REGISTER FOR RENDEZVOUS!
Matthews’ Meanders
The Board of Directors of the North Country Trail Association has reinstated annual gatherings. Your hosts along the Finger Lakes Trail (FLT) in New York have tried hard to make this event as much like our events of prior years as possible. And it’s for EVERYONE, all of our trail’s chapters and affiliates, even our landowners. So please come and enjoy the long weekend, 10-13 September, right in the middle of upstate N.Y. along the North Country Trail. Look over the program and registration materials on the Finger Lakes Trail website: http://fingerlakestrail.org/trail/FallEvent Or if you’d prefer the program on paper, just ask the FLT office and we’ll mail it to you: (585) 658-9320. Hours are 9:00 AM-2:00 PM weekdays except Wednesday.
Bruce Matthews Executive Director
What’s It Like to Have the Coolest Job Ever?
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The North Star
We must register for Rendezvous on site lodging by August 6th!
Spiral Falls at Watkins Glen State Park, on several of Saturday's hikes at Rendezvous.
Andrea Ketchmark
14
Questions? Please phone Irene Szabo, treeweenie@aol.com, (585) 658-4321.
Vinnie Colliins
’ve shared in the past how it usually goes when you meet and greet folks who ask what you do for a living. At some point the conversation often gets punctuated with “that sounds like the coolest job ever!” And it’s a great affirmation. Because it is! And then I get to explain that, well, it doesn’t mean I get to go hiking for a living. Even so, the wonderment that such a job exists can be a great antidote on those occasions where I might need the reminder. I DO have the coolest job ever! Because I get to serve you, folks who VOLUNTEER their time, resources, energy, enthusiasm, finances in order to bring to life a vision for a simple continuous footpath connecting us all. Our North Country Trail joins Adirondackers (and soon Vermonters) to big sky-dwelling North Dakotans, links Finger Lakers with Pennsylvanians, Buckeyes to Michiganders, and Wisconsinites with Minnesotans. Collectively we get to deliver on the promise made by Congress with the 1968 National Trails Act and subsequent 1980 designation of the North Country National Scenic Trail, providing a world-class hiking experience that immerses the foot traveler in the stories of the people of the North and the places that define them. How cool is that? And we’re the keepers of the vision—you, me, NCTA’s staff, your Board of Directors, our chapter, affiliate and partner leaders. There’s a trust inherent in all this that unites us, and keeps us pulling on the same oar and looking in the same direction. Part of the challenge is making sure we all see the big picture, the one trail that unites all of the smaller segments to create a whole greater than the sum of its parts. The NCNST is NOT a conglomeration of existing trails, although we’re proud and grateful to be sharing a tread with the Finger Lakes, Buckeye, Superior Hiking Trails and many others, some of which pre-date the NCNST by many years. No, the North Country National Scenic Trail is ONE trail, creating a unity in common among all us northlanders, or the Red Plaid Nation. The NCTA serves to empower and enable every part of the NCTA family, whether it is in creating new funding sources, directing more funds to local projects, providing trail-building trainings, workshops, videos and other resources, conducting national marketing and outreach efforts, working with Congress as well as state and federal agencies and trying to keep our story fresh and vibrant throughout the media. In short, your NCTA is creating a space, locally and nationally, enabling our volunteers to do what they most enjoy—building, maintaining and protecting the NCT. So…that’s what it’s like to have the coolest job ever!
Tarin Hasper and her ever-present friend Baxter. Tarin was an enthusiastic and cheerful member of our Lowell HQ staff, but she recently left to follow her higher calling working for an animal shelter.