Fat biking, the niche subset of winter mountain biking on extra-wide tires, has taken hold and continues to grow in popularity in the Great Lakes Region — especially Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ontario, and western Quebec. Long, cold winters, minimal vertical relief for alpine skiing, and a strong tradition of trail grooming provided the perfect alchemy for a passionate fat biking culture to develop.
Now, we’re beginning to see a new trend come out of this fat biking hotbed. Groomers and trail builders are realizing that pedaling pancake-flat trails is kinda boring, so they’re beginning to create new grooming techniques and venture into more challenging terrain to bring the kinesthetic dynamism to fat biking that mountain bikers know and love.
In no other place is this innovation more apparent than Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.
Big berms and rowdy drops, but professionally groomed? Yes, please!
Sault Ste. Marie (SSM), colloquially referred to as “the Soo,” has invested over $3.7 million in building top-tier mountain bike trails filled with massive berms, jumps, technical rock drops, and more. In the wintertime, instead of just grooming flat tracks through the woods, they instead run their groomers over the massive trail features that have proven so popular in the summertime. By grooming the berms, jumps, and drops, they’ve built something that’s “pretty appealing,” said Travis Anderson, Director of Tourism and Community Development for SSM. “It’s not really what you think of [when you think of] fat biking. It’s like mountain biking, but on snow.”
“We’ve got steeps that we ride in the summer that are groomed, including some of the drops and techy terrain,” said Anderson. In addition to the tech, there are “huge-ass berms and big descents.”
Of course, if you’re not into pushing yourself on technical fat bike trails, there are plenty of mellower loops to ride, but there, too, the groomers work to add swoop and flow to the tracks to keep the pedaling entertaining, leaving riders with smiles plastered on their faces.
How does the Soo groom such gnarly trails for fat biking?
As anyone who has tried fat biking in un-groomed snow knows, in order to really have fun on a fat bike, you need a well-maintained trail surface that’s firmly packed. In some areas, the actual physics of getting a groomer through narrow singletrack trails precludes them from grooming their most technical trails. Instead, many destinations will groom the flatter trails with wider trail corridors and leave the tech trails to sleep under the snow until springtime comes.
But Sault Ste. Marie has done the opposite. They’ve broken with convention by choosing to groom their gnarliest trails for year-round riding. But how do they manage it?
“Quite honestly, we’ve got some volunteer groomers and professional groomers here that just have a giant set of balls,” said Anderson with a laugh. “They are really experienced and have kind of figured out by trial and error how to make this work with the groomers.”
The groomers in SSM use a wide track Skandic Ski-Doo snowmobile as a grooming machine for most of their trails. The snowmobile creates a wide, compacted trail tread thanks to its heavy weight. In smaller, tighter areas, they use a Snowdog, which “is kind of like wrangling a steer.”
Reg Peer, a professional groomer at Hiawatha Highlands, shared that they use a variety of techniques to groom these dynamic trails. Setting and establishing the track, especially through berms and off-camber areas, can take substantial physical labor, including using a shovel to build up areas to keep the snowmobile on the trail.
Once the trail tread has been established, the team of three professional groomers at Hiawatha Highlands each groom on average three hours per day (for a total of nine grooming hours per day), early in the morning, to get the trails ready for riders. During or after heavy snow, that can expand to eight hours per person per day.
“It’s pretty tough on the body,” said Peer. “It’s not just a simple snow machine ride — you’re on mountain bike trails, you’re on singletrack, a lot of off-camber spots, steep climbs, things like that.”
In highly-trafficked areas, “we try our best to create a really hard, firm surface,” said Peer. Creating a firm surface can sometimes “require maybe three different loops.”
Reliable snow makes Sault Ste. Marie a winter sports mecca
Winter sports enthusiasts are painfully aware of the impact of climate change. Snowfall across the Upper Midwest in the USA is extremely hit or miss, with some winters producing great snow and others completely falling flat. During some recent winters, cross-country skiing was nearly impossible.
Compared to other nearby areas, the Soo receives extremely consistent and reliable lake-effect snow. “Because we’re on the eastern side of Lake Superior, the winds pick up the moisture, we’re a little bit higher elevation, and it just dumps,” said Anderson. Sault Ste. Marie boasts an average of 320cm (126in) of snowfall per year — the second most of any town in Ontario.
Anderson also pointed out that while the Soo has extremely consistent snow, the impacts of climate change are still felt. During the occasional year when the snow isn’t good enough to cross-country ski, the fat biking can still be great. “It might be below zero Celsius, so the ground’s still frozen, and you got enough snow that you can fat bike, just not really cross-country ski,” said Anderson.
The reliability of rolling on two wheels — even if you have to traverse the occasional patch of bare ground — is yet another factor contributing to the increasing popularity of fat biking in the Great Lakes Region. But of course, fat biking on dry dirt isn’t really the point — which is why the Soo’s reliable snow draws riders from many hours away.
Explore over 80km (50mi) of groomed fat bike trails in Sault Ste. Marie
Sault Ste. Marie boasts more kilometers of groomed fat bike trails in the winter than they do singletrack in the summer, highlighting just how passionate the local fat bikers are. These additional kilometers are thanks to a nearby golf course — Crimson Ridge — which grooms winter-only trails and a few winter-only routes across marshy areas in Hiawatha Highlands.
If you want to explore the Soo by fat bike, here are the three main zones to check out.
Hiawatha Highlands
Hiawatha Highlands is home to most of the dynamic berms, jumps, and drops highlighted here. In the wintertime, the trails at Hiawatha are divided into three main zones: the Crystal Creek Trail System, Red Pine, and Farmer Lake.
The Crystal Creek Trail System is maintained to a professional standard by the paid Hiawatha Highlands groomers and features the massive berms and jumps that make it a massive hit during the summertime. In addition to the singletrack mountain bike trails that are groomed for fat biking, the Hiawatha groomers also maintain the Mabel Lake “backcountry ski/fat bike trail,” which traverses swamp land that isn’t rideable in the summertime. It “connects to a series of hills [and] then drops down into a big lake,” said Peer. In total, the paid groomers cover about 20km of trails.
For those gnarly rock drops that Anderson mentioned, head to the Farmer Lake area. Where the summer enduro trails are located, you’ll find the groomed rock drops, which are truly a sight to behold! These trails have “drops, all sorts of steeps — the whole nine yards!” This 20km network of trails is groomed by volunteers from the Sault Cycling Club (SCC).
Finally, SCC volunteers also groom the 20km of narrow, twisty, and rugged trails at Red Pine. Due to the tight trees, this area is the one groomed by the Snowdog. The trails here also “connect to the Root River golf course, so you can go grab a beer and some food, depending on when you ride there.”
Crimson Ridge
A golf course in the summer months, when the snow falls, the greens transform into a winter wonderland with 20km of meticulously groomed trails. In fact, Crimson Ridge was the first place to start grooming trails for fat biking in Sault Ste. Marie.
“They’ve got some pretty wicked terrain there,” said Anderson of the trails at Crimson Ridge. “It’s got some nice little creek crossings, some nice long descents, a combination of wide open, fast flow trails with sort of tighter, technical sections.”
In addition to the trails, Crimson Ridge provides a restaurant and bar right on-site in their clubhouse — perfect for grabbing lunch or a post-ride beer. While it might be cold and wet outside, inside the clubhouse, riders and family members will always be warm and cozy. It’s tough to beat Crimson’s combination of top-notch grooming and luxe amenities!
Urban trails in Sault Ste. Marie
Finally, the 21km Hub Trail in downtown Sault Ste. Marie is also open for over-snow travel during the winter, along with the 2km Finn Hill trail that spurs off of it.
Unfortunately, it’s still not possible to connect the Hub Trail to Hiawatha Highlands, but according to Anderson, the bridge to form the critical connection is arriving soon and is slated to be erected in the spring.
Fat bike races in the Soo
The Rock the Ridge Fat Bike Challenge was just held on January 19th at Crimson Ridge, with both 20k and 40k distances.
Coming soon, the Frozen Toe will host its debut event on February 8th, 2025. The race will boast 10k, 25k, and 50k course options — but the course for each distance is a single loop, meaning if you choose the 50k option, you’ll cover a vast swath of the trail system!
The Frozen Toe will be based at the aforementioned Root River golf course, but most of the riding will take place at Hiawatha Highlands.
“We’re grooming a trail through the fairways to connect to the trail system, and then it’s all going to be over on Hiawatha,” said Peer, who, in addition to being a professional groomer, is one of the organizers of the Frozen Toe, Founder of the Salty Marie Trails Fest, and Co-founder of Red Pine Tours. “The 50k is going to utilize that backcountry section, the Mabel Lake Trail, as well as the Farmer Lake Trail,” Peer explained.
At the start and finish line “we’ll have a festival atmosphere with food and drink and some music going on while we’re there,” said Anderson.
“We’re just looking to build a fun event that’s kind of relaxed, and everybody can come and enjoy it,” Anderson concluded.
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