October-December, 2010
The magazine of the North Country Trail Association
Volume 29, No. 4
north star
Exploring the Superior Hiking Trail Climate Change and the NCT NPS Honor Roll A Gourmet Experience on the NCNST
In This Issue
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
An 1 nu a 20
1
The Critical Role of “Sweep�........4 Trail Tending, East & West .........5 Geocaching Along the Trail—Redux...............7 Exploring the Superior Hiking Trail.................................8 NCT Sampler: Northwestern Ohio.....................10 2011 Conference: Dayton...........11 Neighboring Landowners Grant Easements in CNY..........13 Climate Change & the NCT.....14 NPS Honor Roll.........................16 We Had to Change Our Plans....21 Tour De NCT continues............22 A Gourmet Experience on the NCNST......................................25 2010 Volunteer Adventure Highlights...................................25 Pictured Rocks Guided Hike......27
Articles
l Conference
Go to page 10 for a taste of the Biggest Trail Town on our nation's longest National Scenic Trail.
Matt Davis,
Regional Trail Coordinator Minnesota/North Dakota mdavis@northcountrytrail.org
Andrea Ketchmark, Director of Trail Development
aketchmark@northcountrytrail.org
Laura Lindstrom,
Office Manager/Financial Administrator llindstrom@northcountrytrail.org
Bruce Matthews, Executive Director
bmatthews@northcountrytrail.org
Bill Menke,
Regional Trail Coordinator Wisconsin/Michigan UP bmenke@northcountrytrail.org
Columns
Matt Rowbotham,
Trailhead.......................................3 Matthews’ Meanders...................24 Editorial Old Cow......................23
GIS/IT/Communications
mrowbotham@northcountrytrail.org
National Board of Directors Terms Expiring 2011 Lyle Bialk, Lower Michigan Rep., (810) 679-2401 ¡ lylebialk@sbcglobal.net
Departments Hiking Shorts.............................18 Register Tidbits.........................20
Mary Coffin, VP East, New York Rep., (315) 687-3589 ¡ maryccoffin@gmail.com
Dave Cornell, Immediate Past President, At Large Rep., (239) 561-6512 ¡ onestep@mei.net
Garry Dill, At Large Rep.,
(614) 451-0223 ¡ then321elm@yahoo.com
John Heiam, At Large Rep.,
(231) 938-9655 ¡ johnheiam@charter.net
Lorana Jinkerson, Secretary, At Large Rep., (906) 226-6210 ¡ ljinkers@nmu.edu
About the Cover
Terms Expiring 2012 Joyce Appel, Pennsylvania Rep.,
Photo by Eric Lindberg. A breathtaking view of unspoiled Bear Lake awed hikers on the NCTA's first guided hike, featuring the Superior Hiking Trail. For those who have yet to discover the location, it follows the rugged shore of North America's largest and coldest inland sea, Lake Superior. Hike leader Mary Coffin is planning another adventure for you, following Conference 2011. Sign up for the upcoming hike with info found on page 27.
Bobby Koepplin, President, North Dakota Rep.,
North Star Staff
Gaylord Yost, VP West, Great Lakes Rep.,
Irene Szabo, Volunteer Editor, (585) 658-4321 or treeweenie@aol.com Peggy Falk, Graphic Design The North Star, Winter issue, Vol. 29, Issue 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.
2 The North Star
October-December ďœ˛ďœ°10
(724) 526-5407 ¡ joyceappel@windstream.net
Jack Cohen, Pennsylvania Rep.,
(724) 234-5398 ¡ JCohen@zoominternet.net (701) 845-2935 ¡ bkoepplin@kwh.com
Tom Moberg, Minnesota Rep., (701) 271-6769 ¡ tfmoberg@gmail.com
Brian Pavek, Minnesota Rep.,
(763) 425-4195 ¡ stn@northcountrail.org
(414) 354-8987 ¡ gaylyost@aol.com
Terms Expiring 2013 Larry Hawkins, First VP, 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
Thank You For Your Input and Continued Involvement in the North Country Trail
C
hapter leadership provided valued input during two sessions led by our Executive Director at the Annual Conference, where a number of points and recommendations were identified and highlighted below. I assure you as President of this organization all will be discussed with staff and the Board of Directors, with decisions reported in more detail in future communications from me, Bruce, the Board of Directors or staff. Our chapter leadership sessions discussed: • Geocaching – Suggesting a policy review/change, considering land managers/owners’ preferences. • Agency Relationships Management – guidelines/best practices to cultivate and maintain good relationships with local land managers. This includes discussion with NPS, Forest Service, state agencies and NCTA. • Reporting Volunteer Hours – need for interactive data management to enable chapters to generate reports by locality and get a return response that hours actually were posted; encourage more volunteer hours to be reported, and more local recognition of volunteer efforts. • Advocacy – need for NCTA to provide stronger advocacy support at both state and federal levels for which we will need Chapters' help to grow state-based efforts. • Trail concerns – Items that affect the trail quality include logging, shale drilling for gas, ATV & mountain bike use, permanent route protection for the North Country National Scenic Trail. Other local concerns include Trail relocation permission process, route closures, and differences among land managers, permanent easements, use of “Willing Seller," methods of improving landowner relations, NCTA records on www.northcountrytrail.org
TRAIL
• NCTA has an aging membership; what are the implications, what to do about it?
BOBBY KOEPPLIN
• Funding and fund raising – who’s doing what? Local vs. national sharing raised funds.
HEAD President
easements and access agreements, and trail adopter recognition. • Member retention/recruitment – outreach tactics, need to interest young people, inviting Chapter/ trail events, family engagement, a marketing plan. • Timely Board of Directors communication – better utilizing an expanded North Star, Blue Blaze Bulletin, website, Facebook, Twitter, direct e-mail communication, conference, possible use of Intra-net. Website targeting members and leaders, including publishing highlights of the BOD minutes/actions. Strategic Plan Dashboard to monitor and share progress. • Chapters – Administrative support, explore electronic transfer of funds, supplies available from HQ, media kits etc; what can HQ do to better support local event management and participation. Track and report best practices, identify. • Gateway Communities, plus suggestions for new web resources, staff Chapter visits, Chapter Leadership Guidelines, and communications manuals, training for leaders, role of Regional Trail Coordinators, and determining priorities. • Logo-wear/trail shop – review offerings.
Several important issues in front of the Board that are taking considerable Board and Staff time include: • Budget, especially generating revenue to sustain staff and support strategic/work plans for 2011 and 2012. • NPS office re-location to Michigan. • Advocacy, Minnesota re-route, trail section re-routes, filling the gap with a national scenic trail or extension between the NCT western terminus at Lake Sakakawea and Pacific Northwest Trail at Glacier National Park, extension from eastern terminus to the Appalachian Trail. • Operations policies. • Diverse issues and work lists that surface, grow and/or change daily. Suggestions from you the membership are important in identifying opportunities to help staff and the Board of Directors in getting more trail on the ground and maintained via consistent policy. Feel free to contact me at bkoepplin@kwh. com or calling (701) 840-0250. Enjoy what is left of fall, as winter will soon be upon us. On behalf of the NCTA staff and the Board of Directors we will continue our efforts to grow our organizational capacity.
• Diversity – Multi-generational activity planning, outreach to nonwhite audiences. October-December 10
The North Star 3
The Critical Role of “Sweep” Laura DeGolier Heritage Chapter, Wisconsin
he ‘sweep’ position—the responsibility for bringing up the rear and being last in the group—often goes unfilled. But I believe it is the most important position on a hike, bike ride, kayak trip or any other venture into the outdoors. Designating a sweeper is a part of the wilderness adventure or group trip and it sends the message that we are in this together and the trip is not complete until everyone has been accounted for when we return. It ensures that everyone has a safe and enjoyable experience, especially those who may venture out for the first time, or find the outdoors and wild places frightening because their frame of reference is city streets. Many hikers or bikers have an edge of competitiveness about them; no one wants to be last so everyone moves along the trail thinking usually only of themselves and where they are in the group. It’s not a race, but among people who are reasonably fit, no one wants to be last, whereas the “sweep” is last by design. I have had the pleasure of hikes in Europe around the Mount Blanc Mountain range, in the Alps of Switzerland and up Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa. It came as a surprise that my hiking partners quickly developed a pecking order and if anyone got out of line there was a very subtle way of sending a message. After several of these adventures I recognized that there were people who participated in these hikes who did not have the same level of fitness as the others, so they often found themselves walking alone. Unfortunately, no one made sure that everyone was accounted for at the end of the day. After about ten years of adventure trips I headed to northern Spain for a hike in the region known as the Picos de Europa. I determined that I would take the place of the sweep since the trip did not provide two guides. In our group was a mid-forties woman who was marvelously intelligent. She was an attorney’s attorney, taking cases after they had been through Circuit Court and were headed for the Appeal Level. She had spent the weeks prior to the trip preparing to help a mother and father save the life of their son who had been wrongly accused of raping a white girl in Florida. She had won her case the day before the trip left for Spain, so had not had time to prepare for the hike. She was soon at the end of the group of hikers. Her sister who had talked her into this trip was very fit and in no mood to make sure her sister was able to keep up. The first day was not particularly difficult, but for someone unprepared there were problems. She slipped in the wet mud that was found in some spots and fell. The rest of the group had walked out of our sight. Luckily the trail had enough wet areas that tracking the group was not difficult, so we re-joined the group at the end of the day without any more difficulties than being alone in the Spanish Alps! I sent the attorney to buy a walking stick in the town where we spent the night and her stability the next day was much better. 4 The North Star
October-December 10
Bill Menke
T
About 3 to 4 days into the hike we headed up into the Alps where we stayed in pensions, European style hiking hostels in the mountains designed for hikers. We were in high country somewhere between 8,000 to 10,000 feet where the cows graze for the summer. All around us were abandoned shepherd huts grouped in villages. The lonely shepherd is no more as farmers now drive to the high pastures in their SUV’s to milk their cows. When you are up you have to go down and that’s where the next chapter of this trip starts. The descending trail was a switchback down a ledge face with a river at the bottom. The scenery was beautiful with caves on the side of the cliff that sheltered the animals in storms and vegetation clinging to the limestone cliff on which our trail had been cut. By this time another one of the hikers had dropped back to join the attorney and me. As we headed down the cliff face my partners grew very quiet. Soon I began to comment on the butterflies, or the lovely flowers that clung to the rock face. No one answered. Finally the newest member of our little threesome said, “I don’t know what you are talking about, but please don’t stop. I’m afraid of heights.” I have a note taped to inside of a kitchen cupboard from the attorney that was sent after the trip thanking me for my companionship. Without it, she told me, she would not have been able to continue the trip. I was a sweep at the most recent series of hikes held at the Annual Conference in Ashland, Wisconsin, on the hike to Wren Falls. Nothing very dramatic happened and we may have been a group of experienced hikers, but I know that for the spouses who only go along with their mates and outdoor experiences are the exception and not the rule, a sweep who stays at the end of the trail making sure that everyone makes it to the end is an essential part of every wilderness experience. We head out as a group and the “sweep” makes sure that we return as a group.
Trail Tending, East and West Suggestions have been coming in from trail keepers all across our NCT system, mostly from those who are pretty damned proud of their inventions to carry stuff into the interior or their methods of doing tough jobs. Admittedly, for a lot of us, taking care of trail has become our primary trail “ hobby” while mere hiking takes second place. As always, our satisfaction comes from that contented, exhausted walk back out at the end of a good day, when we get to admire our own work anew. From Bruce Johnson, Itasca Moraine Chapter, Minnesota: Two Ideas That Work For Us—The “flick stick” makes clearing debris off the trail easier. Imagine no more bending over to grasp or kick sticks off the trail. Purchase the least expensive three prong gardening tool you can and remove the plastic handle. Get an old broom handle about forty inches long and drill a hole in the “squared-off ” end. Epoxy the three pronged piece into the hole. After the epoxy is set, you are ready for action. Small sticks are easily “flicked” off the trail. Larger sticks can be lifted into one’s hand without bending over and removed to the edge of the trail. The second idea is to build a “utility box” and mount it on your DR brush cutter/mower. Most often our trail construction and maintenance work involves going out onto the trail and returning to the starting point. The box helps in several ways. After “gearing up” and lugging the chainsaw to the turn around point, our sawyer can deposit the saw and chaps into the box. Also we store extra chainsaw fuel and chain oil in the box along with an extra chain for the saw. An extra DR drive belt and tools to work on the saw as well as to put the DR drive belt back on are included in the box. At the suggestion of our chainsaw service man, Dan Harsha, we are going to acquire an extra bar. That way if poor judgement is made and we “pinch” our chainsaw, we will be able to remove the pinched bar and chain from the saw and replace them, think about our mistake, and have a chance to complete the task. TM
Bruce's utility box mounted on the mower, with saw, chaps and helmet packed inside. www.northcountrytrail.org
The key to construction is to start with a 2X10 bottom. Ours is 9 inches wide and 16 inches long; adjust to fit your saw. Get the “footprint” of your chainsaw by placing it on paper and tracing around the base. Glue and pin small materials to the bottom of the box so the saw will have a secure fit in the bottom of the box and won’t slide around. (See photo.) The dimensions of our box are 16˝ long, 9˝ wide and 14˝ high. Any questions, email: brucej@arvig.net From T.O.M. (The Old Maintainer): I agree heartily with the idea of a flick-stick, because even twenty-three years ago when I started trail maintenance, I learned quickly that one has only so many lean-overs available on any given day in one’s back. However, make mine the manual whacker (pictured on page 6), because it performs many tasks in addition to flicking sticks. By the way, if it’s lying on the ground, don’t bend over to pick it up: step on the blade to bring the handle up! That serrated blade has cutting surface on both edges, so you get to even out the whacking torments for your chiropractor’s benefit, swinging both left and right. Use it to bring into submission weeds, raspberry prickers, nasty multiflora rose, and even tender young bush or tree candidates. Sure, it’s work, but it never runs out of gas three miles from the road, never needs its sparkplug changed, and doesn’t require ear protection. A little filing before weedy sessions keeps it very effective, AND you’ll develop cool callouses to impress others with your handshake. As your skill develops, eventually you’ll be able to cut those tall overhanging raspberries or roses with an upward whip of The Whacker, or shave back advancing young bushes the same way. From Ed Scurry, Clarion Chapter, Pennsylvania: No Trial Here — After attending the annual conference in Wisconsin and partaking of the trail maintenance seminar, I would be remiss if I did not share the Clarion Chapter best practice protocol as it relates to trail blazing. While some readers may not be aware of what a long and lovely trail Clarion hosts, we do like to get it done within the Menke mantra that it should be a “trail not a trial.” We take that axiom to heart as it relates to trail blazing. Rather than carry a cumbersome blazing box, we apply a minimalist approach. Our gear, not including the paint, weighs less than a pound. • Fiskar 6˝ retractable pruning saw, about 4 ounces. • 24 oz. cottage cheese container (filled with that beautiful blue paint) plus whatever paint weighs. • Large Ziplock baggie, almost nothing. • 1˝ bristle brush, two ounces. TM
October-December 10
The North Star 5
The Fiskar saw is very sharp and should be used with caution. It is perfect for shaping tree bark. The 6˝ blade mirrors the standard blaze length and is handy for clearing branches and brush adjacent to the blaze tree. The newest model has a clip so the saw can be clipped to a belt loop for easy access. For thick barked trees we recommend incising the bark to get a sharp upper and lower edge, and shaping to get an optimum width. It is a lot safer than a draw blade or a hatchet and much less bulky. For thin barked trees or ones with lichen or forest dirt, the flat side of the blade can be used to clean the proposed blaze site. Leather gloves should be worn as the blade is extremely sharp. The best part about the Fiskar saw is that it has a lifetime warranty. The saw will break if bound when used for trail clearing; but can easily handle a 12˝ log. The turn around for replacement saws is very good and Fiskar will accept an e-mail picture to verify damage to the saw, eliminating returning the saw by mail. We get bristle brushes from Trader Horn, a discount hardware store, for $0.39 so it is a no-brainer to dispose of after using. When blazing is done (that is, you are out of paint) the container, lid and brush can all be disposed of, utilizing the baggie.
Hope everyone can relegate all of those blazing boxes to the NCT museum. More from T.O.M.: Having finely tuned laziness over the decades, I avoid oil-base paint assiduously. Good quality (read: expensive) outdoor gloss latex does an excellent job, especially over the years as each blaze gets several layers of paint, unless, of course, you err in painting one of those fast growing young things like aspen which pops paint off as soon as you are out of earshot. Clean brushes? Nah. In my freezer at home are four one-inch good quality paint brushes, each of them wrapped with added water in clear foodwrap and then in a plastic baggie tightly wound with a rubber band, and plunked into a container. Why four? One for each blaze color of various trails I tend, blue, white, yellow, and orange. Some of those brushes are at least a dozen years old, and have never been cleaned. Oink.
Irene Szabo
From John Pearson, Brule-St. Croix Chapter, Wisconsin: John has built the pictured equipment cart out of 1˝ steel angles for the frame and expanded metal for the shelves and utility box. 14˝ diameter bicycle wheels mounted on ½˝ diameter x 24˝ long threaded rod inside ¾˝ black iron pipe make it easy to roll over rough terrain. Most of us carry the basic hand tools for routine maintenance then call in a chain sawyer for especially nasty big tree crashes, plus make a separate trip to paint blazes, since you can’t carry paint AND tools with only two hands. John’s cart carries EVERYTHING he might need, including a refrigerated lunch!
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 fax 585/658-4438, or 6939 Creek Rd., Mt. Morris, NY 14510. Please don’t embed pictures within your article, but send them separately as .jpg attachments. 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: Need vertical format, and if digital, at least 300 dpi, AND we are always looking for great cover photos! Next deadline for Vol. 30, Issue 1, is 1 January 2011. What, you were going to watch football? Thank you! —Your volunteer editor, Irene
The Whacker.
Mary Coffin
JoAnn Pearson
Pictures of this cart were shown at Ashland, Wisconsin, during the annual conference, and were greeted with widespread murmurs of appreciation.
6 The North Star
This happy group of hikers enjoyed sharing the NCTA's first Extended Outing in September. Read about their trip on page 8.
October-December 10
Irene Szabo
Geocaching Along the Trail—Redux
Devin placing the final cache, hidden in a camouflaged waterproof box, and then tucked under a log behind leaves and branches, about a hundred feet off trail. These are serious geographical puzzles, and are not intended to be easy to find, even WITH a satellite helping you and your GPS find the coordinates. Devin Callihan Clarion Chapter
I
n the April–June 2010 issue of North Star magazine, I wrote an article about geocaching and its potential to be used as a tool to bring awareness of the North Country Trail to outdoors minded individuals who may otherwise never learn of it. (See page 7 of April-June 2010 issue.) However, I did not realize that misconceptions exist about the geocaching community. Additionally, I did not realize that our “grumpy old editor” was having such a sour experience with geocaching. Editor Irene Szabo maintains a beautiful loop trail along the FLT / NCT that explores a nice 45 acre piece of property that was donated to the Finger Lakes Trail Conference by John Cobb in 1998. Her problem was that some people had placed geocaches on this property without permission from the FLTC. Placing geocaches without permission is a big no-no in geocaching and is upsetting to me for any number of reasons, but in this case mostly because of the effect it had on shaping Irene’s opinion of geocaching. www.northcountrytrail.org
After the article and Irene’s editorial counterpoint were published, Irene and I began some very constructive communications through emails. I offered to contact the reviewer for geocaches in the area of the property and tell him that permission for the geocaches in question had never been granted. I then relayed to the reviewer the contact person for permission to place geocaches in this property. The geocaches were temporarily deactivated almost immediately and the cache owners were contacted to obtain permission or remove the geocaches from the property. Exactly a month later, I received word from the reviewer that these geocaches had been permanently deactivated because the owners of the geocaches had decided (probably out of embarrassment or pride; either is pretty stupid in my humble opinion) to remove the geocaches from the property altogether. Irene and I agreed that it was a shame that they had not sought out permission for the geocaches to remain on Continued on page 12 October-December 10
The North Star 7
We visited Split Rock Lighthouse enroute to our first campground.
Exploring the
Superior Hiking Trail NCTA’s First Extended Outing
Story and Pictures by Mary Coffin
We hiked and climbed rocks on the Lake Superior shoreline at Artist's Point at Grand Marais. This great spot isn't on the Superior Hiking Trail, but we enjoyed the advantages of having our vans.
Ten brave hikers joined me in the first NCTA Extended Outing this past September, hiking northern sections of the Superior Hiking Trail (SHT) in Minnesota. The 280-mile SHT will eventually become a section of the prestigious North Country National Scenic Trail when Congress authorizes S.553. Our group hiked with daypacks, basecamp style, returning to our tents in state parks in the evenings for dinner and good times around the campfire. A photo of the group is featured on page six.
S
Above: Clintonia. Below: Bee on Pinesap.
8 The North Star
October-December 10
4
eptember is a beautiful time to experience the boreal forest of Minnesota at the 47th parallel. The days are cooler, bugs absent, and bits of fall color are starting to emerge. In addition to the boreal forest’s blend of birch and conifer, the SHT offers a variety of scenery including spectacular “hellacious views” of Lake Superior, ponds, inland lakes, beaver meadows, tumbling waterfalls and cascades. There are many ups and downs as well, including the 150 foot drop down/scramble up the infamous “Drain Pipe," which involves a steep crack in a rock wall, with rock steps. Hikes included Devil’s Kettle Falls along the Brule River, Judge Magney State Park, Jackson Lake to Arrowhead Trail ridge walk (with “hellacious views” promised but fogged out that day), Cascade Falls State Park, Lookout Mountain, Tettegouche State Park including Micmac and Tettegouche Lakes and Silver Bay, Bean and Bear Lakes, Round Mountain, Mt. Trudee and Raven Rock and Gooseberry Falls State Park. Added attractions included Artist’s Point and Grand Marais Light, Split Rock Lighthouse, Grand Portage Historic Site's voyageur fort, and local color at a music festival. Every section of trail provides spectacular vistas. Lake Superior itself gives the impression of an ocean with rugged coast and blue horizon. As with most hikers, our group of participants bonded quickly, developing a sense of camaraderie, teamwork and almost kinship. All assisted readily with KP, meals and camp chores. Participants were flexible with primitive living conditions (mile walk to showers) and enjoyed the rustic atmosphere, expressing a sense of humor that drew the group closer together. We enjoyed each other immensely and
Artist's Point on Lake Superior.
shared bits of ourselves in conversation, campfire stories, wit, and brainteaser games. I greatly appreciated those who shared their knowledge about wild flowers, geology, meteorology, astronomy and camp skills. Guides from our not-for-profit outfitter, Wilderness Inquiry, planned the logistics and provided tents, healthy food, vans and camping gear. They were wonderful, welltrained, patient, knowledgeable and demonstrated excellent people skills. We enjoyed their youth and sense of humor as well. Each day they offered hiking options as well as other attractions in the area. NCTA members represented the following Chapters and Affiliates: Arrowhead, Finger Lakes Trail, Grand Traverse, Itasca Moraine, North Country Hikers, Star of the North and Western Michigan. Join me in August 2011, following the Dayton Conference, as we explore the UP’s Pictured Rocks section of NCNST on our next NCTA Extended Outing. For details contact: maryccoffin@gmail.com
Cascade River Falls.
What the Adventurers Had to Say...
“I had a thoroughly enjoyable week with wonderful Wilderness Inquiry leaders, Mo and Erik. If you enjoy yourself half as much as I did, you will not regret it.” — Lorana Jinkerson, Michigan's UP “I liked the food. Would you believe pizza cooked over a Coleman Stove? Cheesecake? I liked the trail. Spectacularly maintained trail. I liked the views. There were amazing waterfalls, and great views of Lake Superior, and great views looking down on Bear Lake and Bean Lakes. I liked the people. Everybody in the group was over sixty. Our guides were in their twenties. We all got along. I liked the hikes.” — Dan Dorrough, NY
Bean and Bear Lakes as seen from the SHT.
www.northcountrytrail.org
October-December 10
The North Star 9
NORTH COUNTRY TRAIL SAMPLER:
Northwest Ohio Following History by Railroad and Canal
This segment outside Delta memorializes Gene Markley, the early leader for this group who died in an accident a few years ago.
Yes, Pearl takes in another patch of the NCT, this time at Fraker Mill Bridge. Note that some intrepid bicyclist had beat us there that chilly morning!
It's only 12 degrees on January 2nd, 2010, but hey, it’s sunny! A walk along the “Wabash Cannonball” tended by the NW Ohio Rails-to-Trails Association, with a picture taken from inside the wonderful covered bridge they built.
Story and Pictures by Irene Szabo
T
he NCT is open in northwest Ohio on portions of several trail systems, but not connected between them, or to Michigan yet. If we tried to publish a series of history articles on places the NCT crosses or travels old railbeds or canals, it would turn into an encyclopedic work around here: for instance, many miles of the Buckeye Trail (and the route of the NCT) utilize the north-south towpath of the Miami and Erie Canal. North of there the route follows the east-west Wabash Cannonball Trail, which offers 63 miles of old Wabash Railroad route now owned by four different organizations. Transit-straight and laser-level, the Wabash varies only in its trailbed: at the east end Toledo ownership offers wide blacktop with a painted centerline. Further west, among very small towns and endless distant farms, the path is firm dirt, bordered by random bushes, with an occasional wooden bridge over stream gullies. Amtrak travels toward Chicago while long freight trains heading for Toledo and Detroit still pass in the distance, adding their soulful horns to fantasies of the storied “Cannonball” chuffing along where now only Continued on Page 17
10 The North Star
October-December 10
An underhanded ball throw from the Gene Markley sign is this wonderful pretend 1930's?? gas station, a display the owner of the business (unrelated to gas or cars) just has out in front for the sheer fun of it. The front wall of the "station" is covered with old metal Texaco advertising signs, posters with prices (oh, weep), and under the overhang are two Texaco gas pumps, restored to shiny newness. These are the surprise treasures one finds when visiting new neighborhoods along the NCT.
RA Makley
RiverScape MetroPark in Downtown Dayton where the NCT turns North to follow the Great Miami River.
Dayton, Ohio: Outdoor Adventure Capital Of The Midwest Home Of The North Country Trail Annual Conference, August 2011
D
ayton, Ohio is the largest “Trail Town” on the North Country Trail. To many people that means concrete, asphalt, and tall buildings. However, while the trail passes through the heart of this urban area you'll get a new perspective of what hiking in a city can be like: trees, rivers, and recreation dominate the experience. With the North Country Trail Annual Conference coming to Dayton in August I wanted to introduce you to the area and invite you to make plans to visit the Miami Valley. As you travel up the Little Miami Scenic Trail from Cincinnati you follow the first National Scenic River into Greene County and the artsy town of Yellow Springs, named one of the “Coolest Small Towns” by Budget Travel Magazine. The trail skirts John Bryan State Park and Clifton Gorge State Nature Preserve, home to waterfalls and ancient rock formations, before heading to Springfield’s Eco Corridor Whitewater Park. The trail leaves Wright State University on its way into Montgomery County and goes by the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historic Park Huffman Flying Field Interpretive Center and the National Museum of the US Air Force, Ohio’s largest free tourist attraction. The North Country Trail is completely off road during its 14 mile trip through Montgomery County, and Dayton, as it travels along the banks of the Mad and Great Miami Rivers primarily on multi-use trail. Bikers may pass you as Dayton is a League of American Bicyclists' Bicycle Friendly Community.
www.northcountrytrail.org
The hike along the rivers is full of colorful flora and fauna as you watch for Great Blue Heron and beaver. The trail travels through five sites of Five Rivers MetroParks which manages 15000 acres in the Dayton area, highlighted by a dramatic view of downtown at the confluence of the Mad and Great Miami Rivers at Deeds Point MetroPark. Needless to say you will find plenty to do. Make sure you bring your boots, paddle, boat, discs, bike, and binoculars so you can; • Hike on some of the 150 miles of trails • Backpack on the Twin Valley Trail • Paddle the Mad, Stillwater, Great Miami, Little Miami Rivers or Twin Creek • Mountain Bike at MoMBA or John Bryan State Park • Play Disc Golf at a variety of locations • Go Birding at Germantown MetroPark, a National Audubon Society important bird area We look forward to showing off new North Country Trail interpretive panels funded by the Connect Trails to Parks Program that compliment the new Recreation Trail signage that features the NCT and Buckeye Trail logos. Come experience Dayton, the Outdoor Adventure Capital of the Midwest! We’ll see you in August when we “Paint the Town Blue!” —Brent Anslinger Outdoor Recreation Manager Five Rivers MetroParks
October-December 10
The North Star 11
Geocaching Along the Trail Continued…
the property. Things evolved from there to the point where we decided that we were going to, in Irene’s words, “do this thing right.” So, on a crisp Saturday morning in mid October, my wife Ashley and I made the 2 ½ hour trip from Leeper, Pennsylvania, to meet Irene at “Cobb’s 45” just east of Ellicottville, NY. We knew exactly what we wanted to accomplish: to place some geocaches (with permission) to bring people to the property and do it in a way that would feature the entire property. We used three geocache containers. We hid one at what we figured would be a good place for visitors to find the geocache, near the end of their journey along the blue loop. We entitled this one “Cobb’s 45 - Final.” The trick is, in order to find this geocache, you FIRST have to find two other geocaches placed in order as you walk along the loop. Inside the first of the other geocaches, entitled “Cobb’s 45 – Latitude,” are the latitudinal coordinates for the final geocache. Inside the second, entitled “Cobb’s 45 – Longitude,” are the longitudinal coordinates for the final geocache. The first geocache was placed on the opposite side of the property, just before the blue loop leaves the white-blazed FLT / NCT. The second geocache was placed further up the blue loop, guiding the geocacher on the correct path for finding the third and final geocache on the property after retrieving the coordinates for it from the first two. A geocacher completing this series would find three geocaches while being treated to a nearly 2 mile trek through a beautiful piece of property along the FLT / NCT. My wife and I enjoyed the time that we spent on the Finger Lakes Trail, having Irene give us a tour of the property. It was the perfect situation for setting up a series of geocaches to showcase the property properly, having the person along who knows this section of trail better than anyone. Ashley and I headed on a “scenic tour” back to Pennsylvania early in the afternoon while Irene stayed at the property to do some maintenance. A few days later, I submitted the geocaches, with the proper permission, for the area’s geocaching reviewer to publish. Two days later, the geocaches had their first visitor! I decided that it was fitting to submit his log with this article. I was nothing short of thrilled that the first person to find these caches completely “got it” and ironically, in the process, unknowingly wrote the ending for this article. His log entry is below: “First and before I type another word I need to say how impressed I am that a Geocacher was able to work cooperatively with the FLTC to place these caches in this great location. Many cachers I know were at a minimum “concerned ” when the FLTC recently posted their caching guidelines [my guess is, misinterpreting it as a step towards banning geocaches from the trail altogether]. It’s good to know both groups can exist in harmony. When I found my own tracks in the snow as I approached this, the final of the three new caches in Cobb’s 45 I knew I had completed the full loop and had toured a large part of this tract of land. Although the caches brought me here I think the important thing learned was how important the FLTC is in gaining and allowing the rest of us access to these otherwise
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October-December 10
inaccessible locations. I appreciate the efforts of everyone who had anything to do with acquiring the parcel, marking the trail, building bridges and informational kiosks. In short thanks to DevinC [the author's geocaching name] and all the others who made it possible for me to hike through this impressive woodlot on a rather picturesque morning. I enjoyed the few hours I spent here and hope to return soon. I have hiked the Conservation Trail including the section of the FLT which heads south toward Pennsylvania from just west of here but have never had the good fortune of hiking this section of trail. I had big plans to hike from [the Genesee River] west to the junction of the FLT and Conservation Trail this summer but never got around to starting it. Now it’s on my must do for 2011. After locating the cache I signed another empty log and added a little swag to the container. Thanks again to all involved.” And thank you, fellow geocacher, for “getting it.” …and from the editor: Thank YOU, Devin, for coming up here to create this cool puzzle on our property. One note: geocachers’ concern about our policy? Perhaps they forget that roughly half of the miles of the FLT/NCT are on private land, and since caches are by definition OFF the trail, we must not risk losing permission because of inadvertent misuse.
Neighboring Landowners Grant Easements On Four Parcels Mary Coffin
he Finger Lakes Trail Conference and North Country Trail Association are grateful to two neighboring landowners in Central New York (FLT Map O2) who have donated Trail Access Easements that protect trail on a total of four parcels located near New Woodstock, N. Y., and can be accessed from Webber or Fairbanks Roads. Tom Hirt and his family still cultivate 300 acres of corn and hay, and active dairy farm (Holsteins) and agribusiness has been in the Hirt family for five generations since they emigrated from Switzerland in the 1800s. It is one of the largest farms in Madison County. The Hirts have been wonderful trail supporters and appreciate having hikers on the property to help monitor its use. The beautiful wooded acreage contains some very old maple trees that were formerly tapped for syrup. Although the Hirts are avid deer hunters they have not imposed a hunting season Paul Sacks and Tony Rodriguez finishing up a stile over a fence line on closure. However we do not recommend Ham Armstrong's property, where the trail route is newly protected with a hiking on either private or State land permanent easement. during hunting season. Hamilton Armstrong purchased land from Tom Hirt’s member of many local organizations. The Armstrongs are father in the 1950s and soon built a four acre pond and cabin also noted for family property that is now part of Green for his family to enjoy. The pond is stocked with fish, has a Lakes State Park in Manlius. resident beaver population, and hosts many birds and ducks. Tom Hirt and Ham Armstrong have enjoyed a friendly Since the pond is on a little divide its two outlets flow north relationship as rural neighbors sharing and coordinating the and south, keeping the beaver busy. Mr. Armstrong, or Ham land uses. These easements by adjacent landowners on the or “The Old Burdock,” has been a lifelong nature lover, hiker, four parcels protect the trail for generations to come and we avid environmental issue supporter, member of Finger Lakes greatly appreciate their generosity and support. Trail Conference, Adirondack Mountain Club, and a board
Mary Coffin
T
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October-December 10
The North Star 13
Climate Change and The North Country Trail Matt Davis and Andrea Ketchmark
© 2005 by Ron E. VanNimwegen. Photo courtesy of Vanderbilt University's Bioimages site
Oak savannah, Cedar Creek Natural History Area, Minnesota.
“C
limate change,” more commonly referred to as “Global Warming,” is a hot button issue being debated feverishly in Washington, D.C., and internationally. There is consensus within the scientific community that our planet’s climate is warming rapidly but there is not 100% agreement as to how much of it is the result of humans’ combustion of fossil fuels over the last 150 years and how much of it is part of a natural climate cycle. Politics aside, at the heart of the debate are real effects that impact our lives and the health of our local communities, our landscapes and the places we care about. Climate change stands to alter the natural environment we will traverse and therefore the experience of the North Country National Scenic Trail. With this article, we launch a series of case studies to look at how climate change has and will most likely affect the North Country Trail in the future. From the Midwestern Northwoods (in this issue) to the Ohio Valley to the Adirondack Mountains of New York (subsequent issues), we have asked the experts to take us on a hike on the North Country Trail as it may be experienced years from now.
An Ever Changing Landscape
For the last million plus years our planet has gone through climate cycles that have drastically affected our environment. If we were trying to build the North Country National Scenic Trail around 15,000 years ago, we would have been hard pressed to find a patch of ground outside
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October-December 10
of southern Ohio not under the slowly moving, heavily compacted, Laurentide ice sheet. Post-glacial erosion by wind and water left us with the diverse landscape we enjoy today. Just as the “North Country’s” landscape rebounded from being buried under a mile of ice, it will also adapt to rising global temperatures but the question remains as to what we will do to exacerbate or mitigate that change, its impacts upon our environment, and ourselves.
The Impact
Going beyond rising temperatures, other projected global impacts of climate change include changing distribution of plants and animals, population sizes, growth rates, altered timing of plant flowering and animal migrations, increasing intensity and frequency of storms, increasing droughts and fire, rising ocean levels, and melting glaciers. These certainly have the potential to impact the North Country that we all know and love. Whether it’s our favorite bird or plant species that may be forced farther north or significant changes in future precipitation patterns, we are certainly in store for changes in our environment. Escaping to the NCT might become an even more enjoyable activity for Americans living in urban areas as summer heat waves are predicted to become more frequent by the end of the 21st Century. For example, Twin Cities residents will be dealing with 70 days with temperatures over 90°F and almost 30 over 100°F; Cincinnatians will experience 85 days with temperatures over 90°F and almost 30 over 100°F while Pittsburgh will approach 100 days over 90°F. In fact, the climate of western Pennsylvania is projected to resemble that of northern Alabama today, winters of Minnesota will be more like the winters of Wisconsin and Illinois today, while the summers will be more like those of Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma today. The NCT will surely remain but the experience of hiking on it will change from what it was and what it is now to something different. To learn more about projected impacts in your area, visit the Nature Conservancy’s Climate Wizard at http://www.climatewizard.org/.
Case Study: Midwestern Northwoods By Lee E. Frelich, Ph.D
Director, The University of Minnesota Center for Hardwood Ecology
T
he Midwestern “northwoods” cover millions of acres across northern Minnesota, Wisconsin and Upper Michigan. These forests range from boreal spruce, fir and jack pine in the BWCAW (Boundary Waters Canoe Area) and certain pockets with lake-effect climates along Lakes Superior and Michigan, to red and white pine on sandy and rocky soils, to hemlock and sugar maple with basswood, red oak and yellow birch on loamy soils just south of the boreal forest. These forests have changed dramatically when the climate changed in the past, and they will do so again in the future. They are also uniquely sensitive to climate change because the region lies close to the prairie-forest border that runs diagonally from northwest to southeast across the lake states. Thus, there is the possibility that the climate may change from one that supports forest to one that supports prairie and savanna over vast tracts of northwoods. Given a business as usual for CO2 emissions (a very likely scenario given people’s reluctance to change until absolutely necessary), summer temperatures will increase by 10-15 degrees F by the end of this century. Fossil pollen evidence shows that tree species move north and south with climate change, with each species tracking its optimum climate. The summer climates of the BWCAW and Upper Michigan would resemble northern Iowa and Illinois today. It almost goes without saying that most conifers (especially black spruce, white spruce, jack pine, red pine and balsam fir) would not be able to grow in such a climate. Forest wildlife species depend not only on climate, but also the tree species that comprise their habitat; wildlife species such as the moose, lynx, boreal owl and black backed woodpecker would not be able to live in the oak forests and savannas that may invade the northwoods under a warmer climate. The direct impacts of temperature are only one aspect of climate change. Many impacts on forests in a changing climate occur due to secondary influences; the climate influences frequencies of droughts, windstorms, and fires, as well as outbreaks of insects and diseases of trees, and abundance of wildlife species such as deer that browse on tree seedlings. These factors then change the forest by increasing the mortality rates of adult trees and hampering the ability of new seedlings to replace the dying trees and leading to savannification of the forest. Because there are so many of these indirect effects of climate change, tree species that may not be very sensitive to temperature change alone could be hit by a number of other factors. For example, white pine and white cedar might persist in the northwoods under a warmer climate, but their seedlings are commonly eaten by deer. Red oak, which is near the northern edge of its range in the Midwestern northwoods, should be in a position to take over many forests as the more northerly species retreat, but deer also eat its seedlings; thus deer could hinder the adjustments that forests will try to make as the climate warms.
www.northcountrytrail.org
Insects and diseases, both native and exotic, play a large role in forests as the climate changes. Winters with higher minimum temperatures and longer summers give insects and diseases a better chance to multiply, and trees under drought stress in a warming climate are also less able to defend themselves against insects and diseases. For example, the Mountain pine beetle has killed 30 million acres of lodgepole pine forests in British Columbia, Canada, as a result of lack of -40 degree temperatures in recent winters that used to keep the bug at bay. Although we don’t know how long it will take for this beetle to reach our region, it is now able to cross the southern margin of the boreal forest through Saskatchewan and Manitoba to reach the pines of the Midwestern northwoods. Hemlock wooly adelgid is causing the near extinction of hemlock in the eastern U.S., and probably can’t live in our northwoods because it is killed by winter temperatures of -20 degrees. However, in a few decades temperatures that cold may no longer occur in our hemlock forests, allowing the bug to wipe them out. Emerald ash borer is not very sensitive to winter cold, but it is in the process of removing ash species that would otherwise have been able to persist in a warmer climate. Another big factor for our forests is the invasion of European earthworms. The northwoods region has no native earthworms, and the invaders eat the duff (or multi-year accumulation of leaf litter) on the forest floor, reducing the insulation of the soil during the summer and warming the soils more than a warmer climate would alone. A recent study shows that European earthworms make trees more sensitive to droughts at a time when increasing drought frequency is likely to impact forests. Earthworms, and changing climates, also favor invasive plant species such as buckthorn, garlic mustard, Japanese barberry and tatarian honeysuckle. These invasive plant species then compete with native plant species (such as trillium) and tree seedlings already under stress from a changing climate. My best estimate for a business as usual climate change scenario is that the prairie-forest border will shift northwards by about 300 miles, putting it at Thunder Bay, Ontario. Large wild areas with shallow soils such as the BWCAW (if invasive species don’t jump in first) could become an important oak savanna restoration opportunity (since most of our original oak savanna was converted to crop lands and less than 1% remains). Maple and hemlock forests in northern Wisconsin and Upper Michigan would gradually become oak forests, with some areas of savanna and prairie on areas with shallow or sandy soils. It remains to be seen whether this business as usual scenario develops, or whether we will be successful at reducing CO2 emissions, resulting in a lower magnitude of change to the climate and forests of the northwoods region.
October-December 10
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These Volunteers Were Honored In Their Respective Categories By The NPS At Ashland In August.
400–1000 Hours Diane Winston Eileen Fairbrother Richard Ferguson Jerry Marek Larry Meyer Peg Myers Richard Parks John Scott Charles Vannette Bill Brosseau Becky Heise Elmo Layman Thomas Pflueger Darrel Rodekuhr Ron Sootsman Kay Thompson Richard Naperala Ed Scurry Doug Welker
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200 Hours
Dennis Fay Tom Moberg Magee Momenee Barb Pavek Jo Anne Pearson Don Penly Robert Yuill Richard Swanson William Wesner Chuck Hayden Marvin DeWitt Charlene DeWitt Patrick Delaney Catherine Andrews Jim Antonson Deven Atkinson James Gilkey Mary Dineen Harold L Fairbanks Larry Best Jim Charvat Judy Ferguson Charles Church John Cooley Laura DeGolier John Forslin Mark Glendon Robert Leedle Arlene Matson Jim Matteson Norma Matteson Heather Peyton Michael L. Rankinen Sharon Schaafmeyer Horst Schwinge Sieglinde Schwinge Linda Sootsman Karen Stenberg Vickie Swank Diane Winston Sue Boettner Julie Watson
October-December 10
100 Hours
Loren Bach John Backes Greg & Laurie Bailey John R.Beguhn Estelle Benner Ruth Bergquist Larry Best Sue Boettner Dennis Fay Dennis Garrett Meta Geyer Gail Glendon David Harper Chuck Hayden Margo Hodder Russ Johnson Marjory Johnston Ron Justi Bob La Fleur Gordon Lachniet Hank Ludtke Donna Lynch Willis Mattison Gary Maurina Magee Momenee Timothy Mowbray Scott Parker Don Penley Leon Pitzen David Potzler Karen Stenberg Pam Stonehouse John W. Wagar William Wesner Daniel Willshire Gene Wimmer Robert Yuill Nancy Zebko
2010 500 Hour VIP Pass Recipients Bob Norlin Ray Vlasak Brian Pavek Cliff Stammer Marge Forslin Ed Scurry Dick Naperala Arlen Matson John Pearson Darrel Rodekuhr Atley Oswald Gary Narum Bobby Koepplin Richard Kroener Barb Buchanan Tim Calloway Philip Dankert Charlene DeWitt Lorana Jinkerson Lynne Nason Peter Nason Rick Adamson John Leinen Joyce Appel Al Larmann Stan Kujawa Kay Kujawa John Heiam Bruce Johnson Richard Ferguson Tom Garnett Dave Cornell Daryl Heise Doug Welker Marty Swank Steve Webster Harlan Liljequist Tom Moberg John Morris
NCT Sampler Continued… the crunch of our feet or the tick of bicycle wheel sounds. The western 40 miles are owned by NORTA (Northwest Ohio Rails-to-Trails Association), an NCTA affiliate, which is the first trail organization I've ever “met” that actually has some money, because they sold utility passage rights beneath the railroad route. NORTA has a storage building, a serious tractor for mowing, built a gorgeous post-and-beam covered bridge over a creek gully in 2003, and tends all this well-signed trail with only a handful of volunteers! It's one of those odd little miracle trails that's a joy to find. Their route is nearly continuous, and keeps improving in sections as some towns add refinements; for instance, now the part around Wauseon is paved, which it was not during a 2003 visit. However, one bushy gap persists just east of Wauseon, because that's where busy Norfolk Southern and Amtrak tracks cross the old Wabash route “at grade,” meaning their rails once crossed each other in the same plane instead of one bridging the other. It is illegal for hikers to cross the active tracks there, so NORTA hopes that the city of Wauseon will be able to negotiate a legitimate at-grade crossing. Unfortunately “Nimblewill Nomad,” the long-distance hiker who completed the whole NCT in 2009, did not have time to learn about WHY there was this gap in the trail, and instead felt free in his online hike account to complain because it was bushy and not cleared. We wish he had bothered to learn why before heaping criticism on his trail hosts. The handsome Fraker Mill Bridge outside Delta was built atop the original railroad trestle, timber-framed and turned into a covered bridge just to be an attraction along the trail. One of NORTA's board members, Sandy Mason, is a descendant of the Fraker family who were pioneers in the area, and did operate a water-powered mill on that same creek near the bridge. Sandy raised a lot of the funds needed for the bridge through donations from Fraker descendants. At the east end of the Wabash Cannonball Trail the 3800-acre Oak Openings Preserve Metropark is one of several parks administered by Toledo, even though they stretch southwest of the city for miles. The paved Wabash crosses the north end of the large park, so Joan Young and I walked only a short part of that on our roughly 8-mile circuit through the woods, destined to be future route of the NCT, during a 2003 early winter visit. Oak Openings is big enough to offer 27 miles of hiking and 20 miles of horse trails, but has so many loops that Joan and I could take a serious look at much of it. The forest is of course full of several kinds of oaks, plus more sassafras trees than I'd ever seen before. The next day Joan and I sampled several spots along the Miami & Erie Canal, which was built to render navigable the bumpity and flood-prone Maumee River stretching southwest of Toledo toward Defiance, and then southward to connect with Cincinnati on the Ohio River. Built between 1825 and ’45, the canal totalled 301 miles and used 105 locks to climb 521 feet above the Ohio then drop 395 feet to Lake Erie at Toledo. It lasted longer than most canal www.northcountrytrail.org
dreams: the last part wasn't abandoned until 1929. We who are accustomed to the still-functioning Erie Canal in NY, now 185 years old, have our perspectives fogged unless we remember that most results of the canal-building craze of the early 1800's failed quickly due to market and engineering inadequacies, and competition from spreading alternatives like the railroads. On the north side of the Maumee River across from Ohio's Grand Rapids is Providence Metropark, where Ohio's only working lock has reconstructed wooden gates that show how they once worked. In December the saw and grist mill was closed, so Joan and I had to content ourselves pressing our noses against the window panes to admire all the 19th century machinery arrayed inside. In summer this park includes a mule-drawn canal boat, and in any season offers miles of towpath that is blue-blazed as part of the Buckeye Trail and NCT. At Florida (yes, a village in Ohio), we walked another portion of the Miami & Erie towpath through woods, with the water-filled old canal on one side, and the very full river on the other. On the river side were sycamore trees of four to six-foot diameter, and trees of all girths from 4 inches to 24 with striking corky ridges in the bark. Neither of us knew this oddity until we got home to pore over tree books and discover the hackberry, common there, unusual further north. The towpath reaches Defiance at the junction of three rivers, where “Mad Anthony” Wayne defended Fort Defiance to defeat Chief Pontiac, back in the late 1700’s when this frontier wilderness was still being fought over by the French, British, Americans-to-be, and the native inhabitants. Apparently Pontiac was well on his way to sending the long knives packing until the defense at Fort Defiance. The park walk along the Maumee across from the fort's location shows clearly how that prominence could command the area, and historic markers fill in the picture for walkers. There is even a monument to a record apple tree, 9 feet in diameter, that died in 1887 at the age of 217! Early French-Indian apple cultivation gains further significance in this neighborhood, since Johnny Appleseed had his first seedling nursery here 1811-28. Robert Pond's Follow the Blue Blazes: A Guide to Hiking Ohio's Buckeye Trail says “Apples provided early settlers with vital nourishment during the winter. They were preserved as applesauce and apple butter and were used to make cider. Hard cider was a great ‘attitude-adjuster’ that lifted the spirits of winter-bound pioneers.” Early settlers anywhere on the frontier often converted surplus agricultural production into “spirits,” since marketable whiskey or wine was easier to transport than bulky wheat, corn, or barley, and kept better than grapes, apples, or peaches. We walked a bridge across the river into town and found a lunch spot within a few blocks, one that had been a restaurant and/or bar since the 1800's. The decorative tin ceiling, fabulous carved mahogany and mirrored bar back, brass rails, and even a dumb waiter for banquet rooms upstairs all told of a long history, and the menu gratified us with tales of Prohibition shenanigans, low-priced lunches on credit during the Depression, and even touted the October-December 10
The North Star 17
establishment's favorite lunch dish, a patty of pork brains. Joan, ever the braver of the two of us, ordered it just because. The waitress admitted she had no idea what it tasted like, but shared that most had it in a sandwich with lots of mustard. Well, y'all, we're here to testify that it's a colossal waste of brain matter. There is absolutely no flavor beyond a faint oiliness, so mustard sandwiches are what they're eating in Defiance, Ohio. Southward the NCT and Buckeye Trails follow many miles of the Miami and Erie Canal towpath through parks, segments of restored canal and locks, historic sites and museums, all the way to Dayton. See you there in August. Portions of this article were previously published in the Finger Lakes Trail News in Spring 2004.
Mark Your Calendar For 2011 Conference!
Imagine that! Buckeyes, fruit of the tree, lying about on the trail in the Buckeye State.
18 The North Star
HIKING SHORTS Superior Shoreline Chapter UPPER MICHIGAN – The new Superior Shoreline Chapter in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan reports that Kid Rock visited the area on October 13th to film a new music video called Born Free for an upcoming CD. Filming was done at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore at Miners Beach, then the crew moved westward down the North Country Trail, according to The Mining Journal, area newspaper. Reported by Chapter member Tim Hass, who was thrilled enough that the trail was mentioned! Itasca Moraine Chapter MINNESOTA – And speaking of music 4 CD’s, Charlie Maguire’s new CD Wilderness Road includes the song “North Country National Scenic Trail” which was commissioned for the 2007 Bemidji NCTA Annual Conference, AND includes a pair of bright blue blazes on the cover photo, taken at Itasca State Park. Towns in northern Minnesota served by the Kitchigami Library System will offer concerts by Charlie in area libraries starting in November. —Florence Hedeen Wampum Chapter PENNSYLVANIA – On the Wampum Chapter’s list of projects to accomplish this year was building a new mile of trail at PA Gamelands 285, eastward towards Darlington. We wanted to get this completed in order to work next season on an adjacent property owner’s farm, building the trail along the North Fork of the Little Beaver Creek and eliminating another two miles of roadwalk. Because of
October-December 10
the nature of the terrain, including a hundred foot ascent and descent at Indian Rock Hill, it looked like a daunting project to finish in one season, especially considering all of the other project and trail maintenance items on our list. To the rescue came youth volunteers and their adult sponsors from Mt. Olive Lutheran Church, based in Chippewa, Pennsylvania, who were participating in a “Week Of Service.” These neophyte trail builders came from both the local area and from the states of Minnesota and Michigan. None of them had previous trail-building experience, but they proved to be quick studies, with the energy and enthusiasm of their age pushing them to great effort. On four of the hottest, most humid days in August, twelve youth and three adults assisted the chapter members in building a thousand yards of new North Country Trail at the gamelands, working to dig sidehill and switchbacks up to Indian Rock, a three by five by two-foot stone with a series of circles and squares carved into the top of it, by whom, no one knows, and then back down the other side of the hill. They did an expert job of working with the trail tools to dig back deep into the hillside, install cribbing where needed, and create a pleasant, wellformed, safe hiking trail leading to an attraction that generations of hikers had scrambled up the hillside on all fours to reach. Thanks from the Wampum Chapter go out to Pastor John Pingel and Ron Heitsch, Director of Volunteers, from Mt. Olive Lutheran Church for their assistance and support, and to the chapter volunteers who put in the time and labor to finish this project. On to Darlington! —Dave Brewer, Communications Coordinator
Florence Hedeen
www.northcountrytrail.org
Wampum Chapter: Astoundingly steep hillside the young volunteers had to render navigable for a new segment of NCT.
Dave Brewer
Carter Hedeen
Itasca Moraine Chapter planning session: Sitting on the latrine is Florence Hedeen. The one wearing the latrine is Carter Hedeen, while the other guy is Bruce Johnson, president of ITM chapter.
Dave Brewer
Hiawatha Shore-to-Shore Chapter: Andrew Ball's helpers on his Eagle Scout project. He's the guy front left, with the mucky boots.
Hiawatha Shore-to-Shore UPPER MICHIGAN – Chapter Scout Project led by Andrew Ball: I found out about the Lynch Creek bridge project from Dr. Blanchard and Dr. Szlag in the Chemistry Dept. at Lake Superior State University. The Chemistry Dept. is responsible for maintaining this particular section of the NCT. I first went out to the site in April. At the time, the bridge was flooded with water, making it almost impossible to cross. Dr. Blanchard and Craig Krepps, Tahquamenon Falls State Park Superintendent, told me they would like to see the bridge raised and walkways built across the muddy areas. My dad and I diagrammed the bridge and walkways to decide how much material was needed. I then met with Mr. Krepps about getting the materials. Later, Mr. Krepps wanted me to change the plan because he had other materials he wanted me to use. I also had to make changes at the site because the state park delivered different materials from those I’d planned on. Mr. Krepps provided the timber and nails for the walkways and the bridge. He also provided a group campsite at the river mouth campground for the weekend of my project. Lock City Home Center, Soo Builders Supply Co., and Parker Hardware provided the remaining supplies needed for the project. On August 20th and 21st, twenty people helped me carry supplies back and build the bridge and walkways. Mr. Krepps had previously delivered half of the wood to the work site. I divided the volunteers into groups to work on two different parts of the site. I assigned tasks such as hammering nails, hauling materials, etc. The Lynch Creek bridge was originally 38´ long. We raised the bridge up above the water level, so with the walkways approaching from each side, it is now 105´ long. We also built a new walkway 18´ long about 1/2 mile beyond the Lynch Creek bridge. Before there were just planks of wood in the muck. I will be building a guest comment box to place at the beginning of the trail off Tahqua Trail, which will complete my project. —A. J. Ball
Wampum Chapter: The famous and mysterious so-called Indian Rock.
Central New York Chapter President Kathy Woodruff and Matthew Urtz, Madison County Historian.
Central New York Chapter NEW YORK – The Central NY Chapter held their annual meeting and open house in October in Cazenovia. A presentation by Matthew Urtz, Madison County Historian, on the historical water-powered industries along Chittenango Creek brought in new people. The trail north of Cazenovia follows a railbed along that creek, where even today some remnants of former industries can be seen among the weeds.
October-December 10
The North Star 19
s t i b d i T r e t s i g Re
S
Ju d
yE
r wi
n
everal issues ago there were excerpts published from trailside register boxes, from both Wisconsin and New York. This was Regional Coordinator Bill Menke’s excellent idea, in hopes that other areas would be encouraged to add registers to their systems. Ironically, considering the fauna mentioned most often below, wooden boxes suffer from porcupine gnawing most of all, so metal boxes are required in some regions–ammo boxes, rural mail boxes–all sorts of ingenious containers have been pressed into service.
During a misty hike on the Finger Lakes Trail in NY, Jim Connors signs in.
so he and I will be coming several times a year from now on. —Tom and Coby Roberts Teresa Zweering
Priscilla Young at metal ammo register box on the Portage Trail, taken during one of last summer's Wisconsin conference hikes. No porcupine gnawing or mouse nests in this one!
More excerpts from a register near a shelter in Allegany State Park, a few miles into New York from Pennsylvania, one renowned for its resident porcupines: 6/12/07 Let me tell you a story…It starts back in 1992 when a young boy (me) is finally allowed to go off on my own, hiking at the ripe age of 13. I decided to do the full 18 miles of the park’s North Country Trail. From that point on I was hooked on this trail…. (years’ worth of experiences deleted) Two children later here I am today, happy as ever to be back. Even happier to bring the big man Coby, my first born. He is 21 months old and stumbling around like Super Mario. Now Coby is a real backpacker/outdoors boy, 20 The North Star
6/25/07 We’re members of the West Michigan Chapter NCTA. Love seeing other sections of the trail. Hope to make it to trails end at North Dakota some day. —Jim & Tina Hop 7/6/07 Porky and friends showed up at eleven. We argued, negotiated, and finally conceded. It’s Porky’s lean-to. He can eat it if he wants. —Karen & Ken, Ohio 7/21/07 This is my first solo backpack. It is about 10 PM and I now realize how much darker it is when alone. Solitude is nice but I miss people. …there are still 7 hours till daylight. —Matthew Braun 8/9/07 It’s been a great day hiking with my Dad. On one hike saw two deer, eleven salamanders, and three toads. When we got to the leanto some porky poop was around. I got to go because we promised Mom we’ d be back in two hours and she’s watching my crazy brother and sister. —Zach, age 8 8/29/07 …I have used my Leki hiking poles to whack porcupines on other trails, yet another use for poles. —Dan “Knight…” (unreadable)
October-December 10
9/16/07 Lovely golden September day to be hiking with 14 Foothills and ADK people. —Cheryl P., NOT 12 years old 10/7/07 My name is Coby. I am 2 years old. This is my second trip to the lean-to. I hitched a ride on Daddy’s backpack half the way and walked the rest. I am driving Daddy insane. I had a hard time falling asleep without mommy. —Coby and Tom, Buffalo NY 10/16/07 Jodee is the greatest woman and I love her very much for many reasons but one is that she loves to backpack and be out in the wilderness. No complaints after four days without electricity or a shower! What a woman!! —Jeff & Jodee, Springwater, NY 1/12/08 Nice January day to check on the trail. Recent high winds will keep me busy in spring clearing blowdowns. —Don Keipper, trail steward 8/6/08 The lean-to was a welcome sight at 5:30 PM. We consider today’s hike the first leg of a possible end-to-end on the FLT. We carried too much; our 59 and 62 year old joints feel some stress, but we had an excellent day. —Linda Van Buskirk and Marilyn Post with Otty the collie
Rachel and Merv Frey
We Had to Change Our Plans
Rachel Frey Pennsylvania
“I don’t think so,” I said, vehemently. “We are NOT going 17 miles on Friday.”
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t was Wednesday evening in July of 2007 in the middle of a section hike of the NCT in New York. My husband Merv and I had collapsed in the tent beside the pond at Holimont Ski Area, too tired to get up and make supper. This trip was turning out to be more strenuous than either of us had counted on. Our plans called for still more mileage tomorrow. Now I was beginning to have second thoughts. We had done 13.7 miles today and the thought of more than that was not appealing, to say the least. Our 60-mile hike from Henrys Mills to Allegany State Park in 2006 was relatively easy. But in planning this year’s trip, we asked ourselves questions. Can we hike the longer distances needed to reach the campsites? What type of terrain will we find? Will it be ups-and-downs or relatively level? Will the blazes be well-marked or will we have to hunt for them? We decided to try for a longer distance. Seventy-five miles in six days seemed reasonable. We planned to go from Coon Road in Allegany State Park to Huyck Road. Charlie and Marian Mowatt, our spotters and wonderful hosts, would place our car for us at Huyck Road after six days. Allegany State Park and Seneca Indian Reservation were easy to hike. But the white blazes of the Finger Lakes Trail/NCT were not always there and we wasted time hunting them in the Seneca Indian Reservation at that railroad before Sunfish Road. And ominously, the stream beds were dry. Arriving at Beck Hollow, we checked the spring. From a white pipe came water, dripping www.northcountrytrail.org
very slowly. We inserted our plastic dishpan under it and waited. It was enough. Finding water at a generous landowner’s house the next day was certainly appreciated. Blazes obliterated by logging made the afternoon hike longer than it should have been. We decided to camp near a creek. That seemed like a better idea than a bivouac area with no water even though it meant we would have more mileage the next day. A rippling creek in the background is the best way to go to sleep. Camping by that creek was nice, but it made our next day’s distance a mile farther. We had to reach another bivouac area at Holimont Ski Area to camp that night. The day got longer and longer with lots of ups and downs. It was the kind of trail that wears you out. Rock City State Forest had big rock formations, but we didn’t look at them very much. The pressure of wondering if we could make this distance took over in our minds. Somehow we missed some blazes at Holimont and discovered we were going DOWNHILL which meant we had missed the pond. There was no choice but to turn around, hike UPHILL in the hot sun at 4:00 and see if we could find the bivouac area. We had missed a turn-off. That was the Wednesday night at Holimont where we made THE decision. The map promised some difficult hiking with switchbacks along with some road walks the next day. We decided to hike Cotter Road and Fancy Tract Road instead of the NCT. We rationalized that they are sometimes used anyway
Continued on Page 24
October-December 10
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Tour de NCT Continues in Pennsylvania
October-December 10
Made you look! John Stehle, on left, got everybody to stop and look for what sounded to him like a hermit thrush in the trees on September 26.
Tammy Veloski
22 The North Star
For the hike on 10/10/10, all ten hikers dealt with Pennsylvania's incredible rocks.
Tammy Veloski
njoy the latest installments of our two-year (so far) program to hike all of the NCT in Pennsylvania. Stage 14 on August 1st shattered all records for distance, covering 24 miles in just four hours! Of course, we must confess that we were riding bicycles on part of the rail-trail portion of the route along the Allegheny River. Two more old railroad tunnels provided some excitement and at least one “boring” pun. At our intersection with the Sandy Creek railtrail, Ed Scurry from our hosts, the Clarion chapter, invited us to have our lunch enhanced by snacks shared by Ed and his wife Norma Jean. Stage 15 involved two days of hiking and camping in the Allegheny National Forest, August 21-22, through scenic areas of the southern Forest, including Minister Creek featured in the last North Star. We were immediately slowed by a bountiful stand of black raspberries, and the mushrooms were as gorgeous and plentiful as our Stage 5 hike found last August. On Sunday we enjoyed the new trail built by the ANF Chapter and Boy Scouts just this past June. On September 26th our 16th Stage continued where the Stage 14 bike trek ended. Ten hikers enjoyed an easy seven miles along more former railbed. Colors were growing more warm and mellow, resulting in a lot of great pictures. Ed Scurry and Dave Galbreath of Clarion Chapter came through for us wonderfully, since they negotiated a temporary one-mile permission through private land, enabling us to avoid a temporary road walk. Stage 17: it portended good things that ten hikers set out on the tenth day of the tenth month of the tenth year of the century, as nice a day in October as you could have, with the autumn colors in all their glory. As the sun rose we gathered at Amsler Spring for our final hike in the wonderful Allegheny National Forest, a place we’ll all miss. Once again Dave Galbreath had gone before us, making sure blazes were clear and the trail tidy, while some segments had recently been mowed by Keith Klos. What a great welcome! We even ran into Keith and Karen putting the finishing touches on a bench sited to afford us great views. Twelve rocky miles were tiring, but we all ended in good shape, and enjoyed dinner at the Vowinkel Hotel. We would all rate this tenth day a Ten. One more hike this season on November 21, and then perhaps five more next summer to complete the state! From hike reports by John Stehle. (724) 2560674. stehles@yahoo.com.
Tammy Veloski
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Another wonderful August for mushrooms! If only we could publish the whole collection of pictures....
The Editorial Old Cow
Doubting Thomases and Other Infidels H
www.northcountrytrail.org
from miles of suburban railtrails that were barely functioning secondary railroads back in the 1970’s when the club was still trying to finish the north end. Best confession of all: Ron Navik was awarded the FLT’s highest annual honor, the Wally Wood Award named for the trail’s founder, after years of serving on the board and as the trail chair of the Genesee Valley Hiking Club, which built and maintains 84 miles of both main and branch trails. During his speech after receiving that award, he admitted that when he agreed to be his club’s trail chair he thought it was a low-risk volunteer job, because he frankly didn’t think this new Finger Lakes Trail would be around very long. He was a young man then, and just retired from Xerox this spring. As it turned out, Ron is the kind of person who would take whole weeks of vacation to work on trail maintenance with his wife, year after year. Dream big and be prepared for endless little miracles along the way. —Irene Szabo
Bill Menke
ow many of you dream that the whole North Country Trail will be built and mapped in your lifetimes? Probably not a one of us is that giddy with hope (or that young!), but maybe we need not be as pessimistic as the most glum among us who whisper that it’s just too big to get done...ever. Over the twenty-five years I’ve been loitering around the Finger Lakes Trail, I’ve seen a lot of amazing changes and accomplishments. To be sure, our trail system at about 900 miles isn’t a patch on a 4600-mile system, but our history serves as a model...to scale...of what can happen. Enthusiastic early trail builders from different clubs across upstate New York tried hard, but it still took until our THIRTIETH anniversary to close the last gap in the main cross-state trail. At our FORTIETH we celebrated moving into an office with a tiny part-time staff, our first ever after 40 years of operating out of volunteers’ homes. Our fiftieth is two years away: what exciting threshold will we cross then? Best of all, I’ve collected tales told by members who have been around this trail many years longer than I have, confessing their own early doubts about this ambitious project. By the time I accidentally stumbled on this trail, it had already been around for 23 years, so I never got to face the doubts of the earliest volunteers. Parenthetically, I was also sorry I had found it so late, thinking it was all done and I’d missed the real fun. Stupid me. Kalista Lehrer is a longtime member of Foothills Trail Club, a Buffalo area hiking club that built and maintains 184 miles, some of it main east-west trail coming in from the Pennsylvania border and therefore the route also of the NCT, and part of it a long branch trail north to Niagara Falls. She confessed, “I’m sometimes overwhelmed by the success of the FLT.” “I can remember my husband John saying that it would never be completed all across the state, yet now it’s even part of the NCT! (He didn’t think that would ever be completed either, but I’m not betting against it.) After all, my mother lost her bet. She didn’t believe we would ever put a man into space!” She told me another story on herself, too. “I was president of Foothills when Lou Roche said at a meeting that we should extend the trail north. (At the time we were stuck at Hunters Creek Park and had not found any route to get us out of there through the countryside and suburbs around Buffalo.) So I ended the discussion by asking Lou if he would be the chairman of that project, and he agreed. My thinking at the time was that it just wouldn’t be possible; there was so much private land in small parcels. But Lou and his wife Loretta set to work, and look at it now, open beyond Buffalo to Niagara Falls!” One welcome trend that could not have been foreseen even twenty years ago was the wholesale conversion of abandoned railbeds into trails in and around cities, with serious municipal input of money and maintenance making them perfect avenues around many of the cities on our trail routes. As it turned out, the northern Conservation Trail, the branch to Niagara Falls that Foothills tends, has benefitted
Brule Bog Boardwalk. Did anybody believe all this would ever be built? October-December 10
The North Star 23
We Had to Change Our Plans Continued… during hunting season. Maybe we could go at a faster pace. If we finished a day earlier we could visit a friend of ours AFTER cleaning up in a motel. We hoped maybe we could contact Charlie with the cell phone. It didn’t work very much on this trip. We needed to change our ending point to Route 16. The switchback areas certainly were steep, but the trail maintainers had done a good job and we could easily see where we were to go. But that “gravel road” did not have many blazes on it and we completely missed the turnoff blaze which was all but covered by leaves. So we had to climb UP again to find out where it was. By the time we got to the Ev Hittle view area, my back was hurting. Was this the same thing that had happened seven years ago on another long-distance backpacking trip? I hoped not. It took me out eight days that time. We were relieved to see the blue blazes leading to the bivouac area. But it was ¼ mile UPHILL! We continued on to the promised reliable spring to get water for the night only to find it completely dry. Now what? Merv went on downhill to Devereaux Creek to see if he could find water and I labored up the hill to the bivouac area with the added weight of the tent. I wanted to erect it before it rained. It was thundering threateningly. We had just barely finished supper when rain began dropping on our tent. My back was still hurting. What should we do? Will the cell phone work? We tried it and surprisingly, Charlie answered. “I’ll come and get you. I’ll bring you water. I’ll do whatever you want,” Charlie was beyond being helpful. “If my back is not any worse, we’ll be OK,” I said. “If you can park the car at Route 16, we would really appreciate it.” This was only the second time on our whole trip that the phone worked. We finished our last day with another amazing happening. In Bear Creek Forest we emerged from the woods trail only to see Charlie and Marian’s car on the gravel road! They had dropped off our car at Route 16 and were driving around thinking they just might see us. After hiking 10 easy miles on our last day, we found the car at Route 16. Instead of doing 75 miles on this trip, we did 60. We figured we could start at Route 16 another year. And we did. In 2008, we were back! Somehow backpacking gets “in your blood.” Editor’s Note: Marian and Charlie are members of the Finger Lakes Trail’s “Trail Angels” list, those who will spot cars or offer other helpful services to hikers who are always at the mercy of logistical nightmares, even to arrange their cars for a multiple day hike. While hikers Rachel and Merv were beneficiaries of these angels’ ministrations, they were also victims of the especially steep hillsides immediately north of Allegany State Park, where the last glacier ended its southward march, so didn’t grind down those nasty hills enough. The glacier also deposited rocks all over the ground, from toe stubbers to housesized boulders in the area known as Rock City. Ironically, the campsite referred to above, when Merv had to go downhill to Devereaux Creek, is part of the same property where Devin Callihan hid a fun set of geocaches. See page 7. 24 The North Star
October-December 10
Taking Care of Business
MATTHEWS’
MEANDERS BRUCE MATTHEWS Executive Director
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o, how does your North Country Trail Association do business? Translate Board of Directors policy into action? What keeps the wheels on the bus and moving forward, so to speak? As a not-for-profit membership organization NCTA is governed by a set of bylaws (see here go.northcountrytrail.org/ bylaws), chief among the provisions of which are the election of a Board of Directors from the membership to oversee the Executive Director and approve an annual budget. It is this annual budget which determines what operations and activities will be funded, thus driving the work plan for NCTA’s staff and the available resources for chapters and volunteers. The budget’s the engine pulling the train, the size of which is, of course, dependent on the financial resources we are able to bring to bear. In 2009, for example, NCTA’s revenues approached $800,000 derived respectively from the National Park Service (55%), Membership (14%), Donations (11%), Grants (11%) and other sources (9%). NCTA operates on a fiscal year that coincides with the calendar year, beginning on January 1. Budget development starts in late summer with NCTA staff discussion, which results in a budget proposal to the Board of Directors Executive Committee (ExComm) at their October meeting. After further discussion and typically many modifications ExComm recommends a budget to the full Board at their early December meeting. After final approval the budget is implemented January 1st and guides NCTA’s activities throughout the year. In 2010 your Board developed a new strategic plan for NCTA (see here:go.northcountrytrail.org/strat_plan) which is now providing the foundation for the NCTA’s staff’s work efforts and budget proposal. We’ll be working to implement the plan as directed by the Board; both work plan and budget will be accountable to this plan which extends over a five year period to 2015. One change is the implementation of a twoyear budget which will begin with the next fiscal year for 2011 and 2012. If you’ve read this far on an admittedly dry subject, thank you! Our Association needs folks like you with an interest in how we get things done to become more engaged in leadership and decision-making. New leadership, fresh ideas and more folks committed to planning, financial and program accountability—members who understand the process and are willing to get engaged—these are the things that will help this dream become a reality. The notion of a primitive hiking path through America’s northern heartlands, linking with and connecting our Red Plaid Nation will be that much closer to completion. Building the trail and telling its story requires leadership that uses a business model and understands how to git ‘er done!
A Gourmet Experience on the North Country NST
Highlights of the 2010 Volunteer Adventures Andrea Ketchmark Director of Trail Development
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he North Country Trail Association’s Volunteer Adventure Program is a series of week-long trail building events. Each year, our Chapters and Affiliates organize these projects to bring larger groups of volunteers together with the goal of accomplishing big projects, leaving volunteers with a real sense of contribution and the benefits that come from spending a week with other trail lovers.
Check Out Some Highlights From This Year:
Canyon Falls Trail Construction
9 volunteers worked with the Peter Wolfe Chapter on Michigan Technological University lands in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. These volunteers constructed and upgraded about two miles of trail and installed a short bridge. Castle Rock Restoration Project
15 volunteers worked with the Hiawatha Shore-to-Shore Chapter to restore and improve a section of the NCT that has been damaged by Off Road Vehicle traffic in the Hiawatha National Forest. This crew built 1400 feet of new trail tread and 200 feet of boardwalk. Sterling Marsh Boardwalk Construction
18 volunteers built more than 900 feet of boardwalk in the Sterling Marsh section of lower Michigan's Manistee National Forest with the Spirit of the Woods Chapter. This incredible carpentry effort will restore the sensitive habitat of the marsh and give hikers a safe and sustainable trail to travel.
www.northcountrytrail.org
Bill Menke, Great Lakes Regional Trail Coordinator and John Forslin Commissary Chief
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wager that it is a little known fact that there are absolutely “gourmet” dining experiences available along the North Country Trail, outside of major cities. Most of our members don’t realize this. During each of the last three years, we have instituted and hosted a series of Volunteer Adventures. These were originally conceived as a substitute for hosting one of the American Hiking Society’s popular Volunteer Vacations. They are our in-house way of encouraging both members and non-members to participate in a project that one of our local chapters needs help to accomplish. We hope to attract participants from outside the local area, accomplish some much needed work, share trail skills and experiences, and have some fun to boot. To spread the fun we purposely attempt to hold an Adventure in each of the seven trail states during each year of the program. During these past three years, we have had some outstandingly successful Adventures, where we attracted a fair number of participants and accomplished everything from building stone steps and boardwalks to digging benched tread and building a 140-foot bridge. Yet, at the same time, we have had to cancel quite a number of scheduled Adventures due to lack of participation. It is likely that this program will be scaled back until we have enough staff and resources to give it adequate attention. So how do Volunteer Adventures relate to a gourmet experience anyway? Well, you don’t know what you are missing. On one Volunteer Adventure in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula all of these things happened. Volunteer Adventurers got to see some outstanding scenery near where they were working (the beautiful, swift Sturgeon River and waterfalls observed from the worksite), plus observe wildlife (a pair of woodpeckers busily hurrying back and forth to their nest to feed their young were observed while we were sitting overlooking the river during lunch break) and flowers (Turks Cap Lily right next to the work site). If these aren’t enough to tempt you to participate, consider getting to partake of gourmet food each day of the trip? On this particular trip, John Forslin served as our Camp Cook, planning meals, protein intake, and variety. John is an outstanding cook and each night was a different, themed dinner…Italian, Mexican, Fish and Chips Night, etc. One might think that on the first night when we were hustling to get camp set up that supper might be a little on the skimpy side. Not so. That night, we enjoyed a wonderful, cold, cream cheese-veggie pizza, brown beans cooked with fresh, natural hot dogs, and Apple Crisp for dessert. Note from the Commissariat: Trail cookery is a balance between the need to put out quality, nutritious meals for a tired, hungry crew, keeping the meals interesting and enjoyable, and being limited to local logistics–no running water, ants everywhere, radically constrained kitchen equipage, and, especially, Life with the Cooler. And did I mention ants? Continued on page 26 October-December 10
The North Star 25
VEGGIE PIZZA Provenance not known, but probably a recipe on a crescent rolls tube or package of cream cheese back in the ‘50’s. Highly recommended. Make this ahead and bring to camp already prepared in the “daily” cooler.
Commissariat note: Topopo Salad. It’s hard to describe how good this is as a meal in itself. Preps very well in camp, and is even better the next day as leftovers. Use best quality corn chips for the base, or make your own from corn tortillas fried up in some oil. Sounds imposing to prep, but do the base, make the salad separately, then assemble to reduce stress. Ahem.
Make crust: Using two tubes of crescent rolls, lay out flat on a baking sheet (with a lip) and bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees. Let cool before adding filling. Make sauce: 2 pkg.. cream cheese, 1 cup mayo, 1 package ranch dressing mix. Mix and reserve. Prep topping items:3/4 cup each, finely chopped: Tomatoes (grape tomatoes for best flavor in all seasons), Carrots, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Green Onions, Green Olives, Mushrooms, Green Peppers
Italian Night On Italian night, we feasted on Pasta Carbonara, a carrot-cranberry-sunflower seed salad with balsamic dressing, camp dutch-oven baked bread and dessert of Tiramisu (also made in camp).
Assemble: Spread sauce over baked crescent roll base crust. Layer on one topping element at a time pressing toppings into sauce using a plastic bag as a mitt. Top overall with finely shredded cheddar. Intensely visually appealing. Good today; better tomorrow! For Fish and Chips night, we had grilled (caught that morning) Lake Trout fillets, fresh home cut French fries, slaw, and a wonderful Greek salad full of Feta cheese and Calamata olives. This was topped off with Nutella-stuffed dessert Crepes drizzled with chocolate and pecans to the same perfection you see in the fanciest of restaurants. DESSERT CREPES Make crepes in advance or in camp; they store well in the cooler, but make up on site pretty well also. Assemble: Spread half a round crepe with Nutella. Fold unfilled half over filled half, then fold again into a quarter circle. Drizzle with chocolate sauce and chopped pecans. Mexican Night Mexican night included Topopo (otherwise known as the “Volcano”) salad. John says it includes every food group except chocolate. This wonderful, layered structure comprised of chips, refried beans, shredded jack or cheddar, guacamole, salsa, mounded up salad (lettuce, chicken, peas, tomatoes, green onions, jalapenos, queso fresco (lightly dressed with oil & cider vinegar and a dash of sugar) was followed by—get this—Flan and caramel sauce made right in camp.
26 The North Star
October-December 10
CAMP TIRAMISU Place 10 generic twinkies in a baking pan. Pour over them 1 ½ cups instant espresso. Then pour over all: Cheese Filling Mix well 8 oz. mascarpone, 16 oz. ricotta, 1 lb. confectioner’s sugar and 2 oz. dark rum. Chill for several hours until set in the daily cooler. To-Die-For Tenderloin Then there was the night of marinated Grilled Pork Tenderloin, Naan Bread (baked in camp), fresh green beans and cauliflower, sweet potatoes, and pumpkin cheesecake cupcakes. Note from the Commissariat: Naan bread is a basic yeast bread rolled flat and quick-cooked over a hot fire or grill. Recipes aplenty on the web. Let the dough age a bit (up to a couple of days) for best texture and flavor. Doesn’t all of that sound good? It was! But John outdid himself on the final night when he prepared Chateaubriand (beef tenderloin steaks) and Grilled Vegetable Medley (zucchini, mushrooms, eggplant, onions, and potatoes). Of course dessert followed. I’ve focused on the evening meals just to whet your appetite, but breakfast and lunch were equally hearty and served with efficiency. Do you wonder why more didn’t register for these trips? We do. Several local chapter members participated and there was one participant from the neighboring chapter, but only one who could be considered a true Adventurer (one who came from outside the immediate area, Dick Kroener all the way from Rose Mount, Minnesota). This type of gourmet experience can be found anywhere along the trail where one of our wonderful, talented members has agreed to serve as Camp Cook for a Volunteer Adventure. And the best kept secret of all? This food doesn’t cost you a dime.
Petit Portal, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore Lorana Jinkerson
Marge Forslin
Topopo (“Volcano”) salad—Fiesta! on a plate, easy to make using camp supplies.
Marge Forslin
Pictured Rocks Guided Hike 2011
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Warm camp-made Naan bread adds depth to any meal.
Marge Forslin
ow you’ve let others try that first one, the original NCTA Extended Outing along the Superior Hiking Trail, and as you’ve read, it was fantastic. So don’t miss the next one in the upper peninsula of Michigan, mostly in Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, again led by experienced organizer, Mary Coffin. Scheduled to begin immediately after the annual conference in Dayton, Ohio, the dates are August 8-13. These pictures should sell you on the trip by themselves. Contact trip leader for details and application. maryccoffin@gmail.com (315) 687-3589 Dayhikes only, with outfitter-provided shuttles and camping assistance. Au Sable Light House
Even simple rustic fare can top off any meal—basic crepes filled with Nutella, drizzled with chocolate and caramel sauces and sprinkled with nuts. Tastes even better than it looks!
www.northcountrytrail.org
October-December 10
The North Star 27
north star
NONPROFIT U.S. POSTAGE
PAID
North Country Trail Association
Grand Rapids, MI Permit 340
229 East Main Street Lowell, Michigan 49331
Ray Kuzia, Finger Lakes Trail.
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.