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10 years and counting Jon Mommaerts, Tom Mahaney, Bob Mahaney are suited up and ready to put on the 10th annual
Noquemanon Ski Marathon. by Frida Waara
January 1998 is remembered, if at all, for three things: thePackers losing the Super Bowl to the Broncos, President Clinton denying he had"sexual relations with that woman" and the first Noquemanon Ski Marathon takingplace in Marquette County, Michigan. What football and politics can't sustain, cross-countryskiing can. January 26, 2008, will mark the 10th anniversary of theSubaru Noquemanon Ski Marathon and mBank Noque Half Marathon. With 51K of trailand over 1,200 participants, the Noquemanon is now Michigan's longest andlargest point-to-point cross-country ski race. The Noque's history is rooted in the Red Earth Loppet, apoint-to-point in Marquette County started in 1984. Trail issues plagued theevent every year so that, in 1989, it became a looped race on the state-ownedBlueberry Ski Trails in Sands Township. Don Hurst, a lifelong skier and retired Marquette dentist,served as the Red Earth race director for eight years. He remembers that thelast year the loppet was a point-to-point course, 727 skiers were registered,the highest number in that event's history. Once the race moved to Blueberry, the number ofparticipants dropped off. "People got tired of skiing 45 kilometers by makingloops at Blueberry," said Hurst, who has completed World Loppet ski marathonsin seven countries himself. It wasn't only racers who were losing interest, he said. "Wehad a solid but small group" of volunteers, Hurst said, "but we were runningout of gas." The last Red Earth Loppet took place 1997. By then the numberof competitors had dwindled to just a couple hundred.
Mahaney, a skier who had built trail as a kid, owned landnorth of the Dead River Basin and had already scouted a route through thebackcountry along the old Holyoke Mine Trail from west of County Road 510 inNegaunee Township to Tourist Park in Marquette. "It was Bob that convinced me we could create the trail,"Mommaerts said. Word of their idea soon reached Ishpeming City Manager JohnKorhonen who arranged a meeting with the major landowners along the proposedroute: corporate and government citizens Cleveland Cliffs, Mead, Longyear,Upper Peninsula Power Co. and Benson Forest. The representatives of theseentities left the meeting in unanimous agreement that the rugged terrain theyowned would play host to a ski race the following January. So Mahaney recruited his brother Tom, and together theystart clearing brush. That was just the beginning of a massive undertaking."The challenge wasn't just cutting a 33-mile trail," Mahaney recalled. "It wasmaking a trail that people could ski on." It took thousands of hours of volunteer labor not only toclear a path for skiers but also to establish a route that captured thespectacular scenery of the area. "My whole reason for getting involved was because I wanted apoint-to-point race that would really showcase the area's natural beauty,"Mahaney said.
"Registration was a little chaotic," inaugural Noquemanonskier Steve Kuhl recalled. "In fact, I mailed in my registration a week beforethe event but they decided to close registration without notification." Kuhl and his teammates on the Michigan Tech cross-countryski team showed up at the Ski Hall of Fame in Ishpeming for packet pickup andfound out that they'd been denied entries. They begged Mommaerts to let themrace. "He did, thankfully," Kuhl said. There weren't enough cloth bibs or commemorative hats to goaround, unfortunately. So after Kuhl won that first race, he was pictured inThe Mining Journal, Marquette's newspaper, wearing an old Red Earth Loppet bibturned inside out with his number written on it in black magic marker. Kuhl has been back since, and so have thousands of otherracers who praise highly the friendly volunteers, hospitable towns and scenictrail. Ernie Brumbaugh of Rockford, Michigan, is looking forward toskiing his 10th Noque. He's raced the full marathon every year except one whenhe was nursing a strained Achilles tendon that forced him to do the halfmarathon. "It's a marathon like we used to ski when ski racing beganhere some 30-plus years ago," Brumbaugh said. "Point-to-point makes you feellike you went somewhere." And that somewhere is spectacular. Granted, the steep climbsand fast descents challenge skiers of all abilities. But when skiers dare totake their eyes off the track, they are rewarded with breathtaking panoramas. "I remember the year Mike Myers from Kalispell, Montana, wonthe classic marathon," Mahaney said. "Even he said he slowed down to enjoy thescenery." The ski trail winds through lowlands arched withcenturies-old cedar trees and under the lacy-green canopy of towering hemlocks,and spills out onto frozen lakes and ponds only to climb the bluffs overlookingDead River Basin and Lake Superior. "We could have gone an easier route, but then you wouldn'tget that view," said Mahaney, who believes the future of the sport lies in thepleasure participants derive from it. And the future for the Noquemanon has never been better.Race officials expect between 1,200 and 1,500 skiers in 2008. And thecompetition will range from some of the nation's best skiers to those justgetting into skiing. "That's the beauty of the sport," Mahaney said. "In the NFL,you can't go out on the field and play at the same time as the pros. But youcan in cross-country skiing." Last year's overall female winner in the 20K classic race,Emily Flynn, had just such an experience. "I placed first overall for the thirdtime, which was a personal goal," the Michigan State University graduatestudent said. "But I was also able to see my dad finish the half-marathon skateon his way to (earning) an age-group cowbell himself." The organizers look forward to the 10th anniversary event …and beyond. Trail improvements are ongoing, not only to improve the surface butto prepare for a future that may include less snow. "We continue to invest inthe trail," Mommaerts said. "It's been a 10-year process of investing manpowerand dollars, and it will go on another 10 years. It probably won't ever end." In addition to securing and maintaining the trail for theski race, Mommaerts and Mahaney – in business together as Mommaerts Mahaney Financial Services– helped launch the Noquemanon Trail Network, a nonprofit organizationthat grooms over 75K of ski trails in Marquette and Alger counties. Since 2001, NTN has secured some 60 miles of trails andcontinues to pursue easements creating more corridors from downtown areas andneighborhoods to silent sports spaces. NTN works year-round to preservenonmotorized pathways, which include the route for the Ore to Shore MountainBike Epic in August and even 120 miles of Lake Superior shoreline – fromBig Bay to Grand Marais, which is designated the Hiawatha Water Trail. So, in just a decade, not only has the Noquemanon become alegend, it's also leaving a legacy. To learn more about the Noque-manon Trail Network visit www.noquetrails.org. To register for the race visit www.noquemanon.com. Frida Waara writes about skiing from Marquette, Michigan,where she serves on the boards of the U.S. National Ski Hall of Fame and theInternational Ski History Association.
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