Chippewa County Sportsman’s Off-Road Vehicle Association (CC-SORVA)
By Mike Olmstead, Contributing Writer
Michigan’s Eastern Upper Peninsula (EUP) is blessed with many ORV trails, and they are further blessed with the dedicated work of the Chippewa County Sportsman’s Off-Road Vehicle Association (CC-SORVA hereafter)! CC-SORVA Is a club dedicated to ORV recreation through regularly scheduled trail rides and extensive work with the MDNR and USFS towards the creating, maintaining and upgrading of the existing trail system.
The club is a successor to another club, the Tahqua ORV Club in the days of 3-wheel & 4-wheel ATVs. For the most part there were no ORV-specific trails back then, and riders used what were primarily snowmobile trials in the winter. The Thaqua ORV Club couldn’t quite get any traction and four individuals, Grant Dewitt, Jack Dean, and Pat and Jay Wright took the initiative, formed the CC-SORVA club, and the rest – as they say – is history! One of their first successes is a 38-mile trail from Strongs to the Soo, which took several hundred hours of work from planning meetings with the MDNR, USFS, county boards, and various townships along the way.
According to their website:
“The Chippewa County Sportsman’s Off-Road Vehicle Association is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to the safe, educated, fun operation of ORV’s in and around Chippewa County. We have been instrumental in developing trails dedicated solely to the off-road vehicle community. We work closely with the City of Sault Ste Marie, Chippewa County, the Michigan DNR and US Forest Service, to develop and maintain trails in Chippewa County.”
The club’s main activity is ORV trail rides! Their goal is two per month but logistics, availability, and life in general (!) sometimes get in the way. CC-SORVA trail rides are thoroughly prepared and planned, as you can see on the website. Club trail rides are posted on the club’s website under the “2024 Ride Schedule” tab. The club takes safety quite seriously. One look at their “Group Ride Rules and Etiquette” will drive this point home!
Typically their trail rides are single day events, well planned, with a vehicle mix of approximately 90% SxSs and 10% ATVs & quads. Depending on the trip, there may or may not be fuel or other provisions available along the way – the Ride Schedule will have all that information for you.
Club rides are not closed to guests per se – guests are welcome – they will just have to sign a liability waiver. But for $15 annual membership, to me it’s almost a moot point! Spend the money and sign up! These folks do a lot of good for the Eastern Upper Peninsula trail systems and there is never too many members! Besides, you’re going to spend several times that just to get to the trail head and buy provisions for the ride anyway! (If you’re interested in becoming a member there’s an easy link on the main website’s home page!)
Some favorite rides & trails are to the Crisp Point Lighthouse and Grand Marias. Fortunately there are enough trails in the system now so they can change them up every year, and run ‘favorites’ every couple of years. To add to the variety the club will also change up the route from time to time.
Club membership is currently running at about 75 members. Typical of many clubs and associations active in outdoor recreation these days, membership is spread all over the State of Michigan! CC-SORVA makes effective use of social media. They have an easy-to-follow website that is logically laid out, and has much information about the club. They also combine that with an equally informative Facebook page, where the more current information and updates are posted and shared. Monthly board meetings, held the second Wednesday of each month – are conducted via Zoom software.
The other thing that drives this club is their dedication and commitment to the trail system. As a club they regularly conduct routine trail maintenance along various trails.
CC SORVA works on creating circle routes between points of interest or cities/towns/villages. From Strongs you can run trails north to Hulbert, east to Brimley and the Sault via different routes so you are not going over all of the same trail twice.
CC SORVA is also currently working to connect Rudyard with approved/maintained trails via USFS and county roads. Whenever possible they try and use similar routes to the snowmobile trails and work in conjunction with the Snow clubs. For example they worked in conjunction with the Chippewa Snow Chasers to create a permanent ORV/Snowmobile staging area near Strongs with pit toilets coming in the fall
In 2023 alone working with DNR, they obtained they acquired nearly $315,000 in funding to work on trails, and since 2020 the club has received over $900,000 in grant funds that have been used to maintain and improve trails. In addition, the club has over 1,000 manhours invested over the last five years.
Here are just a few of the clubs accomplishments in 2023 alone:
• Repaired and replaced map boards throughout the trail system with new more durable maps and protective plastic covers used by ORV riders as well as Snowmobile riders
• Conducted regular trail maintenance along the whole length of the RR Grade trail and other approved trails including fallen tree removal, trail signage, map boards, and brushing back corners for road crossing site lines.
• Finalized approval of 38 miles of new trails starting in Strongs and connecting with Bay Mills, Trout Lake, and Hulbert. This included significant brushing by CC SORVA Volunteers. The new trail designation allows for maintenance funding of the trail.
• Met with the US Forest Service to propose additional trails/roads opened to ORV’s, focusing on Dick Rd to Rudyard Route, and an Avery Grade based route west in a loop to Hulbert.
• Slag Stone dispersal and coverage at several routes that were in ‘rough shape’.
The Chippewa County Sportsman’s Off Road Vehicle Association is a dedicated group of serious ORV riders who are more than just talk when it comes to trail riding and maintenance. The ORV community owes CC-SORVA a big “Thank You” for all of their volunteer work and effort! •
Check them out at www.chippewacountysorva.com