I’ve got some advice for anyone venturing out on the great new mountain biking trail at Lookout Mountain, just north of Virginia: Don’t Blink!

If you want to enjoy the scenery (and there’s plenty of it), do so with your feet firmly planted on the ground. If you prefer your bike trails flat and obstruction-free, otherwise known as “boring” to a mountain bike enthusiast, this trail may not be for you. But if the prospect of grinding your way up and around boulders, brushing shoulders with trees, and negotiating tight switchbacks sounds like just the challenge you’re looking for, you’ll want to make tracks to the Superior National Forest’s Laurentian Divide wayside rest just off Hwy. 53.

Off-road riding aficionados were on hand there last Thursday for the official ribbon cutting for the first true single-track mountain biking trail system on the East Range. It’s been in the works for the past three years, thanks to an incredible volunteer effort by the Iron Range Off-Road Cyclists, or IROC, who built the roughly seven miles of trail now mapped and marked at Lookout Mountain.

It was a labor of love for the roughly two-dozen members of the club, and for some, like Eric Carlson, of Virginia, it became almost an obsession, as he logged hundreds of hours each summer building trail.

It’s built on land owned by the Forest Service, which helped in a limited way during construction, providing tools, some technical advice, and occasional help from Youth Conservation Corps crews. But, said Tim Engrav, the Forest Service’s recreation specialist on the La Croix and Laurentian districts, “This is really about the club’s volunteer efforts.”

With federal recreation budgets flat or declining, agencies like the Forest Service have increasingly turned to groups like IROC to build and maintain trail systems on federal lands. “From our perspective, it’s a wonderful collaboration,” said Engrav.

Mountain bikers had been using the trail system around Lookout Mountain for some time, but wanted to build their own trail network specifically for biking. At first the work was a bit unofficial, but they eventually sat down with Forest Service officials, who were enthusiastic about the idea. They spent months completing the required environmental analysis, after which the Forest Service gave the green light for construction of up to five miles of trail, which was eventually extended to the current seven miles of trail.

Frank Roark, of Virginia, coordinated much of IROC’s work on the trail, said it’s built to the standards established by the International Mountain Biking Association, which are based on sustainable principles to prevent erosion and other environmental impacts. Much of the trail is decidedly low impact. It passes through heavily wooded terrain and the trail itself is barely a foot or two wide in most places. As with most high ground in the North Country, the trail is full of tree roots, boulders and rock cobble, all of which is left in place as part of the challenge.

While the trail is built to IMBA standards, it should be noted that those standards provide no guarantee you aren’t going to crack your head open on a rock or smash into a tree, however, so don’t even think about running the trail without a helmet. It’s a serious trail, which means you need to pay attention at all times or you can injure yourself. On the other hand, handled with care and at an appropriate speed, it’s tons of fun.

Some early trails took a more direct route up Lookout Mountain, but even seasoned club members decided the initial climb was just too brutal for most riders, so they’ve altered the route to make the climbs more gradual. Even so, by the time you get to the top, you’ll know you’ve had a workout. I went with a group of about 15 dedicated riders on a fat tire bike I borrowed from a friend and managed to hang in there with the group. I won some serious cred as the only media type who actually rode the trail… the rest took pictures at the bottom and called it a wrap.

Will I be back to hit the trail again? Without a doubt.

I’ve been waiting for years for mountain biking to start to take hold in the North Country. It’s big in places like Duluth, where mountain biking has become a major attraction and it’s starting to work its way out to other parts of the region. There are now a couple trail systems along the North Shore, there’s another around Hibbing, and there’s discussion underway about a similar system in the works near Ely.

While most of us baby boomers are quickly moving out of the mountain biking demographic, it’s increasingly popular among millennials, who still have the energy and the fearlessness of youth to take on an outdoor activity that’s definitely on the riskier end of the spectrum. And for those boomers who like to pretend they’re still 25, this trail just might provide the perfect reality check.