Since 1975, the Sault Cycling Club has worked to establish and maintain the Sault and surrounding area – considered a cyclist’s paradise.
With approximately 500 members and governed by a volunteer board of directors, the club is dedicated to offering cyclists opportunities through mountain biking, road biking, pump tracks, the Hub Trail and fat biking in winter.
As a registered not for profit corporation, the Sault Cycling Club depends on membership fees and donations to promote cycling.
Its home trails are at Hiawatha Highlands.
An important part of the club’s plans is to raise funds to ‘Close the Loop’ on the Farmer Lake trail system.
“It’s a big project we're working on with the city. The Farmer Lake Trail is about two-thirds done based on our original plan for a big back country mountain bike trail loop,” said Jack Perrotta-Lewin, Sault Cycling Club president in an interview with SooToday.
The project involves finishing the last piece of a trail that will run from Connor Road to Crystal Lake and Kinsman Park.
“That loop will bring you all the way along a big back country loop through some pretty special terrain, pretty far out there, to some spots that people wouldn't normally go to. It's a special one,” Perrotta-Lewin said.
Construction of that trail has been underway since 2021 and made possible by initial funding from Tourism Sault Ste. Marie.
The club wants to raise $30,000 for Close the Loop.
As of May 11, 2025 the Club had raised $15,970 toward the project.
SooToday readers raised $4,320 for the Close the Loop fundraiser.
“Currently the Farmer Lake Trail ends and then you're working your way back through snow machine trails, ATV trails. So, to finish the trail and be able to get back to the trail head on a trail that's just for cycling, away from any other traffic, will be huge from a safety point of view,” Perrotta-Lewin said.
Closing the loop will attract tourists.
“People will travel for this experience, for this kind of trail. You don't find a long, sustained kind of back country mountain bike trail like this that often. It's huge not only for the locals to have this incredible experience, but also from the tourism side of things . . . people are really going to travel for this. That's super important for the local tourism industry,” Perrotta-Lewin said.
As an employee of the Sault’s Velorution bike shop, he described how important cycling is to him on a professional and personal basis.
“I cycle to work every day and it helps reset my mind for work. I cycle home from work at the end of the day and that resets my mind to deal with the other things that happen in life. Being able to reset at the start and end of each day is a big deal for me. I like to ski and do all the other things that we're lucky to have on our doorstep too but cycling is my favourite.”
The Sault and area’s trails are unique, he said.
“I've lived in southern Ontario, I've lived in the U.K. and I've not found anything that comes close to these trails anywhere else.”
More information on the Sault Cycling Club, including its Close the Loop fundraiser, is available on the club's website.