The Salty Marie Trails Fest has quickly become a marquee summer event as riders discover the growing trail network in Sault Ste. Marie.
words :: Colin Field // photos :: Nick Iwanyshyn
At the Salty Marie people ride hard during the day, then spend the evening eating, listening to music, drinking beer and talking bikes. That vibe is intentional. Race results aren’t important. It feels more like a community gathering than a traditional race weekend. And that’s kind of the point.
The Salty Marie Trails Fest started because a group of locals wanted to show off the gem that is the Soo. Their trails, their friendly scene and their welcoming nature creates a community that’s easy to envy. Now heading into its fourth year, the Salty Marie is part race weekend, part community festival and part ultra-endurance sufferfest.
“It started as this grassroots effort to get a weekend of activity and adventure and people within the mountain bike community living that lifestyle together in The Soo,” says co-organizer Graham Atkinson.
The festival runs July 24-26 at Hiawatha Highlands and centres around a growing list of mountain bike and trail running events. There are 10, 25 and 50-kilometre races for both riders and runners, plus kids’ events, vendors, food, music and enough trail chatter to fill an entire weekend.
The 10-kilometre race is called the Low Sodium. The 25 is the Saline Short. The 50? The Big Pickle. And then there’s The SaLTRA.
The self-supported ultra-distance ride sends participants off from downtown Sault Ste. Marie on Friday night. They ride for more than 200 kilometres through the night and deep into the backcountry before finishing back at Hiawatha Highlands the following day.
“There are no aid stations on the route,” the event website states. “This is a self-supported event.” Last year only six riders started the event and three finished.
“It was intentionally hard,” Atkinson says. “You’re forced to ride through the night because of the start time.”
The Salty Marie is part race weekend, part community festival and part ultra-endurance sufferfest.
This year, interest has exploded. Organizers originally capped the SaLTRA at 12 riders. They’ve already expanded that to 16, with more riders now sitting on a waiting list. The festival has grown quickly since its first edition in 2023. Organizers hoped maybe 50 to 75 riders would show up that first year. More than 200 did. Now they expect roughly 400 participants across the regular race categories alone.
Despite the race format, Atkinson insists the weekend is designed for far more than podium hunters and Lycra-clad suffering specialists. “The event is billed as a festival,” he says. “There’s an accepted role for people who just want to tour the course and play it at their own pace.”
The Salty Marie also shows off what Sault Ste. Marie has quietly become. Over the last several years, the city and local trail groups have invested heavily in building one of the strongest trail networks in Ontario. Between Hiawatha Highlands and the larger trail systems surrounding the Soo, riders can spend days there without repeating much.
“The idea is they come for the event and either stay or come back to ride the trails on their own,” Atkinson says. Increasingly, people are doing exactly that. Riders now travel from across Ontario, Quebec, the American Midwest and even as far as Kansas to take part.
And the Salty Marie is only part of a busy summer calendar in The Soo. Crank the Shield returns August 21-23, while the cross-country marathon Canadian Championships land September 5, followed by an Ontario Cup race the next day.
The Soo has quietly become a legitimate mountain bike destination. And honestly, it all goes back to the old Field of Dreams line: If you build it, they will come.
The Soo built it. Riders are showing up.
