After the Copper Dog race runs this weekend, the Copper Country has one more major event in the winter that invites a lot of people from outside the area to enjoy the region’s recreation. The UP Health System’s Great Bear Chase at the Swedetown Trails.
The 2025 Great Bear Chase saw more than 800 skiers take part in various distance races, using classic and freestyle techniques. One of the race organizers, Dean Woodbeck, says many who saw Olympians compete for medals in Italy have been exposed to both ski styles.
“And then there’s freestyle, which is a lot of times called skating, which is as it sounds, you’re skating on your skis. So you’re pushing off just as you would with an ice skate on one side and then the other,” Woodbeck said. “Skating has become, in the U.S. anyway, skating has become more popular than the classic. But we see lots of people with both. And then we offer these different distances because the 10K is sort of an entry point, right? That’s six miles. And it’s something if somebody’s been doing any amount of skiing during the winter that they can probably accomplish.”
The Great Bear Chase takes place at the Swedetown Trails. In years past, skiers would get ready for their race near their cars. But this year, the Keweenaw Snowmobile Club has offered its new groomer barn for racers to set up. Race organizer Dean Woodbeck says the partnership comes by way of connecting with others in the community.
“The interesting story is one of the members on our organizing committee does CrossFit as does the president of the Keweenaw Snowmobile Club. So they were at CrossFit one day and the Snowmobile Club president said, hey, we’ve got this great new facility that holds three of their groomers, so the facility is huge. Could you guys make any use of that during the bear chase?” Woodbeck said. “They’re trying to position that also as a community resource, that building, and they’ll have tables and chairs and so we said, sure, so they’ll take their grooming machines out. We’re going to set up changing tents in there. And it’s a warming area for both the skiers and the spectators. And for skiers, it’s only a three-minute walk to get over to the start for their start time.”
Woodbeck shares that welcoming volunteers have brought many of the Chase’s skiers back each year. He says most volunteers help at aid stations to keep racers fueled and hydrated. Volunteers also greet skiers at CLK Schools on Friday before the race to help people get registered.
“We prefer to have a medical person at each aid station, at least someone who is CPR certified and is comfortable using an AED. That’s one area that we’re short on this year, so far anyway. We’ve been sending out a lot of emails and making a lot of phone calls to folks,” Woodbeck said.
The race supports the Swedetown Trails Club as its largest fundraiser. In 2025 the Great Bear Chase raised more than $25,000 to support trail grooming and projects to expand recreation all year round.
“Trails Club is a volunteer organization that’s the steward of the trails. The Calumet Township owns most of the land on the trails. And so it supports our grooming operations in the winter, so a lot of fuel costs and personnel costs. But it also supports maintaining the single track mountain bike trails, which are used for mountain biking, hiking, and running in the summer. And we have roughly 25 miles of those trails and roughly 30 kilometers, so about 18 miles of ski trails,” Woodbeck said.
Those interested in registering for a Great Bear Chase race, want to volunteer or need to find details to spectate the race and cheer on friends and family, can find more information about the event on March 7th here.
