The year was 1973; the month – March; late March, more precisely – with weather conditions not terribly dissimilar to those seen in these parts in recent weeks.

A young Laurentian University professor (Gerard Courtin), relatively new to Sudbury would cross paths with a graduate student in geology (Lorne Luhta) – who also happened to have been a member of the national cross-country ski team.

“It was a gorgeous March morning,” recalled Courtin, his enthusiasm still vibrant with every word that he shares, painting a wonderful picture with words of the genesis of what is now the BioSki Cross-Country Ski and Showshoe Club, an organization which recently celebrated a half-century of service to locals who live for outdoor experiences.

“When things get icy, as they are now, you don’t need (nordic ski) tracks,” Courtin continued. “You put on what is known as klister (very sticky wax) and you ski into the countryside.”

“Lorne and I did that for an entire day and charted out the beginnings of the trail system at Laurentian – and then came over here and charted out what eventually would become the foundation for the whole (BioSki) system, namely the five kilometre (Founders) trail.”

“That was the start.”

Yet for as much as the network of highly enjoyable loops that are limited to those who enjoy either classic nordic ski or, more recently, snowshoeing has expanded to the point of featuring some 22 kilometres of trails for grooming, the entire Bio-Ski offering is still something of a hidden gem.

Some might mistake it for the trails that abound in and around the Laurentian track and Physical Education Centre, a network which carries many a cross-over to the development of the Bio-Ski venue, while others still believe they have arrived when they veer off South Bay Road to the Lake Laurentian Conservation Area.

Sorry – you’re not quite there yet.

While that wonderland (Lake Laurentian) offers some of the best hiking networks in the region, one has to continue up over the hill of South Bay Road to the very end to reach the Bio-Ski chalet that once served as the home of the biology students who were such an integral part in creating this vista of beauty and serenity.

“We had all of these biology students who would use the Lake Laurentian area as their field site,” said Courtin. “These students helped me in 1973 and 1974 to brush out our area – and then would go out and ski. The name Bio-Ski sticks because of the involvement of the Biology students.”

Indeed, for as much as Gerard Courtin has been central to the five decades since the vision that he shared with Lorne Luhta first took root, the project does not reach its current scope without other key contributors hopping on board – and there have been many, though not all shall be named here.

By complete chance, in 1976, a visiting professor by the name of Peter Beckett came to northern Ontario for a wedding. By chance, or perhaps moreover through the brokering of a common acquaintance, Courtin and Beckett would spend several hours sharing a ride to the site of the wedding.

The rest, as they say, is history.

A CBC on-line story from June of 2021 presented Beckett as a “professor emeritus in ecological restoration at Laurentian University ... one of the people who worked to regreen Sudbury.”

“Peter was not a skier, but he is a field person – and we needed a lichenologist,” suggested Courtin. “There was no question that we would be working the trails together.” For the next quarter century or so, the tandem did exactly that.

In no time flat, the back area that makes its way to Perch Lake and intersections such as Owl Junction, Clapham Junction, Oak Junction and Alder Alley Junction and most recently welcomed the addition of the Redwing Trail was taking shape.

“With pressure from skiers who wanted more and over a period of about ten years, we had pretty much the whole system established,” noted Courtin.

The venture was not without challenges.

Where a full-time ski trail groomer was initially covered by provincial funding, albeit shared with cross-country venues right across the nickel basin, cutbacks would force the introduction of a paid membership, a process that took five years and a great deal of stick-to-itiveness to fully engrain in the culture of recreational outdoor sorts.

Uncooperative winters would lead to the loss of some trails to the lack of snow – though in testament to northern ingenuity and the ability to pivot before the term was in viral use, those trails became the new snowshoe pathways.

Let’s be clear: the Bio-Ski trails are not necessarily meant to be the breeding grounds for the next Devon Kershaw. “When I came to Sudbury (1968), skiing was a competitive sport and Voima (Athletic Club) was the linchpin,” said Courtin. “Thankfully one of the seniors there recognized that we needed to go beyond racing to recreation.”

Bio-Ski is home to those who live for the ability to meander for hours on end without fear of not finding your way home.

“People visiting from elsewhere will often comment that you cannot get lost on our trails and I take a considerable amount of credit for that,” said Courtin with a smile. “We have some of the best signage for trails anywhere.”

Even as the group initiated the most recent addition to their outdoor menu, the casual skier was top of mind. “The latest trail that we established is around the Redwing Wetlands,” said Courtin. “It’s almost flat, which is almost perfect for people who don’t want serious hills.”

And, of course, there is the deference, continually, to the “Bio” component of the “Bio-Ski” club.

As Gerard Courtin proudly proclaimed in the first email he sent in my direction a couple of weeks ago: “the classic ski trail network has been woven into the landscape rather than imposed upon it, which meets the desire of many of our members who savour being at one with nature.”

And that alone is well worth celebrating, even for a club that is now fifty years old.