FORT KENT – To anyone who is only an occasional visitor to the 10th Mountain Ski Center for a biathlon or cross-country skiing event, the sight of the facility during the warm weather months is a bit jarring.

The berms near the spectator stands are covered in grass instead of snow. Instead of ice falling from the sky, bugs buzz about. And instead of skis propped up around the infield, athletes change running shoes or roller skis in the same area.

The Maine Winter Sports Center, which runs both 10th Mountain and the Nordic Heritage Center in Presque Isle, is hoping more visitors will travel to Aroostook County during the summer, and has instituted several programs with the goal of keeping things humming year-round.

10th Mountain hosted its first summer biathlon competition last weekend. The Fort Kent training center has been busier than previous summers with camps and training sessions for everyone from beginners to world-class athletes in both cross-county skiing and biathlon.

Meanwhile, NHC’s mountain biking trails have become more popular and there are other activities at the center, too.

“I think there’s no question that initially we’re viewed as a cross country and biathlon venue,” said John Farra, a 1992 Olympian who serves as the MWSC vice president. “But the skiing and the biathlon lifestyle is a four-season lifestyle. It’s outside, it’s healthy, it’s biking, kayaking, running, the whole picture. We would like these venues to have full parking lots in the summer, too, and not just be thought of as a place to ski.”

There’s more coming soon. 10th Mountain will have more extensive mountain bike trails in the future. A group in Fort Kent, including two MWSC coaches, recently tested a whitewater slalom course on the Fish River. And the MWSC started a summer biathlon program it hopes will allow Mainers statewide to try a sport with which many Americans are still unfamiliar.

MWSC officials want to make sure just because big events such as World Cup and junior world championship biathlon events and national cross-country happen in the winter doesn’t mean the facilities are shut down in the summer.

Summer biathlon

The 10th Mountain center has plenty of experience hosting major biathlon events, from the World Cup in 2004 to the Olympic Trials in 2005 and national championships this year.

So when the opportunity to bid for a summer biathlon event came around, 10th Mountain and MWSC officials made their move.

“It was our first try and there were some nerves about how it would happen,” Farra said Sunday, before the final event of the competition was held. “These folks hadn’t seen it or witnessed it so it took some learning, but so far so good.”

Winning the bid to host was more than a boost of confidence from the New Gloucester-based U.S. Biathlon Association, which sanctions the summer national championships. It could also be a boost for the future – the more experienced the Aroostook County venues are in hosting different kinds of events, the more likely they’ll be called upon in the future.

It’s also exposure for biathlon and the MWSC facilities. After Saturday’s races, youngsters participated in a paintball biathlon and others did a citizens biathlon. Similar events for the public were held after the winter national championships in Fort Kent.

More casual summer biathlon competitions also are being held this year in southern Maine, which isn’t exposed to biathlon during the winter. The MWSC established a Run and Shoot series that started at L.L. Bean’s Fogg Farm in Freeport and continued in Bethel. There’s a Run and Shoot event scheduled for Rumford’s Black Mountain, which is also has MWSC affiliation.

Gary Colliander, a MWSC biathlon coach, developed the Run and Shoot program. He said about 150 people have tried biathlon at the events, with a lot of new faces at each site.

Several elite biathlon athletes have also participated in summer clinics in Freeport and Farmington to promote the Run and Shoot series, and about 200 people attended a series of spring clinics in Freeport.

“Probably 90 percent of [Maine’s] population is downstate so I’d like to see more people experiencing the sport,” Colliander said. “We wanted to spread it around. There’s a huge demand and people want to try it downstate, so we’re kind of feeding that need.”

Increase in camps

Maine Winter Sports Center cross-country skiing coach Will Sweetser led an unusual July 4 activity – a 60-kilometer roller-ski trip that took a group of youngsters around Long Lake, then to Route 161, past Madawaska Lake and into Stockholm.

Along the way the group got waves and calls of encouragement from people driving along the road, and some who even stopped for photos.

“Up here people pull over, wave, say hi,” Sweetser said. “It’s starting to bring people into the area for off-season training, which is really good.”

It’s a big difference from experiences athletes have had roller-skiing in other places. Sweetser said one of his athletes had a gun pulled on him during an outing in southern Maine. A group of biathletes from Quebec told Sweetser they had bottles thrown at them during a roller-ski outing near Mt. Washington in New Hampshire.

The fact Aroostook County communities have been so welcoming is a big reason 10th Mountain has seen a big increase in campers this summer.

The Quebec athletes, who are members of the Provincial Team, spent a week in Fort Kent and plan to return next summer with a youth group, Sweetser said. A crew from southern Maine took part in the summer biathlon competitions in Fort Kent last weekend and came for a week-long camps. Last year there was a junior national cross-country training camp in Fort Kent.

There are other reasons the area is so attractive to outside coaches and camp organizers.

The weather in Aroostook County is usually good for training, with little humidity and relatively mild temperatures.

And it’s an inexpensive venture. The facilities of the MWSC, which is funded primarily through sponsorships and the Libra Foundation in Portland, are free for the public to use, which means the only big expenses are transportation and room and board at either the University of Maine-Fort Kent or UM-Presque Isle.

“People are starting to look here and go, wow,” Sweetser said. “It’s cheaper to have a camp here than the Olympic training center in Lake Placid. So if people were to open cabins at the foot of the hill here I think they’d start seeing usage in the summer.”

Paddling, hiking, biking…

Sweetser and Colliander aren’t all about skiing (or roller-skiing in the summer).

About two weeks ago the two coaches, along with Fort Kent native Curt Harvey, strung up gates along the Fish River to create a temporary 100-meter whitewater slalom course.

Three hours later, the gates were taken down. It was just a test run for what the paddlers envision to be a more permanent 200-to-300-meter slalom course if they can get permits to make slight changes to the river in order to produce consistent whitewater.

Another project for Fort Kent in the near future will put mountain biking trails in at the 10th Mountain center.

Skiers spend so much time on the snow in the winter that they frequently look for different, challenging activities in the offseason. Sweetser said he gets together with a group of MWSC athletes once a week for a paddle. Other MWSC athletes have participated in cycling races at sites such as Mars Hill Mountain.

“We kayak, we bike, we hike, and part of that is, we don’t want to ski all year,” Farra said.

The Nordic Heritage Center already has 20 miles of mountain bike trails in use.

“Every year we’re seeing more and more usage [in the summer],” said Nordic Heritage Sport Club president Tim Vernon. “The mountain biking has really come full circle this summer. We’re starting to see more people from southern Maine and we’re getting some great feedback.”

In fact, the club changed its name several months ago from Nordic Heritage Ski Club to reflect a four-season mentality. The center now offers orienteering, a running sport in which participants use a map and compass to navigate, and geocaching, which is a sort of treasure hunt that utilizes GPS systems to find a hidden container that usually has a small token inside. Vernon said he’s also seen plenty of people simply walking trails.

Both the Fort Kent and Presque Isle facilities also have short, paved roller loops suitable for youngsters or those wanting short rides or steadier walks than the unpaved trails.

There are programs for kids, too, including a MWSC wilderness trip last month that featured camping and a four-day paddle on Long Lake, Mud Lake, Cross Lake, Square Lake and Eagle Lake.

Involving kids is key, Farra said. It’s not all about grooming future Olympians for biathlon and cross country, but also improving the health of a community.

“We want to improve access for kids in the summer, too, to hook them on four seasons of outside activity,” he said. “You create a pattern of behavior that is healthy. It may not increase the number of Olympic hopefuls but it sure could improve the culture of healthy activity.”

More activity, more possibilities

More events at the MWSC facilities could improve the local economy – or so officials hope.

That’s part of the MWSC’s primary mission, which is to help rural communities become self-sustaining through a skiing lifestyle, according to a statement on its Web site.

Farra said the goal is for people in southern Maine and perhaps as far away as Boston to view Aroostook County as an outdoor destination, which would then optimally produce a domino effect for the area.

“Hopefully more outfitters will pop up, people who rent kayaks and can take you on a tour of the rivers,” Farra said. “All of a sudden it becomes that much more possible to imagine another hotel, or maybe even a resort that caters to the outdoor adventure kind of place.”

The domino effect could continue from the opening of hotels. More housing would likely mean more major events such as World Cups. Finding housing for athletes, coaches, officials and media was one of the biggest challenges 10th Mountain organizers faced in hosting the 2004 World Cup, and it will be the same again when the Cup returns in 2009.

The busier the facilities are outside the winter season, the more likely a business person might see an opportunity for another hotel in the area.

And the more people using the facilities year-round, the more sponsors will be attracted and the better the likelihood the 10th Mountain Center and NHC will remain open and free.

“We’ve got to make sure we have a plan for the long-term upkeep of these facilities and the clubs have plans of how to keep the lights on and run these events,” Farra said. “… That’s what we’re excited about, to continue to try to find ways to do it all four seasons.”