In the Spring of 2024 Lutsen Mountains asked if we would be willing to move the final mile of the Superior Spring and Fall Trail Races off of the paved portion of Ski Hill Road / Cook County Road 5 and onto their ski hill. Ski Hill Road bisects the ski hill / resort and provides access to Lutsen’s restaurant, ticketing, gondola, alpine slide, and more. Lutsen Mountain is a different company, ownership, and property than Caribou Highlands where we host the races out of. Lutsen Mountain graciously shares their portion of the large gravel parking lot across the road from Caribou Highlands with us each year, so we have sufficient and convenient parking for the races. While we are comfortable with running on Ski Hill Road as it is a low speed and dead end road and have been doing so since 2003 without incident, we want to do everything in our power to be good neighbors to Lutsen Mountain. As a result the current plan is for the final mile of the race to come off of Ski Hill Road and on to Lutsen Mountain as illustrated in the map / diagram below. Should Spring conditions not allow, i.e. too much snow, ice, water or mud on the ski hill, the alternative will likely be to have runners run on one of the sidewalks along Ski Hill Road, an option we are generally trying to avoid since Lutsen’s guests visiting their amenities such as the Gondola and Alpine slide (and soon to be restaurant again with the rebuilding of Papa Charlies) make use of these sidewalks in order to get to and from them. We would like to thank Lutsen Mountain, Caribou Highlands, Mountain Inn and all of our participants and volunteers for their understanding and flexibility as we seek to balance the needs of everyone visiting and recreating on Lutsen Mountain during the Spring and Fall race weekends.
