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Keweenaw
Adventure Company was started in 1994 by Steve and Julie Brimm.
They offered sea kayak instruction, guided tours and outfitting
in the summer months and specialized in dog sledding adventures
during the winter. In the summer of 1998, the Brimm's
decided to move on from the Adventure Company which they had
started.
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Keweenaw Adventure Company - "World Headquarters" |
In 1995, Sam Raymond,
who was living in Colorado that summer, spent a week on vacation
in his summer home of Copper Harbor. During this time,
his mountain bike broke down while on a ride and there was
no one in Copper Harbor who could help to get his bike back
on the trail. Disappointed that he wasn't able to ride
for the duration of this vacation, the seed for the dream
was planted while on the long drive back to Colorado.
This dream was to open the first bike shop in Copper Harbor
to service the needs of the travelling biker, while building
a foundation to establish the area as the premier mid-western
mountain biking destination...sort of a "build it and
they will come" philosophy. In
1997, Sam returned to Copper Harbor for the summer with
the passion for mountain biking learned in Colorado. He
spent a lot of time exploring the back country and doing
work bringing abandoned hiking trails and skidder roads
back to life as singletrack mountain bike trails.
He helped to co-organize the annual Copper Harbor Fat Tire
Festival-mountain bike race and continued as the race
director until 2012, after which time he still serves on the event committee in a much lesser capacity. He began to work within
the greater community promoting the economic and recreational
benefits mountain biking and sea kayaking could contibute
to the area's toursit-based economy.
 Sam
again returned for the summer of 1998 and was hired and
trained by the Brimm's as a kayak guide at the Keweenaw
Adventure Company. Still in the process of laying
some ground work for the bike shop, the opportunity to continue
what the Brimm's began came to be. In October of that
same year, ownership of the business was transfered and
officially became Keweenaw Adventure Company, LLC.
The result was a more
well rounded summer time adventure company. Keweenaw
Adventure Company, LLC has continued its role in sea kayaking,
specializing in instruction for beginners, guided day tours
and outfitting for Isle Royale National Park multi-day adventures.
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Canadian
Geese frequently share the harbor.
Photo courtesy of Diane Ursu |
The dream of Copper
Harbor's first bike shop became a reality too. The
"outpost shop at the end of the road" today hosts
top of the line bicycle rentals,qualified bicycle mechanics,
mountain bike guide and shuttle services and stocks an essential
supply of parts and accessories. Keweenaw Adventure Company
has a variety of area maps and are recoginized as the area
experts for providing trail information and local marine
forecasts. Now with our involement with the Copper Harbor Trails Club, we continue a grass roots promotion of mountain
biking including conservation, land acquistion projects
and a gurantee of continued future public access to the trails in Keweenaw County.
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