FOX 21 News, KQDS-DT

SEELEY, Wis. - It's not the typical activity you expect to see on the famous 'OO' trails in northwestern Wisconsin.

"It's a brand new event for us. We're just trying to get people to come out and use the trail and the facilities more than just in the winter," said Ned Zuelsdorff, executive director of the American Birkebeiner Ski Foundation.

The American Birkebeiner Ski Foundation hosted its first ever paintball biathlon, a 1.5K for 8–12 year olds and a 5K for those 13 and up.

Zuelsdorff said, "Competitors do three laps and they come in between each lap into our shooting range and they'll shoot paintball guns at our targets and they'll get time bonuses for any hits that they have."

Cross-country ski biathlon is a popular winter and Olympic sport using a .22 caliber rifle at a distance of 160 feet.

The distance is considerably less for this event, at 30 feet.

Despite the shorter distance, competitors say hitting the target was no easy task.

"I hadn't shot a paintball gun before today so I kind of went with the strategy run as hard as I could. I think I ended up with three shots out of ten but I ran pretty quickly so hopefully that will work," said Bjorn Hanson, of Rice Lake, Wisconsin.

Emily Nothacker, of Duluth said, "A lot of times I even missed the board so I had to run a lot faster than I probably would have had to but it was fun.They made it really easy. They had you come and practice ahead of time and take a couple of practice shots so it was good. It was organized really well."

The Birkie Trail is open 365 days a year, so holding additional events like this, the American Birkebeiner Ski Foundation hopes to get more people interested in skiing and maybe help bring a shooting range to the area.

“We have to first start interest in biathlon before we can go ahead with something like that. I think this is the first step in developing that interest and that's one of our goals and I think it's going to work," said Zuelsdorff.

The paintball biathlon run was followed by a 10K mountain bike race.

Due to the great first year turn out, organizers say you can expect to see this event become a part of the yearly American Birkebeiner lineup.