July-December, 2012
The magazine of the North Country Trail Association
Volume 31, No. 3-4
north star
National Park Service VIP Awards NCTA Awards for 2012 The Joy of Winter Hiking Sandy and Pearl Hike the Cereal Bowl Wildfire on Your Trail!
Emily Eagling
In This Issue Funding for Trail Protection ...................10 A Reflection on Winter Camping............ 12 Outing in the Adirondacks......................14 National Park Service VIP Awards.......15 NCTA Awards for 2012..........................16 The Joy of Winter Hiking...................... 22 Cultural Resources Review in Tamarac Wildlife Refuge.................... 24 Superior Hiking Trail Recovering from June Floods............... 27 Wildfire on Your Trail!......................... 28 Sandy and Pearl Hike the Cereal Bowl..... 30 Trail Worker Death on the FLT.............. 33 RMDs, Hiking Health & Other Surprises In Retirement............ 35
Columns Trailhead............................................... 3 Matthews’ Meanders............................ 13 What in the Blue Blazes?........................ 32 NPS Corner.......................................... 34
Staff
Andrew Bashaw Regional Trail Coordinator Ohio/Pennsylvania abashaw@northcountrytrail.org
David Cowles Director of Development
dcowles@northcountrytrail.org
Jill DeCator Administrative Assistant/Membership Coordinator jdecator@northcountrytrail.org
Matt Davis Regional Trail Coordinator Minnesota/North Dakota mdavis@northcountrytrail.org
Rose Ann M. Davis Office Manager
radavis@northcountrytrail.org
Andrea Ketchmark Director of Trail Development
aketchmark@northcountrytrail.org
Laura Lindstrom Financial Administrator
llindstrom@northcountrytrail.org
Bruce Matthews Executive Director
bmatthews@northcountrytrail.org
Bill Menke Regional Trail Coordinator Wisconsin bmenke@northcountrytrail.org
Matt Rowbotham
Our own GIS Coordinator Matt Rowbotham spends winter behind his sled dogs. Here he is near Alpena in lower Michigan.
Departments
GIS Coordinator
mrowbotham@northcountrytrail.org
Hiking Shorts........................................ 4 National Board of Directors Terms Expiring 2013 Larry Hawkins, President, Lower Michigan Rep. (269)945-5398 · hawkeyemd@cablespeed.com
Lynda Rummel, New York Rep.
(315) 536-9484 · ljrassoc@roadrunner.com
Ray Vlasak, At Large Rep.
(218) 573-3243 · highpines@arvig.net
Terms Expiring 2014 Mary Coffin, VP East, New York Rep. (315) 687-3589 · maryccoffin@gmail.com
Dave Cornell, At Large Rep. (239) 561-6512 · onestep@mei.net
Garry Dill, At Large Rep.
(614) 451-0223 · then321elm@yahoo.com
About the Cover
Bruce Johnson of the Itasca Moraine Chapter snowshoeing on the NCT along the Milton Lake esker in the Chippewa National Forest near Remer, Minnesota. Photo by Matthew Davis.
John Heiam, At Large Rep.
(231) 938-9655 · johnheiam@charter.net
Lorana Jinkerson, Secretary, At Large Rep. (906) 226-6210 · ljinkers@nmu.edu
Doug Thomas, At Large Rep.
(612) 240-4202 · dthomas7000@gmail.com
Terms Expiring 2015 Joyce Appel, Pennsylvania Rep.
North Star Staff
Irene Szabo, Volunteer Editor, (585) 658-4321 or treeweenie@aol.com Peggy Falk, Graphic Design The North Star, Fall issue, Vol. 31, Issue 3-4, is published by the North Country Trail Association, a private, not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization, 229 East Main Street, Lowell, MI 49331. The North Star is published quarterly for promotional and educational purposes and as a benefit of membership in the Association. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without written permission of the North Country Trail Association.
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July-December 2012
(724) 526-5407 · joyceappel@windstream.net
Jack Cohen, Pennsylvania Rep.
(724) 234-5398 · JCohen@zoominternet.net
Tom Moberg, First VP, North Dakota Rep. (701) 271-6769 · tfmoberg@gmail.com
Brian Pavek, Minnesota Rep.
(763) 425-4195 · stn@northcountrail.org
Gaylord Yost, VP West, Great Lakes Rep. (414) 354-8987 · gaylyost@aol.com
Georgeanne Vyverberg
TRAIL
HEAD LARRY HAWKINS President
Communication: It Needs to Go Both Ways
I You just never know what you'll find in a trail register. This one is from a popular nature trail loop that is part of the Finger Lakes Trail system, and receives many international visitors, even though it's relatively in the middle of nowhere at the top of a state forest hill. This entry was from Chinese middle school students.
Sara Cockrell of Grand Traverse Hiking Club Chapter
High up in the hollow interior of this tree lives a porcupine family, which is very tidy about sending its poops, shaped and sized like very large vitamin capsules, outside. Watch out for porky waddling along your trail, though, because he's out in daylight and fears no one. Leash the dog!
www.northcountrytrail.org
am a confessed Conference “junkie." This year, with our 2012 Annual Conference, I have now attended a conference in all seven of our current NCNST states. The Annual Conferences have made it possible for me to hike sections of the trail in every one of our states. Because of Conference, I have met and become friends with members of the NCTA all across the northern tier. Every year I can renew and strengthen those friendships. Conference is also a time to honor those awesome people who build and maintain our trail. And every year I learn new skills and garner new information: even though I have built trail for years, this summer I improved those skills greatly at Conference, learning from our new NPS Trail Manager, Jeff McCusker. I even taught a pretty darned good course in backcountry medicine, if I do say so myself. All that being said, as I stood before the membership at our Annual Meeting, it was clear to me that, through Conference, we reach only a very small percentage of our total NCTA Membership. That is a big concern for me and for the rest of your Board of Directors and your NCTA staff in Lowell who dedicate a huge amount of time and energy every year to Conference. In the last couple of years, I think we have greatly improved our outreach to you, the membership of the NCTA. This magazine that you hold in your hands, the national and chapter web sites, the Blue Blaze Bulletin that comes out over the web, the national and chapter Facebook pages, the regular communiqués from Headquarters to the Chapter and Affiliate Leaders are all significant efforts to keep information and knowledge flowing out to you, our membership. Are we being effective? I honestly don’t know. Clearly, we need feedback from you. Not just gripes and complaining, but we need constructive feedback on how we can do better. What are your needs? What tools can we provide to help you do a better job in your local communities spreading the news of the trail, putting trail on the ground, interacting with landowners to secure our right of way, creating new Trail Towns in your area? You have an awesome group of people serving you at Headquarters in Lowell. You have an incredibly dedicated group on your Board of Directors who are there to represent your local interests and needs. Truly, we cannot do our jobs without communication from you. We are trying to improve our communications to you, but communication goes both ways.
July-December 2012
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“Beef,” as they say in North Dakota, both big and little, are commonly encountered along the trail through grazing lands on the west side of Lake Ashtabula. Photo by Rick Schlauderaff.
HIKING SHORTS Ashtabula Lake 90 Degree Campout North Dakota - On July
21st and 22nd the Sheyenne River Valley Chapter held a backcountry hike and campout. It has been a hot and dry summer here, as everywhere else. We've held a number of hot and sweaty work days, laying trail out on some of the new easements, so it was time to hold a hot and sweaty recreation event. After meeting in Valley City, we dropped off cars at various pickup points along the way and began our hike near the northern end of Lake Ashtabula. Fortunately there was a light breeze from the lakeside all day long, making it warm but not unpleasant. The North Country Trail follows the western shore of the lake on land managed by the Army Corps of Engineers and some private pastures. One isn't going to walk far in North Dakota without encountering cows sooner or later. Close encounters of the bovine kind continued throughout the hike. Some herds reacted with curiosity, others mostly fear. The range doesn't see a lot of foot traffic! In the non-pastured areas, the evidence of deer browsing could be identified, with all the shrubbery trimmed to an even height. Wild plums are not ready until August, but
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July-December 2012
the chokecherries and gooseberries were in prime form for eating. After frequent hydration and rest breaks, we arrived at the Baldhill Creek Wildlife Management Area for the overnight stay. Just because we're camping doesn't mean we have to rough it. With help, and thanks to our Corps friend Scott Tichy, many of the comforts of home had arrived at our primitive campsite before we got there. A bonus diversion was the opportunity to canoe the waters of Lake Ashtabula and admire the pelicans and other waterfowl. Everyone pitched in for the burger cookout with all the fixings, and plenty of cold refreshments. No campfire is complete without sticky burnt marshmallows! And kudos to Chris Hoffarth for two PERFECTLY popped batches of Jiffy Pop popcorn made over an open flame! As a final flourish before nightfall, Rick Schlauderaff gave a reading of “The Cremation Of Sam McGee.” With coyotes singing in the distant hills, it was time to let the fire burn low and turn in. The early bird gets the worm, but who likes eating worms? Even the late risers were treated to bacon and eggs and two brews of coffee! After a lengthy and wide ranging meeting of the minds, the heat began to make itself evident and it was time to tear down and break camp. A dewy morning was about to give way to a yet hotter day on the prairie, so we said our goodbyes until next time and set off down our various trails. —Rick Schlauderaff
Rick Schlauderaff Karen Klos
Reflections of a satisfied crew on their pontoon bridge.
Good eats at camp, even if there is almost no shade in 90 degree heat on the prairie.
Rick Schlauderaff
Pontoon Bridge Beats the Beaver in Allegheny National Forest Pennsylvania - Near the south end of the Allegheny National Forest in Pennsylvania, crews from the Baker Trail and members from ANF and Clarion Chapters met to solve a 66-foot watery dilemma created by recent beaver activity. To keep the scope of construction manageable, pontoons intended for docks were used to float short sections of bridging across the currentless water. The pontoons were donated by the Forest Service, left over from a prior swamp crossing project, and provided buoyancy for a series of short decks, hinged to provide flexibility as the segments bob up and down under a moving hiker's weight. The whole necklace of short decks on pontoons is anchored at each end by a staked footer with rocks. — Based on input from Karen and Keith Klos
New/Old Jordan Valley 45° Chapter Michigan - At our Annual Meeting in January, we formally voted to change our chapter’s name from “Tittabawassee” to “Jordan Valley 45°.” The NCTA Board approved our name change in February. This name change is in recognition of the premier feature of our trail section—the Jordan Valley—and of the (currently) little-known fact that in the Jordan Valley the North County Trail makes its ONLY crossing of 45° north latitude in its entire 4600 miles. We also think that the new name will better identify us with our locality and attract more local participation.
www.northcountrytrail.org
Karen Klos
Stiles such as this are common in North Dakota, to enable hikers to cross private fences between grazing plots.
Digging and measuring for the anchoring footers at each end.
July-December 2012
The North Star 5
Marty Swank Marty Swank
These backpackers said the trail was great and they planned on coming back, thanking our volunteers for the new bridge they all stood on.
Chequamegon Serendipity Wisconsin - On August 14th a few
volunteers successfully placed a 12' long single log bridge over 18 Mile Spring Creek in northeastern Wisconsin, following Bill Menke's expert techniques from past bridges. This improvement will make the creek crossing safer and more enjoyable for everyone, including volunteers. JUST as we had finished the bridge, a crew of six backpackers showed up coming from the east. (Picture above) It was as if someone had said, “OK, cue in the backpackers.” Amazing. They said the trail was great and planned on coming back, thanking our volunteers. They also signed in to our new registration box as a group from Mighty Oaks Academy, a residential Christian discipleship facility for men whose lives are at a point of transition. — Marty Swank
Chequamegon Chapter Trail Sign Project Underway Wisconsin - On March 15, 2012, the Chequamegon
Chapter of the North Country National Scenic Trail received approval for their trail signage project field grant request, so Chequamegon members Peter and Eileen Freiburger, Rick Pomerleau, and Mary Stenberg went to work. Supplies were purchased and sign construction began. Peter, Eileen, Rick and Mary had hiked the entire 60+ miles of the Chequamegon Chapter’s section of the NCT last November and noticed the lack of signage. They agreed that destination signs should be posted (to begin with) at 10 designated parking areas along the trail, which would require construction and installation of 18 signs.
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July-December 2012
Rick Pomerleau and Mary Stenberg display the first destination sign constructed and installed at the NCT parking area on Forest Road 187 (Mineral Lake Road), ChequamegonNicolet National Forest in Wisconsin.
All hikers appreciate knowing their location and the exact mileage to destinations along the trail. Chequamegon Chapter members believe the installation of the destination signs will greatly enhance hikers' experience. Signs are being constructed from 2˝ x 10˝ or 2˝ x 12˝ treated green lumber using a sign-making template and a router. Signs are being made by Rick Pomerleau. It is hoped that the thicker, treated lumber will last longer than the signs constructed in the past from thinner lumber. Members of the Chapter, with input from Wisconsin NCTA Regional Trail Coordinator Bill Menke and Karen Larsen from the Washburn District National Forest Service office, supported the plan to “seal” the signs with a clear deck sealer as opposed to painting them; thus the signs have a natural, unobtrusive appearance. Each sign was mounted on a 4˝ x 4˝ treated post with three 5˝ lag screws. Post holes were dug 2 feet deep and a re-bar rod was installed crosswise at the base of the post to improve anchoring. The first four destination signs were installed on Saturday, April 28, 2012, as part of a planned trail maintenance day. Sixteen Chequamegon Chapter members and two USFS volunteers participated in a day of work re-blazing, lopping, and clearing downed trees along a 4-mile section of the trail. Since then, register boxes made of steel ammo cans have been added to some of the sign posts. Reading the positive comments written by hikers has already been a heartwarming experience and makes one feel proud of all the work performed by volunteers to keep the trail in tip-top condition. — Mary Stenberg
www.northcountrytrail.org
Scary log bridge. Oh, for a railing. Looks from the piles of dimensioned lumber as if plans for a new one are underway, however.
Sara Cockrell
Right: One of our members worked for the Traverse City school system for quite a few years and was an adopter also. He offered to make the signs on his own time and we just paid for the materials. He laminated the aluminum sign with vinyl first, then machined the info on his special machine which cut it out of the vinyl. Since he retired, we’ve paid a sign company with NCTA grants. — Arlen Matson
Early hike, before leaf-out, on beautifully benched tread on a hillside path in Grand Traverse country.
Sara Cockrell
I never expected as many as 36 on my hikes this spring. While six GTHC members were doing most of their hikes on their own, we developed a core group of new women I nicknamed the “hard-core hiking babes,” who showed up rain or shine, including 3 days of 90-degree heat, and one road walk in an unexpected downpour, which will surely become a tall tale! The 10 weekends passed so quickly with the camaraderie we shared along the trail from week to week, as we made new friends, following the blue blazes from “our backyard,” along the shore of Hodenpyl Dam Pond, up and down the ridges of the Manistee River, through the Boardman River “Valley of Giants,” along Muncie Lakes Pathway, through Sand Lakes Quiet Area, to Kalkaska and beyond. We were inspired by each other, a Navy Mom, cancer and stroke survivors, too! We celebrated Peach’s 5-yr A.T. thruhike Anniversary. We temporarily lost drivers on two of the first shuttles, but got it perfected after that. We spotted a porcupine and an owl in the woods. We enjoyed a paddle back to our cars after one of the hikes along the Manistee. The neighboring RV in the campground on National Trails Day made us a campfire for our potluck, to take the chill away on a cool and rainy day, then joined us for some good eats. We made the cover of the May/June issue of The Northern Camper, “Take a Hike, Trekking the NCT.” We watched the landscape change from spring to summer. We got strong and fast together, starting with a 6 mile hike at 2 mph, ending with a 12 mile hike at 3 mph in the heat, wow! Update: as of early September, five had completed the 100-mile Challenge, and on Sept 14th, “Navy Mom” Georgia Durga from the “babes” made it! Six more were expected soon. — Sara “Energizer” Cockrell
Sara Cockrell
Grand Traverse Hiking Club 100-Mile Challenge, Mid-April To Mid-June Michigan - My goals in February were to get more hikers out on GTHC’s section of the NCT, and make it easier for more to finish our 2nd Annual 100-Mile Challenge, hopefully double or triple our first year’s results of 17, which was a big success already! 73 participated in my scheduled & publicized day hikes, 40 of them newcomers. 16 were getting close to completing the Challenge in June. Of course, I couldn’t have done it without the help of many others, especially those who assisted with the shuttles, and those who were willing to sit on the floor of my van for 20 minutes with up to seven others. Sometimes, it sounded like a party back there, as we bumped down the dirt roads to the start trailhead.
July-December 2012
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Fifteen Sault Area Middle School students celebrated Global Youth Day on April 25th by volunteering to work with the Hiawatha Shoreto-Shore Chapter of the North Country Trail Association at the Castle Rock Project in the upper peninsula of Michigan. The volunteers donned hard hats, goggles, and gloves and proceeded to learn trail construction techniques by painting blue blazes, removing brush from the vision line, and clipping out a viewpoint. The area they improved is on a long ridge. This 3000 foot section of trail was designed to avoid several steep hills in the ancient dune system that has been eroded. The new section of tread is more scenic and easier to hike. A hotdog lunch around a small bonfire was enjoyed by the crew. The day was wrapped with a hike on the North Country National Scenic Trail to the Mackinac Bridge view from a bench on a ridge. Joan Cox, HSS Roving Crew member, shared some of the comments from the students. Cassie: “Oh, I love hardhats.” Hunter: “Are you going to put port-opotties on the trail?” Claire: “I am going to hike this trail to the end.” Joan was impressed by her work crew’s enthusiasm. — Kay Kujawa
Protection In the Land of Fracking Pennsylvania - Multiple gas and
Irene Szabo
Global Youth Day Hiawatha Shore-to-Shore Upper Michigan -
oil extraction companies are active in the Allegheny National Forest and elsewhere in northwestern Pennsylvania, each with the potential to cross the NCT trail route, thereby disturbing the path. Keith Klos realized that most of their employees assume that the trail, if they even notice it in the woods, is built and maintained by the Forest Service, and few of them knew that the trail was part of a much larger whole, so he embarked on a mission to inform every potential company of NCT’s existence. He found that once each of them realized that volunteers tended the trail, their attitude changed, as each promised to have their employees be more attentive to the trail and its facilities. Respecting signage and trailhead kiosks came up, and one drilling company even put a crew on repairs to a disturbed portion of the trail. It's a lesson that bears repeating: few non-hikers understand that a break in the trail is utterly confusing to someone hiking through but unfamiliar with the area. It never occurs to others that loss of signage or blazing can mean lost hikers. So Keith's education mission is sure to bear fruit. — Based on input from Karen and Keith Klos, ANF Chapter, Pennsylvania
Tom Reimers, president of NCTA Board 1987-1990, and FLTC president 1990, lunches on a leaning red oak during one of the hikes for the FLT 50th anniversary weekend.
Finger Lakes Trail Celebrates 50th Anniversary New York - A record registration of 215
Karen Klos
Austin Lowes
Middle school students work for HSS Chapter along their trail.
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Dan Weaver (left) of the Pennsylvania Independent Oil and Gas Association, a trade organization, meets with Keith Klos at a trailhead near oil extraction activity.
July-December 2012
people enjoyed a weekend of hikes and programs in the middle of June at the very location, Keuka College on one of the Finger Lakes, where the first group of visionaries created the organization that would carry this trail dream to fruition in 1962. Three days of sunshine (!) on Keuka Lake, only a teensy too hot, which was good for this summer, gave us hikes along nearby sections of the FLT and in local parks. Programs included a recently retired DEC wildlife specialist recounting his career spent restoring bald eagle populations to New York, and another evening spent wallowing in our own memories, mostly through pictures old and new. The 50th Anniversary grand effort to have the entire main trail of 560 miles hiked in one single day actually succeeded. On National Trails Day, a vast effort at coordination of volunteer hike leaders on 70 trail segments created a total hike, with every mile hiked by SOMEBODY that day, most often by small groups responding to heavy publicity. Congratulations to the brave souls who conceived the crazy idea and actually pulled it off! Time passes, alas, so the four original members who attended the 40th had all died, but 94-year-old Ed Sidote, NCTA Lifetime Achievement honoree for 2010, got somebody to drive him to the event for one day. We are grateful to have many of our 1970's members still working hard on the FLT. — Irene Szabo
Karen Klos
Irene szabo
Oldest finisher, John Schmitt (right) of western New York receives hearty congratulations from Keith Klos.
Finger Lakes Trail Conference New York - NCT roadside sign
provided by National Park Service, mounted on each side of trailhead bulletin board at a small parking area in southwestern NY on a busy country highway. Gin Shear gets into this picture because she helped me replace the plexiglas on the bulletin board and drill holes for mounting the signs; she comes complete with a small generator. This is the 45 acre property donated by John Cobb to the Finger Lakes Trail, where we have a nearly two-mile loop including NCT, that has become more heavily used since Devin Callihan created a threepart geocache loop here. If you want your own high visibility highway sign, contact Jeff McCusker, our NPS Trail Manager. — Irene Szabo
Allegheny 100 Summary Pennsylvania - The Allegheny
National Forest Chapter held its third annual Allegheny 100 Challenge, for which participants try to finish 100, 50, or 25 miles of trail within 50 hours over part of the NCT in northwestern Pennsylvania. Hikers must carry their own food, water, and shelter. The event has grown immensely, with 82 participants, more than triple the first year's registration. Six 100-milers completed in time. Michael Merry from Ohio succeeded twice now in three attempts, while Eric Chapman made it, too, in his third try. Amanda DeBar and Kevin Skilskyj finished in 46 hours on their second attempt, and Jennifer Aradi did it in 46 hours on her first try. John Schmitt from NY was the oldest person to complete the challenge. One guy even ran the route in bare feet!
New Mile of Trail in Wampum Territory Pennsylvania - The Wampum
Chapter has dedicated a new mile of the North Country National Scenic Trail in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, to the memory of Army Specialist James Earl Hupp who lost his life in Vietnam in 1970. On May 19th of this year chapter members presented a plaque to Mrs. Carol Kirkwood, Hupp’s sister, honoring him. Mrs. Kirkwood had granted permission for the chapter to build the new mile of trail across her farm property, replacing a mile of road walk with a wooded hilltop overlooking the North Fork of Little Beaver Creek. During his discussions with her about the trail and the proposed route, Wampum Chapter Vice President Dennis Garrett noted that although James’s death in service to his country occurred over forty years ago, he is still very much on Mrs. Kirkwood’s mind. Funding for the plaque was arranged by chapter member Sher Eiler who obtained a grant from her employer, the Eaton Corporation. The plaque was installed on the Kirkwood property, adjacent to Pennsylvania Gamelands 285, in a serene spot overlooking the Little Beaver Creek and Painter Run. —Dave Brewer
Dave Brewer
— Based on info from Karen Klos
www.northcountrytrail.org
Karen Klos
Right: Barefoot competitor on the Allegheny 100 Challenge Peter Zelinka from Ohio, who started going barefoot in January 2012. Of the hike he said, “The first six miles were actually quite pleasant on my bare feet. The next day was considerably more tough. As I got more exhausted, I paid less attention to where my feet landed, so I ended up smashing my feet into hidden rocks countless times. I also got a few thorns in my feet. “Overall the 25-mile hike was pretty tough on my bare feet, mainly because of the 30+ pound pack on my back, which did not allow me to be as nimble as usual.”
This plaque installed on the Kirkwood Farm is Wampum’s Hupp Memorial, dedicated to the memory of James Earl Hupp, who lost his life in Vietnam. July-December 2012
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Peter Nordgren
Funding for Trail
Protection Andrea Ketchmark
Hikers follow the North Country Trail in western Douglas County, Wisconsin.
University Of Wisconsin-Superior, National Park Service Sign Agreement Wisconsin - An agreement among five organizations,
including the University of Wisconsin-Superior and the National Park Service, will permit expansion of the North Country National Scenic Trail through a research area managed by the university. About one and one-half miles of the hiking trail will pass through the university’s MacQuarrie Wetlands in western Douglas County near the Minnesota border. The property, an artificial wetland built to replace natural resources removed through highway construction, includes ponds, streams, and scenic overlooks of the Nemadji River Valley. Bill Menke, regional trail coordinator for the NCTA, said, “The National Park Service and its non-profit partner NCTA depend on the establishment of partnerships with many different public and private partners. We are excited to be working with UW-Superior to establish the trail route for another segment of the trail within Wisconsin. Depending on the speed of progress that occurs on trail segments that are already underway, we anticipate that the work of constructing the UWS trail segment could take place as early as the spring of 2013. Dr. Peter Nordgren, interim associate vice chancellor for outreach at UW-Superior, said the university plans to involve students in development of the trail in the MacQuarrie Wetlands area. Trail features are expected to include a trailhead with parking, an information kiosk, and signage. A backpacker campsite is planned on the trail nearby on adjacent property. —Peter Nordgren
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July-December 2012
I
n simple terms, trail protection refers to the act of securing a permanent corridor for the North Country Trail. But this is no simple task. With more than 2,000 miles of North Country Trail routed on private land, we have an incredibly complex puzzle laid out before us. Many of you already have handshake or written trail access agreements with landowners but few permanent easements exist to secure access for the NCT into the future. This can be an expensive, legally difficult and time-consuming endeavor. Over the next few issues of North Star, we will take time to delve further into the skills and resources we need to gain access to private land and ensure what you build stays intact and is enjoyed by future generations. The Cost of Trail Protection
The costs associated with different trail protection options vary greatly. Will the landowner donate an easement and you just need to pay the filing fees? Or do you need to pay the landowner for a Trail Access Easement (TAE), or are you working with a land trust or a local agency to secure a Conservation Easement (CE) or something more? Our estimates fluctuate, but we can be sure that to acquire a corridor for the NCT, we need to be thinking in the millions. This may seem overwhelming, but with this new need comes new opportunity. No longer are we trail builders only. We are entering the world of land protection and with this, we expect we will see growth in membership and a new group of donors eager to leave a legacy. Here are some ways we are getting started.
Trail Protection Grant Program
Although we have relied mostly on donated easements in the past, NCTA has realized that we need to be flexible; we need to work with landowners to address their families’ need and desires for their land. This means having funds available to compensate landowners, so we have built a Trail Protection Fund and a Trail Protection Grant Program to disperse those funds. Through this new program, your Chapter or Affiliate/Partner Organization can apply for funds to purchase easements or cover other related costs. Grants may be applied toward the purchase of Rights of Way including Trail Access Easements (TAE) and related costs. All requests will be considered but in an effort to put our resources where they are needed most, priority will be given to projects that will make the most impact.
Jill DeCator
management partners like the USDA Forest Service, state agencies and local land trusts to find solutions that can make us all happy. Likewise, many state and local governments and land trusts have sources of funds that can assist you in your work. Working Together To Protect The Trail
None of us can do this alone. We must be flexible and reach out to a build a broad coalition of partners to get the job done. This is an incredible undertaking and we can be successful only if we work together. Here are a few steps you can take to get involved in the process: Donate to the Trail Protection Fund: It’s crucial that we build a fund that will allow us to be flexible and address needs as they arise. Learn more about Trail Protection: NCTA offers guidance online in our Volunteer Resources section found at northcountrytrail.org/members/volunteerresources. Identify the needs in your area: Work with your chapter or organization to identify and document the specific needs of your area. Contact Andrea Ketchmark at aketchmark@northcountrytrail.org and we can put our heads together.
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Next Issue: stay tuned for the next installment focusing on identifying and tracking priorities in your area. Andrea Ketchmark signing a grant check in Lowell, Michigan.
Does your project: Have matching funding? Connect existing segments? Protect particularly vulnerable corridors OR existing Trail? Limit use to foot travel only? Protect a minimum of a 10´ corridor? (more is preferred) Qualify as official route of the NCT fitting the requirements laid out by the NPS? Have an active chapter or partner to carry out and monitor the project? Protect the trail for 99 years or perpetuity? If you have landowners who are interested in an easement, start pulling together this information. An online grant application and guidelines will be available on northcountrytrail.org by early January 2013.
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Other Funding Sources
Many state and local grant programs exist to help organizations protect land or recreation resources. In 2009, the NPS was given the right to purchase land on behalf of the North Country Trail (willing seller authority). Each year NCTA and NPS staff will work to identify our land acquisition priorities and submit requests for funding through the Land and Water Conservation Fund. It is important to note that neither the NPS nor the NCTA wants to be the title holder of the property, but we have many emerging opportunities to work with our land
www.northcountrytrail.org
The Trail Protection Fund
The Trail Protection Fund does not have a regular revenue stream that feeds it. In order for it to replenish, donations need to come in specifically restricted for use as trail protection funds. Outright gifts of cash, as well as planned gifts associated with one's estate can be restricted to the Fund. If you would like to support that Fund right now there are several ways you can do that. In the middle of this issue of the North Star is an envelope addressed to the NCTA with a check off box for the Trail Protection Fund which you can use. If you want to give online, just click the Donate button on the NCTA website and make sure you write "Trail Protection Fund" in the Comments box. You can be assured that 100% of your contribution will be placed in the Fund and used exclusively to protect the trail. Trail Protection Fund Challenge Match Recently a great opportunity was put before the NCTA from the J. A. Woollam Foundation. NCTA was challenged to raise $10,000 from members, which Woolam matched with an additional $10,000. In a similar challenge, the Dave and Jan Cornell family from Delton, Michigan, pledged $5,000 per year for trail protection projects if we could raise another $5,000. We put out the call to the members of the NCTA and within 13 days, the rest of the money came in! July-December 2012
The North Star 11
A Reflection on Winter Camping Brian Huschl
works its way above the horizon allows a new appreciation of the lightness of living simply, and can set into one’s soul gratitude for the bounty that affords the luxury of camping trailside. While I generally do one or two additional winter trips every year, the solo solstice trip holds a special place for me. The labor of love that makes available the newer sections of the North Country Trail through the Paul Bunyan and White Earth State Forests, and works to build and maintain the trail across the North Country, is deeply appreciated. Previously published in Call of the North, newsletter for Minnesota's Star of the North Chapter. Brian Huschl is a member of the Itasca
Brian J. Huschl
B
Bill Menke
eing on the trail in the dead of winter has for me become more than a chance to get out for a camping trip. It has become, for those familiar with the term as it is used in yoga and meditation, a practice. For the past 13 years an annual solo trip, on or near the winter solstice, has afforded me the chance to reflect, refresh, and return to the New Year ready for the challenges to come. Each year, I find a trailhead and start down it–on foot or ski–embracing winter’s solitude. Hikes have run the gamut from backpacking in freezing rain in Nebraska to waking to an unexpected sub-30 in the Badlands of North Dakota; from ski touring the North Country Trail in Chippewa National Forest to taking in telemark turns along the Appalachian Trail in the Green Mountains of Vermont. For the past couple of years I have headed to the luxury of groomed trails and the James Lake Cabin in Manitoba’s Turtle Mountain Provincial Park. This year, however, it was time to get back to the roots of the solo solstice trip; a through ski on a 20-mile section of Minnesota's North Country Trail from Hubbard County 91 to U.S. Highway 71 beckoned. While I gain some assistance skijoring with my Siberian Husky, the cargo sled of camp gear and unbroken trail made the 20 mile trek in two nights a do-able yet pleasant trip. It was capped off by switching to lighter ski gear for a quick six mile loop on Itasca State Park’s groomed trails. Winter camping–whether in the luxury of yurt or cabin, the comfort of a woodstove heated tent, or the solace of a tarp shelter pitched in the snow, affords a quiet not offered in other seasons. No pestering hum of mosquitoes or creeping of tiny ticks’ feet upon one’s leg; no firing of hunter’s shotgun or passing of raucous groups out for a day hike. The chickadee’s chirp, the wolf’s howl, the raven’s caw, and the passing tracks of deer, moose, and occasional fellow winter traveler, afford all the companionship needed to appreciate the silence of stillness. Settling into sleep in the raw cold of a long winter night can serve to remind one of life’s baseline, and places into perspective the petty problems with which we too often occupy our time. Waking to winter’s extended twilight as the sun slowly Rovers Lake Campsite
12 The North Star
July-December 2012
Moraine Chapter, and lives in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
North Star Submission Guidelines Without your material, we cannot have a magazine, so we eagerly request your submission of pictures and text for every issue. Please send both to Irene Szabo at treeweenie@aol.com, or 6939 Creek Road, Mt. Morris, NY 14510. Please don’t embed pictures within your article, but send them separately as .jpg attachments. Do not refer me to your picture collection hosted by some other picture-hosting site! Do not send your North Star submissions to the NCTA office, because they will just have to re-send them to me, and it HAS happened that precious articles have thus been lost in the shuffle. Front cover photo candidates: prefer vertical format, and if digital, at least 300 dpi, AND we are always looking for great cover photos! Next deadline for Vol. 32, Issue 1, is 1 January 2013. Because this will be the State of the Trail issue, we hope for contributions from every trailhosting chapter or affiliate, outlining your accomplishments for 2011. Please do not repeat news already detailed in this issue. Thank you! — Your volunteer editor, Irene
MATTHEWS’
MEANDERS BRUCE MATTHEWS Executive Director
T
he campfire gave off a welcoming glow, mirroring the warm greetings shared by those surrounding it. My wife Linda and I had just arrived for this year’s “Bring on the Bridge” gathering, when Hiawatha Shore-to-Shore Chapter gathers the faithful for a weekend of hiking and camaraderie culminating with the Labor Day Mackinac Bridge Walk over the Straits separating Lakes Michigan and Huron. A Michigan tradition in its own right, the Bridge Walk is the only day of the year when hikers can “bag” these 5 miles of North Country Trail. There are no pedestrian crossings at any other time. These NCTAers were gathered around the campfire in anticipation of this year’s hike across the “Big Mac.” Hiking the Big Mac has been happening since before there was a North Country National Scenic Trail, in fact starting in 1957 when the bridge finished construction and united Michigan’s Upper and Lower Peninsulas (an event still mourned by die-hard Yoopers). But it is only recently that the HSS chapter has sponsored their “Bring on the Bridge” program, a real service to NCTAer’s seeking to complete the trail. Later that evening, sitting around the campfire, toasting marshmallows and telling stories I was struck again by how fortunate I am to be serving NCTA’s members and volunteers, and playing some small part in enabling our North Country Trail community—the Red Plaid Nation—to build, maintain and tell the story of the trail that unites and connects us. “Bring on the Bridge” is an HSS chapter project, but its leadership over the past four years has come from Marv and Charlene DeWitt. Sitting around the fire, with the conversation naturally turning to the Association, both Marv and Charlene shared some discouragement that things weren’t
being accomplished as fast as they’d hoped, that relationships with the Forest Service weren’t better, that they wished they could get more chapter members to meetings and events, and that they wished to see more young people….familiar themes among most of us along the trail, I suspect. As I listened, surrounded as we were by friends and trail acquaintances with faces lit with the campfire’s glow, I thought about how I could offer encouragement, maybe even advice, in addressing Marv and Charlene’s concerns. And the truth is, I don’t think I did. Sometimes the enormity of what we’re all about gets in the way of celebrating the tiny victories and small successes we accomplish along the way. What was it Albert Schweitzer said, something like “No ray of sunlight is ever lost, but the green that it awakens into existence needs time to sprout. All things worth doing are done in faith.” Gazing around the circle at that fire I saw folks from five or six different NCTA chapters. There were families, including parents, grandparents and little ones (watch out for flaming marshmallows!). There was a mother/daughter duo from Ann Arbor who’d never heard of the NCTA until they found out about Bring on the Bridge. More than forty folks sharing stories, touching lives, making new friends and re-uniting with the old, and building new traditions—all because Marv and Charlene said “OK—we’ll do it one more year.” All because they had faith. As special as Marv and Charlene are, they are not unique. There are Marv and Charlenes, Kay and Stans, Loranas and Marilyns, Marge and Johns, Dewayne and Joans everywhere along the trail, each in his own way making such an important difference, and each, in his or her own way, demonstrating faith that their efforts will blossom, even though they may not get to see it bloom. So, here’s a big thank you to all the Marvs and Charlenes, and to each of our unsung heroes along 4600 miles of North Country Trail, working and sharing in this faith. As with our North Country-hardened forebears, you are defined not by adversity but by what you do with it. And some of what you are doing is building the North Country National Scenic Trail.
Bring On the Bridge III FORTY-FIVE THOUSAND people hiked five miles of the Hiawatha Shore-to-Shore section of the North Country National Scenic Trail on Labor Day. The Mackinac Bridge, locally known as the “Big Mac,” allows foot traffic only on Labor Day. HSS hosted the NCT hiking rally that included not only the “Big Mac” hike but other hikes in the area over the long weekend. Walter Coyler led a hike to the new USFS bridge over the scenic Carp River. He and his wife, Kathy, maintain that section. Mary Rebert from the Chief Noonday Chapter volunteered and organized a trek from Worth Road to Burma Road. HSS Student Member Justice Keech paced an early morning hike through the HSS Castle Rock Project area. Nightly bonfires gathered the campers for story telling and hiking tales and the sharing of NCTA news from each of the chapters. A potluck dinner was held on Sunday evening. The impressive Blue Moon rose slowly over the horizon providing rare photography opportunities. —Kay Kujawa
Scenic Carp River Bridge.
www.northcountrytrail.org
July-December 2012
The North Star 13
Mary Coffin
NCTA Extended
Adirondacks Outing in the
September 4-10, 2012
Peaked Mountain summit, 2,919 feet. See view from pond below on page 21.
Jo Taylor Trip Participant
I
t was a winning combination—the beautiful Adirondack region of New York State, a leader extraordinaire, and a companionable group of hikers. The eight trip participants came from four states along the North Country Trail: Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio, and New York. Some of our Midwesterners had never been to the Adirondacks or even to New 2 York State before. We gathered in Chittenango in central New York for a brief orientation at the comfortable log home of our leader, Mary Coffin, and her capable assistant, husband Bill. The next morning we loaded the vehicles and set off in a caravan, Mary driving the 15-passenger van with most of the participants and our belongings, followed by Bill in his Subaru towing a trailer with supplies. Two participants who intended to extend their stay brought up the rear in their own car. After a picnic lunch on aptly named Pleasant Lake in the hamlet of Speculator in the heart of the central Adirondacks, we arrived at our headquarters, the state campground at Lewey Lake, another of the Adirondacks’ many splendid lakes. Everyone helped with setting up camp, and during our stay took their turns at KP duty on their assigned days. Because of her intimate knowledge of the Adirondacks and many years’ experience leading hikes, Mary was able to dispense with a hired outfitter and served as both guide and outfitter herself. She and Bill were on duty at every meal. Mary never stopped bustling about; it appeared that she does not know how to rest. Her boundless enthusiasm, good spirits, and expertise were key to the success of the trip. Bill was always good for a story, and the devotion of both Coffins to the NCT was apparent. Temporarily grounded on doctor’s orders, Bill stayed back at camp each day, did whatever chores were needed, had the fire going on our return, and kept the pesky mallards and his friend “French Lewey," the resident red squirrel, away from our site. Lewey the squirrel, like Lewey the lake, was named for French Lewey (or Louie), a trapper and local character at the turn of the 20th century. We had four days devoted to hiking, with the length of each day’s hike in the six- to eight-mile range over what Mary called “relatively flat” terrain. True, it wasn’t mountain climbing, but relatively flat does not mean flat. The hikes took us along beautiful streams cascading over rocks, past beaver ponds and wetlands and house-size glacial erratics, through beautiful woods, and along lovely lakes surrounded by wooded small mountains. Each hike was about an hour’s drive from our centrally located campground, and the drive to the trailhead was part of the fun. The first day’s drive took us lurching, swaying, and bouncing up what was more of a stream bed than a road—a drive that would have been difficult for a 4-wheel-drive vehicle, to say nothing of a 15-passenger van, but our
14 The North Star
July-December 2012
Rent-a-Wreck van, with Mary at the wheel, got us through. On another day’s drive we were surprised to encounter the Hudson River, at the take-out point for rafts negotiating the white water of the Hudson River Gorge. We're more accustomed to thinking of the wide Hudson at its other end, next to New York City! Each hike took us along a section of existing trail that will be incorporated into the North Country Trail. Mary, who has bushwhacked and GPS’d the intervening sections of proposed trail, showed us on the map how the sections will eventually link up and pointed out the junctions as we hiked. Some highlights of our stay: �Awesome blueberry pancakes. The food in general was excellent with plenty of variety, and everyone took a turn at preparing the meals planned by Mary. �Three loons (mother and two juveniles) seen and heard �Three otters (adult and two young ones) seen on a rock by a beaver pond �Climbing Peaked Mountain. The Adirondack High Peaks and mountains of Vermont were visible from the summit. Apparently there was once a small garnet mine on the mountainside. We didn’t see any traces of the mine, but we did do a bit of garnet prospecting on the way up. There was an area of the trail with rocks containing embedded garnet and there were little flakes of clear garnet in the trail tread, looking much like chips of red glass. The “one hour” side trip took two and a half hours. Meanwhile those who had chosen to stay below at Peaked Mountain Pond were getting cold and worried. Mary’s optimistic time and distance estimates were a running joke–it was always “just a half mile more.” �Learning that duct tape is useful for camping and hiking, even for reattaching the soles of boots. And it was “just a half mile more” as we spent an hour finishing one hike in a downpour. Even though everyone had rain gear with them, some chose not to wear it because of the heat, and all finished the hike soaked to various degrees, stopping on the way back to camp to purchase hot drinks or ice cream (hiker’s choice) and Continued on page 21
The National Park Service enables us to thank both award recipients and those who turn in their volunteer hours. Remember: Everything you do that contributes to and supports the trail counts! In each hourly category, volunteer workers and their awards are listed. 100 Hour Award Recipients (certificate, pin, name badge) David Adams Bruce Allard Raymond Bell Zach Braunel Larry Bryan Erich Drescher Dennis Duda
Michael Duchek Michael Dundas Lon Emerick Teri Foust Eileen Freiburger Peter Frieburger Amy Fyn
Morgan Grasso Mike Grove Ellen Hass Don Hazlett Jason Hofstede Nelda Ikenberry Kirk Johnson
Robert Kahl Neil Kirby Joseph Kruerger Eric Longman Todd McMahon Mary Moberg Elwira Mytys
Chris Nimps Travis O’Neill Mary Ann Rebert Pat Schlaack David Schlosser Norma Jean Scurry Nick Thierer
Doug Thomas Dave Wright
Richard Pomerlau David Potzler Mary Ann Rebert Mary Stenberg Merl Schlaack David Schlosser Joe Schetter Norma Jean Scurry
Doug Seaney Gordy Schelde Doug Turner Beth Trout Mike Toole Doug Thomas Jay Warren Michael Wilkey
Dale Yerkes Nancy Zebko Kenneth Zimmer
Jim Antonson Jim Charvat Paul Johnson Loren Bach Dennis Fay Reginald Krueger Sue Boettner Judy Ferguson Robert Leedle Devin Callihan Mark Glendon Mike Lynch 1,000 Hour Award Recipients (embroidered vest)
Philip Nimps Ric Olson Edward Ronkowski Linda Sootsman
Robert Sulaski Ross Spencer Jay Warren
Marilyn Chadwick Jacob Detrie
Don Penly Steve Webster
200 Hour Award Recipients (water bottle) Bruce Allard Gerald Anderson Philip Anderson Laurie Bailey Raymond Bell Jason Allen Bennett Ruth Bergquist Katie Blau
Sue Boettner Robert Cooley Betsy Duede Michael Dundas Melanie Fullman Cathy Garrett Tim Hass Jason Hofstede
Jim Houk Marilyn Hoogstraten Reginald Krueger Lucia Krueger Joe Kravetz Kenneth Knight Jane Leedle Frank Lynn
400 Hour Award Recipients (embroidered shirt)
Florence Hedeen Gary Narum
Peter Nye Barb Pavek
2,500 Hour Award Recipients (embroidered jacket)
David Brewer Ed Chappel
Mary Coffin Bob Gould
Myron Hawkins Gary Johnson
Bobby Koepplin Edwin Morse
Larry Pio Ronald Sootsman
4,000 Hour Award Recipients ( President’s Call to Service Award-Certificate, pin, letter from White House) Richard Kroener
Stanley Kujawa
Arlen Matson
Raymond Vlasak
500 Hour “America the Beautiful” Pass Jim Antonson Loren Bach Anne Billiard Keith Brown Devin Callihan Charles Church Dave Cornell Joan Cox Joe Dabes
Patrick Delaney Charlene DeWitt Marvin DeWitt Garrett Dill Eleanor Fairbanks Judy Ferguson John Forslin Mark Glendon Tim Hass
www.northcountrytrail.org
Myron Hawkins Steven Hicks Lorana Jinkerson Keith Klos Karen Klos Bobby Koepplin Richard Kroener Al Larmann John Leinen
Harlan Liljequist Janice Lindstrom Arlen Matson Jim Matteson Bill Menke Jack Miller Tom Moberg Philip Nimps Brian Pavek
John Pearson Don Penly Ron Rice Ronald Sootsman Linda Sootsman Clifford Stammer John Stehle Karen Stenberg June Thaden
July-December 2012
Charles Vannette Raymond Vlasak Steve Webster Joan Young
The North Star 15
NCTA Awards for 2012 Irene Szabo
Y
our awards committee says this annually, but it truly does get harder every year to choose a few among the many deserving nominees. While there are more nominees now, too, there are still whole states who sent in NO nominees, so our task should be even more difficult. So if you don’t see your most deserving, heroic neighborhood volunteer in this list, there might be a simple reason: YOU didn’t send in a nomination. The following people are the results of excruciating decisions made by the committee for our NCTA awards, which made for a heart-warming program Friday evening at the annual conference, presented by Lorana Jinkerson. A Vanguard nod to Wisconsin Congressman Tom Petri was shockingly overdue, since the initial birth of the Recreational Trails Program and its continuing existence are due in large part to his unflagging support since its inception in 1991. Grants for trail programs have funded an astounding number of expensive projects over the last twenty years, despite repeated attempts to scrap the ongoing program. Projects in North Dakota, New York, Minnesota, and Wisconsin along the NCT have benefitted due to his persistent support of the RTP grant program. His vision was instrumental in its inception, and continues today. The other Vanguard goes to yet another public servant who has helped us in many ways, NY Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Senior Forester Gretchen Cicora, who is responsible for the recreational management of fourteen state forests through which our trail runs. Gretchen’s duties include leading the coordinated review of the Unit Management Plans for each of these state forests, which often entails careful juggling of competing demands for various recreational uses. In this role, she has been a steadfast supporter of the NCT and FLT as a single use footpath, which makes her hero enough for us, but she is also always available to visit a potential reroute with us or to contemplate a new bridge or shelter. In addition, Gretchen has also arranged for FLT/NCT chain sawyers to receive certification training in several of her state forests. Often, Gretchen specifies that the trees felled during these courses be set aside for use in construction of shelters. One such training session last year yielded enough larch logs to build three separate shelters! It was great fun to call Joyce Appel’s name for the Leadership award, since it was a surprise. She is on the awards committee, but we kept the secret. For many years now she has been the energetic organizer of many events in Pennsylvania designed to spread the good news about the trail and bring in new people, capped off by the huge Memorial Day Outdoor Extravaganza which offers different activities to hundreds of people annually. Through her efforts, the NCT chapters have become part of the state-wide Keystone Trail Association: she is on their board, her Butler Chapter hosted a KTA weekend, and several KTA work parties have benefitted the NCT. It will surprise no one in “Penn’s Woods” that she is already leading efforts to plan the 2013 NCTA conference. Joyce is an NCTA board member, too. 16 The North Star
July-December 2012
Larry Pio of the Chief Noonday Chapter won the Outreach award this year, honored especially for his efforts to create alliances that ultimately inform more people about the NCT. To host Andrew Skurka this spring he recruited two college groups likely to enjoy both the Skurka program and the trail, he has arranged gear and skill clinics at a local outdoor store, and makes presentations to other organizations. Membership growth has resulted! Outstanding Private Landowner went to Dennis Garrett of the Wampum Chapter in Pennsylvania. Not only has the Garrett family welcomed the trail on their property and helped build a shelter there, but Dennis has been bitten by the trail bug in a major way. Ironically he was nominated for Trail Builder also, because he has helped build miles of new trail and needed facilities, and has risen to the task of negotiating with other private landowners. His work with real property records and over kitchen tables has resulted in a lot of new off-road trail for Wampum, stitching together state game lands through private properties. Every trail group needs a Dennis! Those who were honored with Trail Builder were Dave Brewer, Dick Kroener, and Ed Morse. Ed works for TWO chapters in NW lower Michigan, Grand Traverse and Spirit of the Woods, and has specialized for more than a decade in mowing trail, building boardwalks and bridges, and scouting out and creating new trail miles. Retirement has enabled him to serve more than ever. Dave Brewer from Wampum Chapter manages two group work sessions a week while working full time, plus often scouts alone beforehand to see what work is needed, always looking for potential reroutes to improve the path. “Working with Dave is just plain fun. He jokes around with people making sure everyone is enjoying the experience and at the same time checks the work being done,” his nominator wrote. Dick Kroener from Minnesota’s Star of the North Chapter volunteers at a staggering rate: he holds the record for hours spent on the Rovers Trail Crew from Wisconsin (2470!), has adopted a piece of trail in the western UP of Michigan, and puts in significant hours on the Superior Hiking Trail as a trail maintainer and builder, with campsite adoption and bridge projects to his name. Sounds like his car deserves an award, too! Jack Cohen of the NCTA Board of Directors was awarded the Blue Blazes Benefactor in gratitude for sharing his knowledge of marketing as a tourism professional and for his generosity in helping to fund NCTA’s marketing efforts. He offered a $5000 donation if the rest of the Board would match his gift, a clever way to come up with $10,000 seed money for such projects, and they did! Trail Maintainers honored were Katie Jo Blau, Ed Bowen, and Lynda Rummel. Katie Jo, from the Arrowhead Chapter in NE Minnesota, chronicled her hard-working and continual efforts to stem damage from illegal ATV usage on
Leadership, Joyce Appel
Vanguard, Gretchen Cicora.
Outstanding Private Landowner Dennis Garrett
Arlen Matson
Dave Brewer
Mick Hawkins
Outreach, Larry Pio
Dave Brewer
Lynda Rummel
Troy Freund
Vanguard, Tom Petri
Trail Builder, Ed Morse
Paula J. Slomer
Elanor Fairbanks
Trail Buider, Dave Brewer
Jack Cohen, Blue Blazes Benefactor July-December 2012
The North Star 17
Rolf Zerges
Bill Menke
Trail Builder, Dick Kroener
Matt Davis
Lynda Rummel, FLT Trail Maintainer and Certified Sawyer
Jacqui Wensich
Trail Maintainer, Katie Jo Blau
Tim Hass
Sweep, Mahlon Hurst
Trail Maintainer, Ed Bowen Gaylord Yost
Liz Fullman
Friend of the Trail, Melanie Fullman
18 The North Star
Sweep, Laura DeGolier July-December 2012
“her” trail in the Chippewa National Forest in an article in the January-March 2012 North Star. Of course, the editor had to drag out of her the rest of the story, that she had paid a contractor with her own money to bring in boulders to block ATV incursions. Her dedication is clear when she admits that she has bad dreams about more damage to her trail. Ed Bowen is credited with bringing the trail hosted by the new Superior Shoreline Chapter back to life after years of no maintenance when a previous chapter faded away. He has persuaded individuals to adopt sections, runs special work sessions when needed, and leads groups of outside volunteers like the teenagers we read about in a previous North Star. Lynda Rummel, NCTA Board member, FLTC VP of Trail Quality, and certified chain sawyer (she wants to be buried in the T-shirt she won with her high score on a recent recertification weekend course), fusses over not only her own trail miles, but is a regional coordinator for miles of trail tended by others and leads training services all over the state for Finger Lakes Trail volunteers. She has also organized and participated in some of their largest trail improvement projects in the last few years, and applied for and administered an RTP grant that enabled the FLTC to hire a professional crew to improve trail in a hilly area that had NOT been built to bearable grades, a direct benefit of Representative Petri’s work on the RTP program. W. K. Kellogg Biological Station (KBS) and W. K. Kellogg Experimental Forest (KEF) are research field stations run by Michigan State University near Augusta, and have welcomed major portions of our trail onto their property. Not only do they permit the trail, they offer machinery and personnel to help Chief Noonday Chapter efforts, have worked with CND to improve the route to take in fascinating public features of the properties, like the Bird Sanctuary and Dairy Center, and helped with efforts to block damaging uses on the trail. They include publicity for the trail in their own publications, and afford the Chapter free space for events. Thus they are appreciated this year with the Trail Blazer Award. Sweep went to three unsung hard-working volunteers, Mahlon Hurst, Laura DeGolier, and Charles Krammin. Mahlon is Old Order Mennonite who has walked the entire main FLT across upstate NY, often with his daughter, and spent over $7000 paying for rides to each of his day hikes, since he does not use a car. He has since returned the favor to
Mick Hawkins
Mick Hawkins
Distinguished Service Ron Sootsman
Sweep, Charles Krammin
Mick Hawkins
Marta Desjardin
Communicator, Mary Rebert
Friend of the Trail, Andru Jevicks
Distinguished Service Lorana Jinkerson
Larry Hawkins
Cliff Stammer
the trail by donating material from his own sawmill for many recent projects, or milling whole shelters’ worth of logs at a discount, then he typically follows the delivered lumber into the woods and helps the crew for a day or two. He actively promotes the trail within his broader church community, and as a result, there has been a noticeable increase in the number of Mennonites who are hiking the trail as families for weekend recreation. Laura DeGolier lives 270 miles away from Heritage Chapter activities in Wisconsin but manages to perform actively as Chapter secretary, contributes articles to their newsletter, writes to lapsed members, and attends some of the events. As Chair of the Wisconsin Advocacy Committee of the NCTA, she took it upon herself to inform members about the recent attempt by mining interests to weaken existing mining laws and create an open pit mine near the NCT (which fizzled so far), all while running her own insurance business. Charlie Krammin has been the kind of leader for Chief Noonday Chapter for fifteen years who manages to stay out of the limelight, while leading group hikes or caring for the tool trailer, and he created a local trail resource folder, sponsored several Eagle Scout projects, and scouted and built miles of trail. Apparently one of his group hikes is an excellent adventure, since he takes great pains to prepare beforehand and share highlights along the way. Melanie Fullman of the NiMiikanaake Chapter in the upper peninsula of Michigan is a ranger for the Ottawa National Forest so would have qualified for the Friend of the Trail award anyway, since she has helped the new chapter plan reroutes, get their trail certified, and install helpful signage, but as a member of the chapter she has really shined. She organizes their trail work projects, negotiates with landowners in an attempt to move the trail west of the Ottawa, has obtained grants and donations for materials, and is working with Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park further west about routing the trail there, too.
Distinguished Service Mick Hawkins July-December 2012
The North Star 19
Valley carpentry students are currently working on a bridge for the trail, and made posts for exercise station signs along the trail, while a shop class at Thornapple-Kellogg made plastic signs for each fitness station. It gave the awards committee great pleasure to honor our chair, Lorana Jinkerson, with one of the three Distinguished Service plaques. Probably her most well-known contribution has been the selfpublished book, Nettie Does the NCT, proceeds from which were donated to the NCTA; less well-known is the fact that she spent her own money to mail a copy of the book to every school library along the entire length of the trail. She has been a welcoming and effective chapter leader, serves as Secretary to the NCTA Board of Directors, pays special attention to luring local college students into trail activities, AND works continuously to build and maintain the North Country Trail Hikers Chapter route in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. She even persuaded the Mackinac Bridge Authority to print NCNST information on the back of the completion certificates handed out to 30,000 people who walk that bridge every Labor Day! Another Distinguished Service award went to Chief Noonday’s Ron Sootsman, whose nominator wrote that his “dedication to the North Country National Scenic Trail is total. For nearly ten years he has been a good-will ambassador with unflagging enthusiasm. Any time there is a job to be done, whether that job requires hard physical labor, hosting an informational booth at a public
Jean Lamoreaux
Another worthy Friend of the Trail is Andru Jevicks, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources park manager for the Yankee Springs Recreation Area. His persistence and creativity enabled the Chief Noonday Chapter to overcome a statewide moratorium on new trails by convincing DNR officials that a new trail through YSRA, away from equestrian trails, would improve the safety of all users and open up new opportunities to showcase the recreational resources of Yankee Springs. After new trail was built, he headed up a joint DNR and Chief Noonday hiking event for the public on New Year’s Day that brought out 62 people, besides CND Chapter members and Park employees, helping to promote the NCNST and the Yankee Springs Recreation Area. Communicator went to Mary Rebert for her attentions to getting and keeping members in the Chief Noonday Chapter. Through her redesigned brochures, which she personally stocks in many public places, and her series of letters to potential or lapsed members, she has contributed to membership growth. In fact, she is now on an NCTA committee promoting the use of just such letters, and staffs displays in the area. Mary also began to invite speakers to chapter meetings to bring in more people. Two lower Michigan high schools received the Rising Star awards, Thornapple-Kellogg and Maple Valley, for their heavy participation in trail and fitness projects along the Thornapple River. The schools’ two towns are connected by the river, along which the Paul Henry Thornapple Trail includes 3.6 miles of NCT. Maple
Rising Star Award: ThornappleKellogg and Maple Valley High Schools. Above, a sign at one of the exercise stations along the Paul Henry Trail, made by local students.
Donna Kowalewski
Trail Blazers at Kellogg Biological Station who have been especially helpful to the Chief Noonday Chapter are Dr. Katherine Gross, Director, Jim Bronson, Farm Manager, and Greg Kowalewski, Forester.
20 The North Star
July-December 2012
function, or one that necessitates attending governmental meetings, Ron will be there to serve the NCTA with grace and knowledge. No job is too large or too small for Ron and no distance is too great... He has travelled to other states to help local Chapters with their building projects, and is a trail adopter at home where his stretch of trail is always immaculately groomed.. We also learned that he hikes 3-400 miles of the NCT each year, and now wonder when he expects to finish the whole trail! A third Distinguished Service honor was bestowed upon Mick Hawkins, a man who wears many hats for the Chief Noonday Chapter. His nominator wrote that he was originally recruited to be the webmaster, even though “he had no knowledge of managing a website. He bought several how-to books, purchased a basic website program at his own expense, pestered the life out of Joan Young and Matt Rowbotham for advice, and eventually created one of the most sophisticated chapter websites in the organization.” That volunteer job led to recruitment to work on a chapter trail data book, aiming to create a model for the national organization; for that he has hiked and rehiked miles of trail to gather accurate data, which gave him intimate knowledge of trail maintenance needs, so now he also manages their trail adoption program. In addition, his pictures grace many a North Star article and the Chapter’s website.
Lifetime Achievement Award
Irene Szabo
Mick Hawkins
Maribeth Helgerson from Chief Noonday Chapter in Michigan is posed on a rock as if she were climbing a dangerous spot. We are assured that it just LOOKS like that.
Mary Coffin
A long view from the summit of Peaked Mountain, with author Jo Taylor from NY's Finger Lakes Trail.
Mary Coffin
Below: Peaked Mountain behind its same-named pond.
Mary Coffin
Lifetime Achievement was bestowed upon an utterly flabbergasted Irene Szabo, whom that foxy awards committee had completely fooled. Lorana said in her presentation, “The only surprise with this year’s honoree is how long it took us to get around to naming Irene Szabo as our 2012 winner! As a long-standing member of the Finger Lakes Trail Conference, and a member of NCTA since 1995, Irene has far more contributions and accomplishments than can ever be highlighted here. Irene recognized early on how both FLTC and NCTA would benefit through close cooperation. She has been instrumental—and sometimes a lone voice in NY—in bringing the organizations together, finding the common ground, and dealing directly with thorny issues, which today have resulted in an agreement for a cooperative and mutually beneficial relationship. Irene has tirelessly encouraged FLTC members to join and support NCTA. She was instrumental in advocating an NPS presence in New York State, inviting NPS staff to conduct training sessions on NCT policies and trail design standards. Among her many contributions Irene has chaired two NCTA conferences, developed training manuals for working with landowners, and secured permanent easements from multiple landowners. She went so far as to personally purchase a critical piece of trail property, building a campsite with a privy. She is a fussy trail maintainer/adopter, caring for as many as 22 miles of trail herself at one time, now down to 13 in her 'old age.' Irene has served several terms as a NCTA Board member including as VP-East. In 2006 and '07, Irene stepped in and served as the interim Executive Director. More recently, we all know her as our volunteer editor of the North Star magazine. Her wit and wisdom shine through her writing and editing. She has been the recipient of numerous FLTC and NCTA Awards, including NCTA’s 2010 Communicator of the Year.” Irene, congratulations and thank you for countless hours traveling, meeting, advocating, calling, arranging, writing for—and occasionally yelling about—our NCNST.”
Outing in the Adirondacks…Continued from Page 14 new towels for those who had incautiously left their towel outside on the line that morning. We returned to Chittenango by a scenic route, stopping to hike to the Rondaxe Fire Tower, a one-mile scramble up Bald Mountain, quite literally a high point of the trip. This is a tourist hike and youngsters in sneakers scampered past us with our boots and day packs and hiking poles. From the top there was a splendid view of the Fulton Chain of Lakes and layer upon layer of surrounding mountains. We also stopped in Old Forge to shop at the famous Old Forge Hardware. Our outbound and return trips took us on a big loop around the area where we hiked, but encompassed no more than one sixth of the six million acre Adirondack Park. On our final evening at Lewey Lake we had celebrated a special birthday of one of our hikers with camp-style cherries jubilee (“my best birthday ever”) and took turns sharing our thoughts on the trip (Roses, Thorns, and Buds). Thorns were hard to find, but there was unanimous agreement on the beauty of the region, the excellence of our leaders, and the friendliness of the group. All expressed the hope to return to the Adirondacks someday.
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The North Star 21
Matt Davis
The Joy Of
Winter Hiking You Can Hear the Quiet
Arrowhead Chapter hike in northeastern Minnesota.
Ray Bell
J
ust the thought of hiking in the winter brings back so many wonderful memories. As a child my friends and I hiked in the winter to the various ponds around Waltham, Massachusetts to play ice hockey. I will never forget one night in particular almost seventy years ago. I was walking home through the dark, snow-covered woods after playing hockey at Clark’s pond. The air was crisp and cold and my hockey stick and skates were over my shoulder. Even now I can hear the sound of my boots crackling and crunching in the snow and ice. I took a minute to watch the large snowflakes fall gently to the ground. I can see that scene in my mind as though it were only a couple of hours ago. Years later I read Robert Frost’s poem, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,”and it brought me back to that long ago cold winter night. So why would any sensible adult go out in the winter when the alternative would be a warm house, hot chocolate, and TV. Hopefully, some readers will see themselves in the tales of winter hiking that follow. Winter hiking has some very special advantages over summer hiking, the least of which no doubt are no mosquitoes, black flies, rattlesnakes, or wet sweaty smelly clothes. Daylight is shorter, so flashlights are an absolute necessity. Winter clothing—boots, long johns, layered jackets, mittens, 22 The North Star
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hats—not only add to the weight one must carry, but are also necessary for protection against the harsh cold. What nicer feeling can an outdoor person have than to be in the forest surrounded by silent majestic trees and with the proper clothing be warm and comfortable. Another facet of winter hiking is the need for special equipment including crampons. When I was younger and money was very dear, twelve point crampons were out of my financial realm, so I bought instep crampons which helped some. Later I was able to buy a set of twelve point crampons. While I used the newer ones only three times during my many years of hiking and walked only a mile or less in total with them, I can still remember how I felt after using them. Each time I thought they were worth the $104 I paid for them. Hiking without crampons in the winter makes the hike extremely difficult while with them hiking down an ice coated trail is a cakewalk. As I sit here in Florida thinking back to the many years I enjoyed hiking, I remember several hikes that stand out as particularly enjoyable and challenging. One hike in particular comes to mind. We got up from our motel beds at 4:00 am to spot the cars. We drove down a long lonely road accompanied only by the beautiful Milky Way as it lit the black winter sky. We left our first car in the blackness of a trail head and arrived an hour or so later at the other trail head where we would begin our hike. The first signs of dawn appeared as we left our warm car in the frigid December air. On the eastern horizon, the black sky ever so slowly turned grey and then a bright red followed by a brilliant scarlet line grew across the horizon until the sun made its red then yellow appearance. The temperature that long ago day was a toasty zero and our breath was visible as it condensed in the cold winter air. We hiked along that snow covered trail for several miles accompanied only by the bare trees and evergreens. As we approached noon the temperature rose to a balmy plus 20 F, the rays of the sun bouncing off the new fallen snow. We found tracks of rabbits, turkeys and other wildlife which left us wondering which ones safely made the trip back to their den and which ones made lunch for a hungry coyote? Many times my friends and I stopped in a foot or two of snow, started a small fire with deadwood found in abundance and soon had a nice toasty warm fire to toast our sandwiches over while drying our wet gloves, hats, and outerwear. Another mid-winter hike was definitely assisted by Mother Nature. Early in the year the snow fell to near record accumulations for December, then a week of heavy rain, which was then followed by near zero temperatures for another week.
The Year I Finally Bought
Snowshoes Irene Szabo
Don Hazlett
Of course we scheduled a hike and wondered if the snow, rain, and freezing temperatures would destroy our plan. Fortunately for us the trail was well marked and many other hikers had left a trail about three feet deep in the earlier winter snows. The three foot deep trench would have been difficult to hike in; however, the surface of the snow was frozen as hard as concrete and we simply hiked along the frozen snow’s surface hopping back and forth across the trench or trail whenever bushes or other obstacles got in our way. Deep snow and snow shoes are not necessarily the greatest combination for hikers. Deep, soft, unpacked snow is difficult to hike in even with good snowshoes. A few friends and I were in the Adirondacks a few years ago on a hike which was definitely difficult because of the deep snow. To solve the problem of breaking trail, whoever was the leader started taking only about twenty-five steps and then letting the second person in line take over the lead for the next twentyfive steps. To get a little rest the leader would drop back to the end of the line where the trail was well packed down by the first hikers. Fortunately we ran into three other men and they joined our little expedition for the next couple of miles. With seven hikers breaking trail in the deep soft snow the hike became much more pleasant. A few years ago two friends and I scheduled a hike and the day before the hike there was an ice storm. The morning broke clear and cold with almost no wind. The ground was covered with snow, the trees were covered with ice, and the cracks of breaking limbs were heard all day. However, the one thing I will always remember was the spot where the trail crossed an electric transmission line. We could hear the humming of the electricity in the wires as we approached the crossing and soon we came to the clearing in the forest where a right-of-way had been cleared for the electric transmission line. I stopped and stood there for a few minutes and looked at the colors emanating from the ice on the wires, towers, and trees. Every imaginable color was present as a result of the dispersion and refraction of the sun’s rays as they passed through the ice to create beautiful rainbows against the backdrop of a blue cold winter sky. Crossing a frozen lake, we spoke with many of the ice fisherman who were standing by their holes in the ice waiting for a bite. In some ways we felt sorry for them as we hiked on keeping warm while they just stood there in the cold. For those of you who have not hiked in the winter, you are missing a wonderful experience. The NCTA chapters schedule winter hikes from Lake Champlain in the east to North Dakota in the west and will assist you to prepare for one of the most enjoyable outdoor experiences of your life. The woods are so different in the winter. Go out this year with your local chapter and see the tracks of the animals, enjoy the experience of toasting sandwiches over a fire, smell the aroma of fresh coffee from your thermos, and enjoy the clear cold winter air of the forest. Author Ray Bell.
In mid-December of 1995 Bob Muller, Lois Judd, and I were seized by foolishness and tried to take a hike in hilly Cattaraugus County in SW New York. The depth of the snow was greater than expected, so we shortened our plan to a puny two-mile stretch between two roads. Sensible Bob on snowshoes did fine, while Lois and I exhausted ourselves punching through thick crust into ten inches of snow for three hours. Gummy the long-legged dog floundered and bounded a lot, while tiny (but don't call her that to her face) Diesel Anne, a musclebound 10" high Jack Russell terrier who had no trouble tossing off 10 miles back on Labor Day, alternately skittered around on the crust or struggled in our deep footprints. It soon became apparent that Diesel had learned something and was putting it to good use. She'd galumph along in the footprints on the blazed route, meanwhile scouting for an opportunity to step off the path and…SKI. She planted her little patty paws on every available slope and used it to slide parallel to the path, swooping up and over little moguls. Steering hadn't been invented yet, so sometimes she got to twirling backwards, and more than once she was stopped by a tree in somewhat undignified fashion. There is a long steep hill down to a stream gully in the Bush Hill State Forest and Diesel Anne rode many 20- and 30-foot runs down that one. It is so steep that we saw the wing and foot marks in snow dust on the crust from a turkey's frantic attempts to run or fly up that slippery slab. As we finally neared the road, the low sun was brilliant, slanting through the red pines and Norway spruce from behind us, a perfect benediction to another memorable day on the trail. Reprinted from the Spring 1996 Finger Lakes Trail News
Irene Szabo
Ray Bell spent many years hiking and climbing in the Adirondack Mountains of NY. He finished the Adirondack 46 Peaks (4,000 feet or higher) in 1980, and the 113 4000 ft. peaks in New England and New York in 1991. He also has walked many miles along the proposed NCNST in NY’s Adirondack Forest Preserve looking for the best route available. He also section-hiked the Appalachian Trail between 1991 and 2004. He is a member of the Central NY Chapter of the NCTA and the Albany Chapter of the Adirondack Mountain Club. Diesel Anne, Alpine Hot Dog.
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Cultural Resources Review in Tamarac National Wildlife Refuge Matthew Davis Regional Trail Coordinator for MN & ND
Matt Davis
Because the NCNST is a federally sponsored and funded effort, Sec. 106 compliance is required for all trail construction projects. Except in Wisconsin where the NPS and State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) have worked out a programmatic agreement that specifies how this process works, the requirement has gone mostly unheeded except where the States or other Federal partners have taken the lead. What exactly are cultural resources?
James Myster, US Fish & Wildlife Service, Ray Vlasak, Laurentian Lakes Chapter, Kevin Schneider, Duluth Archaeology Center, Jeff McCusker, National Park Service, Jennifer Hamilton, DAC, pose on the Chippewa Lake water control structure while doing the follow-up survey work within Tamarac National Wildlife Refuge.
Why care about protecting cultural resources when building the North Country Trail?
4
Cultural resource reviews help trail builders gain knowledge about the past along the NCT so that we can better interpret trailside history for NCT users. As our authorizing legislation states, “The trail links scenic, natural, historic, and cultural areas across seven states allowing visitors to experience a variety of northern landscapes.” Bruce Matthews, NCTA’s Executive Director, likes to say that the NCT should tell the story of the northern U.S. and its “Red Plaid Nation.” Cultural sites along the NCT are certainly part of our story. Another reason for protecting cultural resources is that it’s federal law. Specifically, it’s mandated by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, specifically section 106. “Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 (NHPA) requires Federal agencies to take into account the effects of their undertakings on historic properties, and afford the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) a reasonable opportunity to comment. The historic preservation review process mandated by Section 106 is outlined in regulations issued by ACHP. The ultimate endpoint for cultural sites is a determination of eligibility for listing in the National Register of Historic Places maintained by the National Park Service. If deemed eligible, the site(s) must be protected by avoiding the adverse effects, minimizing them, or mitigating them if the project’s impacts cannot be avoided.
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Cultural resources can include Native American cultural items, for example, pottery shards, stone tools like points or scrapers, human remains, and early or modern historic remains like copper, glass pieces, or ceramics. Native American remains are subject to special laws. See www.nps. gov/nagpra/. All of these items and others, if older than 50 years, are protected by federal law where they exist. They must be removed and curated by professionals if harm cannot be avoided. What resources are available? The National Park Service Madison trails office hosted an “Archaeology for Trail Builders” training course in Wisconsin back in 2009. The course featured great information and resources for North Country Trail Association and Ice Age Trail Alliance volunteers and staff. Volunteers and staff from across the NCT participated in this training and are available to help volunteers better understand this issue. Contact Andrea Ketchmark at NCTA HQ to find a member near you who attended the training or to borrow the 3 ring binder from the course. The binder contains some great information. The main points that I took away from the course are: � Consult with your SHPO and/or agency cultural resource professionals early in a project since they can often help avoid known cultural resources along a proposed NCT route segment. Doing this initial consultation may help avoid costly delays later in the process. � Despite the fact they are easy and scenic places to build the NCT, flat places near water bodies should probably be avoided because they likely contain cultural resources. After all, they were attractive places to earlier people, too. � Where a Sec. 106 review needs to be undertaken along a trail section, the review should be instigated at least a year before the target date for construction, more likely two years when other reviews like natural heritage are possibly required. There are also great resources available on the internet. Check out the Federal Government’s Advisory Council on Historic Preservation Section 106 website http://www.achp. gov/106summary.htm. and their resources at http://www. achp.gov/106course-resources.html. Also, your State’s Historic Preservation Office (find yours
at http://www.ncshpo.org/) will have some resources specific to your state while Tribal Historic Preservation Offices (find nearby ones at http:// www.nathpo.org/mainpage.html) will have information on Native American cultural issues. The NPS’ Midwest Archaeology Center is located in Lincoln, Nebraska, and helps parks and trails all over the Midwest Region. Visit their website (http://www.nps.gov/history/mwac/) for info on what they do. What was the process used in Becker County, Minnesota? Using two Legacy Trail Grants from the State of Minnesota (totaling $130,000), the Laurentian Lakes Chapter and Conservation Corps of Minnesota are currently building 20 new miles of the NCT on a mix of federal, state, local and private lands northeast of Detroit Lakes. The Chapter has been working on getting to this point for the last 5+ years. The work involved a lot of the usual tasks – scouting routes, meeting with agency partners to review proposed routes, flagging and re-flagging. The one wrinkle in this project was that the Legacy grant required us to obtain Sec. 106 compliance before the grant contract was signed and funds spent. Despite the fact that it’s a requirement for the NPS, we had never undergone this process out here in Minnesota. For past Recreational Trails Program grants, we were able to obtain project clearance from the MN-DOT’s Cultural Resource Unit (most likely a database review looking for existing nearby sites). The Sec. 106 review proved to be a lengthy process, one that taught us all about patience and working together across agencies. The Review Process As required by the Legacy grant, the NCTA first sent a letter to MN SHPO requesting information on how to proceed. MN SHPO replied stating that a Phase 1a review (literature search and database query) was requested at a minimum and that a Phase 1 survey most likely will be required, which involves walking the flagline and in areas with a potential to find undisturbed evidence of human activity, digging a hole usually about www.northcountrytrail.org
18 inches deep about every 50 feet, and sifting the material removed from the hole through a mesh screen. If materials are found, the materials are usually collected and documented, and the location noted, then the excavation is refilled. Second: given that this trail development project includes a mix of ownerships, the NPS, NCTA, and US Fish & Wildlife Service conferred on how best to proceed. It was decided that the NPS would conduct the initial Phase 1a review (reviewing existing reports and databases) for the entire project area. The USF&WS agreed to conduct follow-up Phase 1 surveys for the portion of the route within Tamarac National Wildlife Refuge. The NPS agreed to conduct follow-up Phase 1 surveys for the route portion outside of the Refuge and also the “Johnson Tract,” which is outside the Refuge Boundary but owned by the USF&WS. Third: the NPS hired a contractor (Commonwealth Cultural Resources Group or CCRG from Golden Valley, Minn.) to complete the Phase 1a review for the entire project. This step identified known cultural resources near the proposed trail route and also identified areas of new construction with high and moderate probability of finding cultural resources where follow-up field work should be conducted. This included flatter sites located near water. Fourth: the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service hired a contractor (Duluth Archaeology Center or DAC) to complete the Phase 1 review for the portion within the Refuge. The results came back with numerous known cultural sites and several new sites that were identified. The contractor suggested mitigation measures to avoid such sites, such as moving off the flat terrace onto the slope located away from a lake. Fifth: the NPS hired the same contractor (DAC) to complete the Phase 1 review for the portion outside the Refuge. The results come back with numerous known cultural sites but only a few minor new sites. The contractor suggested mitigation measures to avoid the site and/or actually located a bypass route around
the positive shovel tests. Sixth: because the fiscal year was nearing its end, the NPS and USFWS negotiated with DAC to hire lower paid field crew members to be supervised by the USFWS Regional Archaeologist for a few days to work back in the field reviewing several of the Refuge’s cultural sites and to help the NCTA staff and volunteers identify a suitable route around them. Seventh: together the NPS, NCTA, and USF&WS fleshed out the mitigation measures for the sites in Tamarac where action was necessary. The relocation was laid out so as to minimize the potential for cultural resource impacts; for example, locate the trail on steep slopes, avoid flat terraces near water, and cross wet areas. The NCTA wrote up a summary of this route change complete with pictures and maps. Eighth: working with the NPS Regional Archaeologist in Lincoln, Neb., and the USF&WS’ Regional Historic Preservation Officer / Archaeologist in the Twin Cities, the NPS Trail Manager prepared a report summarizing all the work done inside and outside the Refuge and submitted it to the MN SHPO. The NPS stated that certain sites were eligible for the National Register but they believed the project would not result in any significant adverse affects to cultural resources because of the proposed mitigation measures. Ninth: the NPS & NCTA consulted with the White Earth Tribal HPO to see if the Tribe had any additional concerns since tribal governments often have their own privileged cultural resource data. No concerns were expressed as the Laurentian Lakes Chapter had done a good job of keeping the Tribe abreast of the trail’s development in the area. Tenth: the Minn. SHPO responded that they agreed with the NPS recommendations except for one site where they requested we submit more information or conduct a Phase 2 survey (excavate the site to determine what exactly is there). This work would have greatly exceeded the available resources so the NPS and USF&WS deemed it outside the scope of this project.
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Eleventh: the NPS replied to SHPO with more detailed plans for the one site’s mitigation measures. Twelfth: SHPO agreed with the NPS finding of “No Adverse Affects. They also said they wanted to witness the installation of the mitigation measures at the site because they had never seen it done before. This whole process took approximately two years from start to finish. How much does this work cost? Ultimately, Sec. 106 compliance on the NCT is the responsibility of the National Park Service (or another federal partner agency when the project lies on federal lands) but NCT volunteers need to initiate the process with the NPS. The NPS NCT staff is available to work with volunteers to complete this work. Here are some typical costs for doing the various Section 106 work. � Literature/Database Review (Phase 1a) - $400-500. � Phase 1 Survey (Shovel Testing) $2,000 - 3,000 per mile � Phase 2 Site Excavation - in the tens of thousands of dollars depending on the site’s size. It is rarely if ever done on a trail project because a trail can often be moved to avoid the resource and because it is cost prohibitive due to limited qualified staff (Archeologists). Note: Section 106 work is almost always contracted out which takes additional time. The ease of securing funds for the reviews depends upon available resources and the Federal budget cycle is always a challenge. Also, the federal government’s complicated contracting process often requires significant time to operate.
of Tamarac NWR whose family was involved. Finally, the NCTA’s Laurentian Lakes Chapter will be able to tell the story better when it comes time to provide trail users with historic context for the area. We suspected going into this project that the area was a very historic spot; now we know that is definitely the case. Conclusions One of the biggest things I learned in the process is that we should always be doing this review on every new trail construction project. At a minimum, cultural resource reviews should be on the check list of clearances that may need to be done, along with wetland/water permits, natural heritage (endangered resources) reviews, etc. When seeking funding for trail development projects, volunteers need to ask what kinds of clearances, permits, studies, reports, etc. are required and what time line is attached to those requirements. Successful project management is all about asking a lot of questions early on. The main lesson learned from this project is that Section 106 clearance clearly takes a lot of advance planning and time and money and the process should be initiated as soon as a trail route and permission is identified, before construction funding is obtained, unless the funding is not time sensitive in any way. As Dean Gettinger of the NPS said, “The tail wagged the dog on this project. Delays in getting all this cultural resource review work done put our Legacy Grant funds at risk and we were forced to get two extensions, which is never a certainty.” Also, as more of this work is done and NPS and NCTA work to develop a positive relationship with each SHPO, the process should become less time consuming and at least a little less expensive. This has been the case in Wisconsin. Graphic by Jeff McCusker
How is this impacting the NCT?
Through the Review process, it was determined that no cultural resources will be impacted by construction of the NCT segment outside of the Tamarac Refuge. Within the Refuge, however, several cultural resource sites were identified as having the potential to be impacted. These required mitigation measures. In several places, we moved the trail route to locate it away from and out of sight of identified cultural resource sites like potential Native American burial mounds or sites with lithic (stone tool) scatter. We also will be utilizing causeway type trail construction (see image above) in order to encapsulate a long stretch of trail in an area with significant cultural resources, a large Native American campsite. Interestingly, one re-route within the Refuge now takes the NCT past a historic duck hunters’ camp and uses their old “corduroy road” to cross a spruce-tamarack bog. Some of the history of this site was shared by a member of the Friends
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Acknowledgements
The NCTA and its Laurentian Lakes Chapter would like to thank the following individuals for playing an instrumental role in this effort. Duluth Archaeology Center Principal Investigator Sue Mulholland and Jennifer Hamilton, Field Supervisor U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service former Refuge Manager Barbara Boyle, current Refuge Manager Neil Powers and his Tamarac NWR staff, and James Myster, Regional Historic Preservation Officer/Archaeologist. National Park Service Trail Manager Jeff McCusker and former Acting Trail Manager Dean Gettinger White Earth Tribal Nation Director of Natural Resources Mike Swan and Tom McCauley, THPO Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Traci Vibo and Andrew Korsberg for working with us on the Legacy Grant extensions
Superior Hiking Trail Recovering from June Floods Gayle Coyer SHTA Executive Director Gayle Coyer
T
Wilson Creek Bridge damage..
Sharon Robertson
A huge volunteer crew moving the Sucker River bridge back into place.
Mike Schrage
he Superior Hiking Trail is a 296-mile long trail in northeastern Minnesota that is slated to become a part of the North Country National Scenic Trail once the Arrowhead Re-Route passes Congress. We’ve been affiliated with the North Country Trail since 1994. On June 19th-20th, ten inches of rain fell in the Duluth and Two Harbors area, causing a 500-year flood event. Up to four inches of rain fell on the rest of the North Shore. Once the rain finally stopped and photos of the devastated areas filled television screens and the internet, SHTA staff, maintenance supervisors, and volunteers sprang into action to assess the entire trail over the course of several days. Once we realized the amount of damage, we knew it was beyond the normal financial resources of SHTA. We quickly put together a Bridge Repair/Replacement Fund and SHTA received over $12,000 from members and friends. The good news was that the trail received only minor damage from Gooseberry Falls State Park north to the end of the trail. Four inches of rain in the past had taken out bridges and washed away boardwalk, but the rain came over two days and the land had been dry, so while creeks and rivers were high, we did not lose any bridges. The bad news was that in the Two Harbors area and in western Duluth, there was lots of damage to the trail. In the Two Harbors area, the Encampment River Bridge went out as well as the bridges at Crow Creek, Wilson Creek, and many tributary bridges. Our trail crews built three new bridges and pulled all the other bridges back into place, repairing them as needed. South of Two Harbors the A-frame Sucker River Bridge went out. A crib was re-built and with the efforts of about 30 people, the bridge was righted and then lifted back into place. It truly was an amazing effort. The other area hard-hit was along the Gooseberry River, where about three miles of debris piled onto the trail needed to be cleaned up. SHTA volunteers re-set six little bridges and sawed and lopped and threw debris off the trail. But the worst damage was in western Duluth and Jay Cooke State Park. The latter is the most popular state park in Minnesota and includes certified North Country Trail. Jay Cooke and western Duluth remain closed due to huge mudslides in the area. It may be a year or two before they are re-opened since there is a highway to rebuild first. SHTA will be working in conjunction with the City of Duluth and the state park on reconstruction. Pictures were previously published in Ridgeline, Superior Hiking Trail Association's newsletter.
Mudslide.
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Still hoping to reopen the trail by later in October, the chapter is currently cutting off burned trees at shoulder level; they will be safer to passing hikers that way, and will serve to hold paint or vinyl blue blazes for the next few years.
Wildfire On Your Trail! Story & pictures by Tim Hass
L
ightning and thunder storms are exciting to watch, in particular over places such as Lake Superior where the lightning bursts light up the shoreline miles away and the light reflects off the water. As exciting as they may be, there is a deep down fear that they will start a wildfire. That fear was realized when lightning started a fire south of our trail, and all we could do was watch as the 50 mile per hour winds drove the fire towards it. The Superior Shoreline Chapter of the North Country Trail Association has responsibility for one of the most beautiful sections of trail in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. We have approximately 150 miles of trail which runs from the mouth of the Two-Hearted River, made famous by the writings of Hemingway, west to Grand Marais and then to Munising and continuing west another twenty miles. This section includes one of our Nation’s greatest treasures, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. Most of our trail follows the Lake Superior Shoreline along what is known as the “Shipwreck Coast.” Remnants of the past such as shipwrecks, lighthouses, lifesaving stations, homesteads, logging camps, and historic communities are in evidence all along the way. The thunder and lightning storm commenced in the late afternoon of May 23, 2012. It spawned the Duck Lake wildfire that was not detected until the following day after high winds developed, fanning the initially small fire. With winds of 30-50 miles per hour the force and intensity of the inferno was such that fire fighters could not initially be deployed in an area of so few roads. As fire fighters concentrated their efforts on evacuating people within the likely path of the fire, the fire rapidly advanced north to a section of our trail and Lake Superior traveling more than twelve miles in less than eight hours before spreading east and west. While we worried about people and their homes, we also worried about our trail and an essential footbridge over the Two Hearted River. While efforts to get the fire contained continued for many days, we did learn that the very important bridge miraculously survived, although an adjacent lodge did not. Finally, we were permitted entry to the fire zone on June 11th. The fire was
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still burning in some areas but not at our trail. For all of the attention that wildfires receive, there is very little written about what to expect and what precautions to take. While seeking information on precautions, advice was given by people connected with the NCTA to just stay away from the area. Staying away is not an option. The trail is our baby, a living and breathing entity and we needed to find out how it fared. Lacking other available resources, extensive internet research turned up several key pieces of information. The ash and air from a wildfire in a forested area are not toxic while the ash may cause skin irritation, or may aggravate a lung condition. On the morning of the 11th as we commenced assessment of the trail damage the temperature was 87 degrees, the sun was bright, the winds high and the flies were swarming. After crossing the bridge and walking a short distance down the shoreline to the once forested area, the fact of the fire hit. The once dense canopy of large red and white pine and occasional deciduous trees was gone. Tall sticks that were once
A jack pine seedling, many of which are seen on our work hikes, popping up beside a little wintergreen. Jack pine is serotinous, meaning that cones stay closed until fire opens them up, so their reproduction after this seeming disaster is assured.
the trees we blazed stood as ghostly sentinels. Everything was black. Seeing 150–200 yards in any direction was easy. There was and still is the pervasive smell of a day old campfire. What was once underbrush that tangled our feet was now four inches of ash that almost crunches underfoot. Troughs appeared where roots had been burned up. Pits are scattered throughout the area, the remains of burned up stumps and roots. The trail that we cleared the previous fall was littered with the carcasses of 450 -600 trees in three miles. Nor had all of the trees finished falling. The wind was blowing down limbs of every dimension along with trees. We did learn to look at the base of the tree. If it appears that the root structure is burned away, that tree is a definite candidate to come down on its own, sooner rather than later. The fire in this section of the trail was estimated at 3000 degrees. The intensity of the heat produced a fine granular quality to the ash. One could observe ash rising about 18 inches with each footstep. It found its way up our pant legs, down into our boots and inside our shirts despite being covered by backpacks. Cameras, hiking staffs and anything else became coated, but not obviously. The extent of the coating became more apparent when readying to shower. Even heavy rains in the fire area have not eliminated the ash problem and on each trip into the area our boots, socks, pant legs and legs were coated. Despite the moonscape appearance of the area, it was not a wasteland. By the www.northcountrytrail.org
time we were permitted to enter, deer tracks were observed along with new ferns and a few birds. On subsequent trips to the trail, small animals were observed along with tracks of coyotes. Two days after first going there we made the decision to close the trail. The threat to hikers posed by falling limbs & trees and the ash was too great to justify trying to keep the trail open. This area of the trail is located on Michigan DNR land but responsibility for its maintenance rests with our chapter. The DNR did concur with our decision to close the trail and is pleased that we have commenced steps to establish a new trail through the burned area. An initial flagging has been completed and the new route will be studied additionally before sawyers are sent in. The question arises how to mark a trail when the trees have burned. An experiment with a bark knife revealed that enough trees, although dead, have undisturbed wood below the burned bark to permit re-blazing. The upper portion of each blazed tree will be felled. In our case these trees will not be harvested due to the fragile nature of the dunes. We are moving the trail 25-50 feet from the old trail to get it away from the edge of the dunes to reduce erosion and to establish a footpath that is wide and not rutted and to make it unnecessary to remove the trees that fell on the previous trail. After the unfortunate lesson in New York (see page 33), those working on the new trail are wearing hard hats, leather gloves, long pants and sturdy boots. Dust masks are encouraged. While we hope to have a new blazed trail within a few
Note the sawdust at the base of this tree, the result of insect infestation after the fire. The tree cannot be harvested and milled because that would transport the insect to other areas. But the ferns are coming back in spades!
months, the date that we will reopen will depend upon our assessment of the danger posed by standing dead trees. An initial plan being evaluated is to send our sawyers in to clear a swath wide enough that if a tree fell it could not strike the middle of the new trail. Trees so felled would not be bucked. This type of assessment will be ongoing. We will continue to study the area to document its recovery. One month post fire we found new oak trees 3 feet tall. We wish that we had had the foresight to document the trail photographically before the fire and encourage all chapters to undertake that project on their own trails.
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Mick Hawkins
Irene Szabo
This group led all of us in singing the North Country Trail Ballad, with Tom Gilbert on his new guitar, a retirement present from the NCTA last summer.
Sandy And Pearl Hike
The Cereal Bowl Irene Szabo
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Sandy and Pearl loll about in the Battle Creek River along the linear park trail, which is also NCT.
Mick Hawkins
North Star quilt displayed for auction by Bobby Koepplin (left) and Matt Davis.
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hief Noonday Chapter put together a hospitable event for our NCTA Annual Conference this year, but even Dave Cornell can't control the weather, so days in the low 90's took the starch out of some of us. Besides, Sandy and Pearl are pretty vintage models, so hikes of only a few miles that included places to get WET were high on their list. Thus the planned hike schedule became a menu for taking sampler walks on our own, where Sandy and Pearl got to swim at Yankee Springs Recreation Area and in the Battle Creek River along the linear park by the same name. Good old Lois even found a dog park in Kalamazoo that had a pond while I went to workshops. And Battle Creek is indeed the Cereal City. After our riverside walk, poor Lois and Marie sat patiently in the air conditioned truck while Joan and I indulged ourselves sniffing out railroad yards. Canadian Pacific, Amtrak, and Norfolk Southern all work out of Battle Creek, with control points on the map in my railroad atlas that are named Post, Kellogg, and Ralston Purina. Other than the Checker Cab control point in Kalamazoo, it's unusual to find spots like that named for the primary customer. Fortunately for the 150 attendees, the conference building at Yarrow Golf Resort was air-conditioned, so good meals weren't compromised by sweat. Evening programs gave us opportunities to shower appreciation on each other: our National Park Service partners presented prizes to those who have reached milestones in their hours of volunteer work (lists elsewhere in this issue), the awards program presented by Lorana Jinkerson gave special note to deserving overachievers (see that article, too), and the annual fund-raising auction was a hoot as usual. Bidding peaked over that wonderful “North Star” quilt made by Mary Fleming, Linda Wilkey, Steve and Josie Hicks, and won by Larry Rebert. And yes, we did actually learn about robotic milking of Holsteins at Kellogg's Experimental Farm. Cows wander into a chute, lured by snacks, where laser eyeballs “find” each teat, so the machine can wash the udder and then milk the cow, after reading the number on her ear tag. Of course, there are greedy cheaters who try to come through too often, and the robot is smart enough to boot them out of the chute. As our guide said, with no human touch required, now he can actually see his kids' baseball games.
Mick Hawkins Mick Hawkins
Our NPS staff, left to right:Mark Weaver, our new superintendant, Pam Schuler, Dan Watson, Jeff McCusker as they prepare to shower awards on our volunteers for hours of service. In addition, they presented the Herzog Enduring Service Award to CNY's Al Larmann, and Outstanding Volunteer Group to Brule-St. Croix Rovers.
Workshop on building sustainable trail, led by Jeff McCusker, our NPS Trail manager. They created shallow dips in an existing trail to drain water from the tread.
Sandy and Pearl miss the evening programs, so luckily we have Ellen's take on other parts of the conference.
Someone Is Going To Get The Ax Ellen Hass Superior Shoreline Chapter
Yarrow has a huge lodge which is where we registered and ate. Most lodging is in a series of outbuildings with cute names like Prairie Rose, Morning Glory and Larkspur. Most of us were housed in Chicory. All of the out buildings are connected to the lodge by paths. At registration, we received our meal tickets, North Face fanny packs, 2 bottles of Ibuprofen locally donated, a rechargeable flashlight and other goodies. 151 people were registered and all seven states were represented with North Dakota having an impressive number attending. We decided to take things easy this year, so we began the next day at 6:45 am at a breakfast discussion hosted by the U.S. Forest Service. Breakfast was a buffet with wonderful food that just kept coming. Our first workshop was four hours on trail building. After a presentation and pictures of both good and bad trail building, we hit the door to practice what we learned. We were divided into two groups, handed a ton of tools, and our challenge was to improve areas of erosion. This involved team work and we did a pretty good job. Our next workshop was in Back Country Medicine. The class was taught by a doctor who is a very plain, no nonsense man (Larry Hawkins, President of NCTA - editor). Some of the products we saw and discussed were so simple and made so much sense. We are on the hunt for some of these products and will report more later. After dinner there were special programs—are you remembering THE AX? The last night (yes, I have skipped something – remember THE AX?) is an auction with all of the proceeds going directly to the NCTA. The powers that be learned some time ago that if the www.northcountrytrail.org
Mick Hawkins
National Conference Report
Finally, Chief Noonday Chapter passed the flame to a group of Pennsylvanians led by Joyce Appel (Pippi) dressed as a collection of slippery rocks in order to invite us to next summer's conference in…you guessed it…Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania. Activities sure to lure us there include canoeing, horseback rides, Extreme Croquet, glass blowing, a train ride on the Oil Creek & Titusville, fishing, caving, and a trip to a coal mine.
bar stays open, the amount of bidding goes up. It works. These things are always a hoot and the highlight this year was when Executive Director, Bruce Matthews, was demonstrating an Orvis Fly Rod and managed to “catch” the ceiling. Okay, let’s get to THE AX. The second evening is an awards presentation, but these awards are given by the NCTA to NCTA members. The categories are varied and very specialized. One guy was awarded for dismantling a covered bridge, moving it to the trail, and assembling it again. He sure has me beat. Now for THE AX that I said someone was going to get. TaDa ! Ed Bowen, please step forward to receive YOUR AX. Ed was one of only three people in the whole Association to be named Trail Maintainer of the Year. We have your ax and will get it to you soon. Well done, Ed. You did the Superior Shoreline Chapter proud. Ed, you have been Axed.
Don’t miss remaining conference photos on page 32. July-December 2012
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Mick Hawkins
What In The Blue Blazes?
NCTA Executive Director Bruce Matthews and recently retired NPS NCT Superintendent Tom Gilbert actually relax for a moment.
Mick Hawkins
Board President Larry Hawkins pontificating at the board meeting.
I want to join the North Country Trail Association! Join the North Country Trail Association to support our volunteers in building the trail and telling its story in communities nearby. Happy Trails!
Become a member today by calling (866) 445-3628 or visit our website and click on Become a Member. Please choose your Chapter Affiliation: I want to be a member of my local Chapter: I want to be a member of the Chapter closest to my home. I want to be an At-Large Member. (Not affiliated with any Chapter) I want to make a tax deductible contribution of Name Address City State
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32 The North Star
July-December 2012
D
uane Lawton came up with this good idea. We publish a picture taken somewhere along the North Country Trail, but give it no caption. You, the readers, send in your educated guesses as to where it is. Answer in the next issue. Duane, from Jordan Valley 45° Chapter in Michigan, supplied us with the first mystery location. We welcome your guesses to the editor–treeweenie@ aol.com, or (585)658-4321–and future contributions. Don’t try to make the locations impossible; each should include something typical of the area as a helpful clue. — Editor Irene Szabo
Trail Worker Death on the Finger Lakes Trail Based on Lynda Rummel's memorial article in the Summer FLT News, with permission.
G
erry Benedict loved rocks. He loved to move them and he loved to create with them, the bigger, the better. As a volunteer on the 2009 Mt. Washington Rebuild Alley Cat crew working on the NCT/FLT near Hammondsport above Keuka Lake (one of the Finger Lakes), the first big FLT project he worked on, he carried several large, thick flat stones up the very steep hillsides and built rock steps at the turn of a new switchback. He was already an FLT end-to-ender and the caretaker of a long section on the NCT/FLT, but this began his short career as a super-volunteer on subsequent projects. He planned some, drafted elegant construction plans, and led several as only a lifetime teacher could, rejoicing as his pupils grew beyond him, including a crew of inmates from a nearby Correctional Facility. The memory of Gerry pushing a boulder toward the bank while the inmates pulled, and then working shoulder to shoulder with the inmates down in the creek instantly brings tears to my eyes. Mike Schlict, co-leader of a bridge building project on the NCT/FLT near Bath, wrote about his experiences of working with Gerry. “Gerry taught me a lot. {I} will always remember the times he had everyone working on the projects [and] he looked lost because everyone knew what to do and how to do it. That is a sign of great leadership and a skill in short supply these days…he had those [young inmates] moving the boulders and they were happy to do so.” My other image of Gerry from that bridges project is purely my own creation, but comes from Gerry's account of meeting up with two locals who drove by the night before work was to start. All the materials had been delivered and stored under tarps; the piles were very visible from Birdseye Hollow Road so Gerry decided to camp nearby, to keep an eye on things. While taking a sponge bath near the creek, Gerry heard a truck stop, so he hurried out to the road. He could see two guys’ eyes grow large when he emerged from the woods, he said, but he talked with them for a while and convinced them to continue on their way…AND not to toss their empties into the state forest. Every time I imagine Gerry leaning against a pick-up along a country road with just a towel wrapped around his waist, I can't help but laugh out loud. Lanky and tall, with a thick droopy mustache that was almost wider than he was, Gerry was also very strong, agile, and tough. Freshly retired from a science teaching career, he was only 65 when he was felled by a tree limb while clearing trail at the eastern end of the FLT. He was standing some distance from where a dead tree was being felled by a certified sawyer, but the top broke off and knocked over another tree which sent a branch from yet
www.northcountrytrail.org
Gerry Benedict cutting shingles for nailing onto bridge deck to combat slippery conditions.
a third flying into his head. He lived only long enough, unconscious, for his organs to be donated. A measure of the kind of person he was shines from his own family members. Several of his brothers called each of the other crew members to see how THEY were doing, how they were dealing with the horror of carrying a dying crew member out of the forest. Various public agencies involved are still investigating, but no particular personal fault has been identified. Those who run our Alley Cat projects are discussing how to ensure that EVERYBODY near a potentially dangerous workzone wears a hard hat and learns more about safety than before. We all are stunned and deeply saddened by the loss of a fellow trail worker, made all the worse because it was such a dear, sweet soul as Gerry Benedict. Editor's note: One day I got to work on a clearing effort in February at 20 degrees with Gerry and his frozen mustache. His opinion of that work day. “At least there are no deer flies,” and then he went home and drew a cartoon of three blobs of winter clothing crawling through the honeysuckle, with Sandy and Pearl mousing in the snow covered weeds.
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NATIONAL PARK SERVICE MARK WEAVER
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Superintendent North Country Trail
irst, I must say I am thrilled to be able to serve the North Country Trail. Millions of thanks to Tom Gilbert for his years at the helm. I have known Tom for at least ten years and have always valued his work, his products and his opinions. I hope to follow in his footsteps while working with NPS staff, the trail partners and volunteers to move to the next level of development for North Country Trail. I’m a Michigan native, childhood in the thumb, and teen years in Oscoda, I studied three years at Kalamazoo College, then transferred to Michigan State where I earned my bachelor of Landscape Architecture. Then I hit the road and worked in the southwest US (Arizona, San Diego and Los Angeles) for about 6 years doing commercial landscape design, then returning to Michigan to work for Johnson, Johnson and Roy of Ann Arbor for two years where I met my future wife, Stephanie. We married in 1987 and I went to graduate school at Virginia Tech and earned a Master's of Landscape Architecture, followed by five years teaching at Auburn University. While in Alabama, we adopted our first son, Sam. Whew. In 1993 I accepted my first position with NPS, as Park Landscape Architect at Ozark National Scenic Riverways. I developed the park sign program,
and prepared design solutions at various locations in the park. Here we adopted second son, Ben. Five years later, I was fortunate to transfer to the RTCA program in the Wisconsin field office. Here, I established a nonprofit organization, “Groundwork Milwaukee,” which focused on urban greening projects. I developed conceptual trail networks in Portage and around Horicon Marsh, along with similar projects and consultations across the state. In partnership with Ice Age Trail, I facilitated planning efforts in Rock County, and in Middleton Township. In Michigan I worked on Green Infrastructure planning projects in the Grand Rapids and the Saginaw Bay area. In 2008 I accepted my first position as Superintendent at Nicodemus National Historic Site. Nicodemus is the only remaining African American reconstruction era westward migration settlement. Today there are only about a dozen residents in the town, but well over a hundred in an easy commute, and thousands across the country who trace their ancestry to this important settlement. This site is unique in that it is only 4.5 acres in size and of that, only two tenths of an acre is owned by the federal government. As a result, partnering with the descendants to protect its history is of paramount importance. I think the partnership perspective factors in greatly when I was asked to come to the NCT. So needless to say, I am both thrilled and humbled to be able to contribute to the future of the North Country Trail. I’m anxious to begin work with Jeff
From one volunteer to the rest, a little cheering perspective on what we've accomplished… I didn't even take along any tools, just decided to enjoy a hike. Wow. What a beautiful, well-maintained section of trail. And the new signs are awesome. I was really impressed. I walked along, enjoying the beautiful day, and thinking about what a long way we've come as a chapter. I remember 10 or 15 years ago, hiking various sections of the trail, sometimes struggling to find my way among the windfalls, beaver ponds and overgrown areas. We are so fortunate to have so many dedicated volunteers. My most heartfelt thanks to all of you! — Mikie Kuhman, email to her Chequamegon Chapter
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McCusker, Dan Watson, the Madison, Wisconsin, support staff, Bruce Matthews, Andrea Ketchmark and the staff of NCTA, all the other partners and all of the volunteers across the length of the trail. So what’s my game plan. Well, first it is to spend a lot of time chatting with everyone to get a solid handle on the current state of the trail . identify what’s working, where the gaps are, and together develop a strategy for the future. Some tasks that are on my plate right now include: • Establish a modest office and presence for the NPS in Lowell. Create a practical organization chart for personnel in light of anticipated federal budget reductions. • Ensure that our relationships with our federal, state and non-profit partners are strong and mutually beneficial. And let’s not forget about all the route planning projects that are on the burner. Vermont, Minnesota/North Dakota Border, Wisconsin/Michigan Border, Kent County, Michigan, and the Adirondacks, to name a few. Jeff and I will move forward on these and work with you all to fill the gaps in our trail. Give me a call or email me anytime. Looking forward to meeting and working with you all. Mark Weaver 616 430-3495 Mark_weaver@nps.gov
RMDs, Hiking Health & Other Surprises In Retirement Pat Allen
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he North Country Trail has been part of my life since the National Park Service’s Tom Gilbert first presented the trail study at a Michigan public meeting back in the ‘70s. I took my first backpacking hike in 1969 on the oldest longdistance hiking trail in the US, the Long Trail in Vermont. I became “Member #3” in the NCTA and haven’t missed a year since. From early on I had an almost insatiable appetite for hiking so I kept looking for other trails to conquer. Today, trails and hiking are still a vital part of the retirement life for my husband Mark Miller and me. Retirement started for me at age 60. I had made out my will, and I started collecting my state pension. Now, fourteen years later, I am healthier, and, to my surprise, my 401k, 403b and IRA retirement funds have grown. As the years have passed, I realized that the money I designated in my will is not worth as much now and it will be worth even less later. I asked myself, what more could be done with money transferred sooner. Like nearly everyone else with tax-deferred savings, when I reached the age of 70 ½, I had to begin taking required minimum distributions (RMD) from retirement funds. And I had to pay tax on that money – unless I donated it to a charity. Donating to charity sounded like “free money.” I felt a little more generous knowing I didn’t have to pay taxes on the income. The tax-free charitable contribution option expired at the end of 2011, but of course, an income tax deduction is allowed for all charitable deductions. That is where the NCTA comes in – when the recent challenge match for trail protection came up, that seemed like the perfect place to apply some of distribution money. With the RMD money I was able to make a nice gift to the NCTA’s Trail Protection Fund.
Pat Allen and husband Mark Miller on a hike in Patagonia in 2010.
Since I will continue to have to take out my RMD or be penalized, I think I have found the perfect way to support the organizations I love for a long time to come. My healthy 94-year-old mother is a vivid reminder to me to look ahead. I plan to keep hiking and supporting the trails that I love. Now, maybe I need one of the new lighter backpacks! Pat Allen is a Founders Circle donor as well as a member of the North Country Legacy Society. She has served on the NCTA Board of Directors and as the Executive Director of the Association. We are grateful for the many ways she supports the organization.
What Kind Of Legacy Will You Leave? When you think of the North Country Trail, do you wonder about its future? Have you thought about how you might help the trail eventually connect across the entire northern heartlands of our country? If you have, then one great way to do that is to put the trail in your will. For more information about making the trail part of your estate plan, contact NCTA Development Director David Cowles. He will be happy to talk with you about the opportunities. dcowles@ northcountrytrail.org or (616) 897-5987
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July-December 2012
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Come Visit Us!
The Lowell office is open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. 229 East Main Street, Lowell, MI 49331 (866) HikeNCT • (616) 897-5987 • Fax (616) 897-6605 The North Country Trail Association develops, maintains, protects and promotes the North Country National Scenic Trail as the premier hiking path across the northern tier of the United States through a trail-wide coalition of volunteers and partners. Our vision for the North Country National Scenic Trail is that of the premier footpath of national significance, offering a superb experience for hikers and backpackers in a permanently protected corridor, traversing and interpreting the richly diverse environmental, cultural, and historic features of the northern United States.