden, a Trek Bike representative, “and that’s what this process is for us. We want to give back to into the community. We want to turn this into one of the premier riding spots in the Midwest, if not America, and we’re excited for what’s going to happen here.”
Along the trail, Vadeboncoeur noted, there are “hubs” to pull off and relax and even have a picnic.
Popp then introduced Andrew Dahl of the Dahl Automotive out of La Crosse who, along with his wife, Jamie, and the Dahl Automotive is putting up $80,000 in a challenge grant for the trails.
Dahl noted that his business has been around 113 years, five generations, and how he and his brothers constantly discuss how the business can be around another 100 years and the importance of innovation to make that happen, and he noted that the ABSF had also “re-invented itself” including creating a new vision with the Mt. Telemark Village project.
“We are just so excited to partner with this matching grant, my wife, Jamie, and I and our auto group, we came forward with $80,000 as a matching grant to kick this off,” he said. “I was on the trails last weekend. I’m a Birkie skier, I’ve skied 13 Birkies, but I’m also a mountain biker, passionate about mountain biking, and we were out last weekend riding the trails. And I cannot tell you how excited I was just to see the vision to get on these trails to really see what it’s going to become and it’s going to become something special.”
The Popp turned the attention to the paved, asphalt trail named after George Hovland, a US Olympian (1952), a cross-country ski champion as well as a ski jumper and downhill skier who founded Spirit Mountain Ski Area near Duluth and the Northshore Inline Marathon and Snowflake Nordic Ski Center.
Popp said Hovland was “passionate about skiing” especially “getting others out there skiing.”
Popp noted Olympic athletes have used the paved trails but he is also impressed that others, like a person using a walker and a mother pushing a stroller, were also using the paved trail.
“I started to realize that, holy cow, this is actually something for the entire community and not just Olympians that are here to train or college kids coming here for a summer training camp,” said Popp.
Jane Hovland, George’s widow, said she was encouraged to have the estate become involved with Mt. Telemark Village.
“It’s fitting that we’re standing here looking at Tony Wise’s Observation Tower at the start of the George Hovland trail,” she said. “Tony and George met each other in the early 50s when George was selling ski lift equipment and other equipment. He was the North American representative for Fisher skis.”
She said George told Wise of marathon cross-country ski races in Scandinavia and that interested Wise and resulted in a feasibility study on cross-country skiing that eventually resulted in the first American Birkebeiner race in 1973.
“We’re going to dedicate this trail today with a really pretty sign, and the most important thing is that people like you and me continue to give money to this effort take up Andrew Dahl on his matching fund, which is really going to be great and you know, just start making contributions so that generations after us can come here and enjoy the outdoors in beautiful Wisconsin,” said Jane Hovland.
After the dedications, those in attendance were encouraged to join a group ride of the paved and mountain bike trails or take a guided nature walk with Emily Stone of the Cable Natural History Museum.
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