NOTE: I updated the headline from “nothing” to “little” since while nothing is actually built yet, and the subhead does explain that work on mountain biking trails is ongoing, I thought “little” was a more fair description.
A comment caught my attention at the last listening session for the Rib Mountain State Park Master Plan in early 2025.
The master plan had already passed. That included a last-minute addition to the expansion at Granite Peak Ski Area. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources advertised public comment, but that was confined to a survey attendees could fill out instead.
Here is the comment, after extolling all the wonderful things that were spelled out in the master plan, quoted from my February 2025 story:
One important thing I clarified after the meeting: Development of any of the concepts in the plan will depend on funding from individual user groups, DNR Recreations Partnerships Section Chief Missy VanLanduyt told me after the meeting. For example, it would likely be up to the Central Wisconsin Off-Road Cycling Coalition to raise money to fund any of the mountain biking trails.
That’s telling because, nearly four years after the master plan was approved, none of the major features identified in the plan has been built. CWOCC and its partners are building mountain bike trails (which are now more likely to open next year) but otherwise almost nothing is happening.
That includes a ski trail expansion that sparked the master plan’s development in the first place.
And while all eyes were on the master plan’s development, with public meetings, optimistic projections and a trove of possibilities, many of those same voices are quiet on its progress.
Here’s what we learned.
The long expansion
One of the very first stories I covered in 2014 when I first came back to Wausau to work at City Pages was an announcement of an expansion at Granite Peak.
Granite Peak owner Charles Skinner was on hand that winter to sell the plan himself. The announcement at the time was that the expansion was crucial to the ski area’s long-term sustainability. (City Pages’ online archives only go back to 2016, so I can’t find that original story.)
It was that expansion — or rather, opposition to it — that ultimately led the state to fully update its master plan. A group formed called Leave Rib Mountain Alone, which led to Granite Peak updating the plan and holding what became contentious meetings between Granite Peak leadership and the public.
In 2026, no work appears to have begun on the ski expansion. An email sent to Granite Peak recently has gone unanswered.
However, a State Building Commission report from 2025 outlines a $4 million snowmaking pumphouse project. The documents paint it as focused on the current ski area, rather than creating snow for an expanded area. Construction is supposed to begin this fall, according to the report.
According to documents unearthed by The Wausonian, Granite Peak’s lease is up in 2030. It’s unlikely that the ski area would undergo any expansion until a new lease is approved. Granite Peak’s own documentation says a new lease agreement is needed for the expanded ski area.
The lease’s end date was 16 years away when the ski area first sought to expand its area. Now it’s only four years away as of this publication.
Mountain biking
Mountain biking has been the main area of progress on projects identified in the Rib Mountain Master Plan. CWOCC leadership announced at its annual meeting that work would begin on mountain bike trails this year, with some miles of trails perhaps being rideable before the end of the season.
That didn’t quite work out, Mike Repyak explained to The Wausonian.
With the very wet spring and that moisture continuing into the summer, our trail building progress has been very slow. Rather than opening trails this Fall, we are looking at a Spring 2027 opening.
Repyak, whose title is director of development & outdoor recreation with the Kocourek Trailhead Foundation, told The Wausonian that the mountain bike trails are the only one of the projects identified in the Rib Mountain Master Plan seeing any progress.
Later work includes a trailhead at the old State Park Speedway, which was demolished this spring. The trailhead will feature a pump track and skills area for mountain biking, while also serving the hiking trails on that side, making for nicer parking than what is currently on offer at Grouse Lane.
That’s more likely a few years out, as is a multi-use bike path.
What else?
A source involved in the local rock climbing community confirmed that no work has been done on expanding climbing areas in Rib Mountain State Park. A timeline for any expanded climbing facilities is unknown.
The Wausonian was directed by DNR officials to contact Bayli Christorf, Rib Mountain State Park Manager. Christorf largely agreed with my assessment that there wasn’t any imminent construction on anything identified in the master plan outside of mountain biking.
Christorf said the master plan called for an expansion of the park office to include a nature center, but explained that no funding source or fundraising group had been identified for that purpose.
But, Christorf says, planning and discussions have been ongoing around the perimeter multi-use trail, and rerouting some of the hiking paths (which she says is due to erosion issues on the trail). “We don’t have any deliverables on either as of yet, and also nothing set in stone, so probably not much to write a story on yet,” Christorf wrote to The Wausonian.
Typical or atypical timeline?
A good parallel to the Rib Mountain State Park Master Plan is a similar master plan for Peninsula State Park in Door County.
The plan was approved in 2018, and like Rib Mountain, work on the mountain bike trails began first. Other changes identified in the plan, such as new hiking trails or rerouting trails that are unsustainable because they traverse wetlands, don’t appear to have a specific timeline, eight years after it was approved.
Much like with Rib Mountain, Peninsula State Park’s master plan relies on outside funding, and Friends of Peninsula State Park raised $650,000 for the trails. Work on those trails started in 2024, meaning Rib Mountain is moving faster than Peninsula on building mountain bike trails.
Peninsula shows that long implementation timelines are not unusual for Wisconsin state park master plans. It also shows the recurring pattern: the project with an organized fundraising partner moves first, while other authorized improvements remain without firm schedules.
At Rib Mountain, mountain biking now has that partner and a projected opening. For most of the rest of the master plan, the path from paper to construction remains unclear.
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I believe it was said they'll be reopening a campground at some point. I wonder what the timeline is in that. I assume that will be done by the state park system, as it will be a state park campground. - Looking forward to it 🏕️😊
Where are the mountain bike trails currently being built by CWOCC?