Transcript The North Country National Scenic Trail – Northcountrytrail

The North Country
National Scenic Trail
Its blue blazes someday will
stretch 4,600 miles from
New York to North Dakota.
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Already half-finished. The NCT will become
America’s longest hiking trail,
dwarfing the Appalachian,
Continental Divide and
Pacific Crest Trails.
National Park Service
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North Country Trail Association
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The trail links 10 national forests and shows old growth
giants in the Chippewa National Forest in Minnesota...
…or dark cedar swamps in Upper Michigan’s Hiawatha National Forest.
Throughout its length, the trail encounters
Historic
and familiar
landmarks
Some examples…
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Fort Stanwix National Monument in Rome, NY, and three other
national park areas…
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Dayton Aviation Heritage National Park and Wright Brothers Memorial in Ohio
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Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in the Upper Peninsula
…and the Saint Croix National
Scenic River Waterway in
Wisconsin, made up of the
Namekagon (left) and the Saint
Croix Rivers.
The trail links many other historic
and scenic landmarks.
Among them…
McConnel’s Mill in Pennsylvania
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Miami Canal in Ohio and the Erie Canal in New York State
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In Michigan, Fort Custer National Cemetery…
…the Showboat
on the Flat River
here in Lowell, site
of the Association’s
national
headquarters…
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Covered bridge in Fallasburg Park in Ada Township
Fort Michilimackinac on the Straits of Mackinac
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Father Marquette National Memorial in St. Ignace
AuSable Lighthouse in the Upper Peninsula
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Flora and
Fauna
add spice
for the
trail’s
hikers..
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Chipmunk peers warily out of his lair.
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Suspicious snake risks a look from its hiding place.
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Wild columbine,
a showpiece of
the Northern
forests.
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Showy lady slipper along the trail in Michigan’s Wilderness Park.
Mushroom breaks through an acorn-littered sod…
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…and shelf fungi cling to an hospitable oak.
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It’s late Spring along the trail in the Lower Peninsula: the
season for Canada geese to introduce their offspring.
The Manistee River is a premier trailside habitat, a fine spot
for spotting a Bald Eagle on patrol high above the River…
…or a dying Salmon that had come up the River to spawn.
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Enormous
White pine in
Taquamenon
State Park
would
provide
enough
lumber for
five houses.
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Starting from the East
In New York State
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The current Eastern Terminus: Crown Point, NY, on Lake Champlain.
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Along the
present route in
New York State,
the spectacular
Watkins Glen
State Park is one
of the reasons
the trail was
named the North
Country National
Scenic Trail.
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Much of
the route,
like this
section in
Hoffman’s
Notch,
follows
the Finger
Lakes
Trail.
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Next: the Northwest Corner
of Pennsylvania
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Blue blazes mark the trail throughout as here where it
crosses into Pennsylvania.
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View of Kinzua
Creek from the
North Country Trail
in the Allegheny
National Forest.
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Through hikers can overnight at our cabin in Davis Hollow State Park.
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Ohio
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Old Man’s Cave State Park, a favorite stopover on the
Buckeye Trail section of the North Country Trail.
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Two sections of the Wayne National Forest mark the
southernmost portion of the Buckeye Trail section.
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An abandoned railroad bridge provides a crossing in northern Ohio.
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This is actually a modern bridge, built by Ohio trail volunteers.
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Michigan
has the most
completed
miles
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Downtown Lowell, site of
the North Country Trail
Association’s national
headquarters, marks the
approximate halfway point
between New York and
North Dakota.
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Out on the trail,
Winter doesn’t
stop activity.
Whether on snowshoes…
…or on foot.
There’s warm shelter in
the old Birch Grove
School near White Cloud.
The historic
schoolhouse,
built in the
lumbering era
and restored by
the Western
Michigan
Chapter, serves
as an overnight
stop, training
facility and
jumping off
point for many
favorite day
hikes along the
trail.
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Back on the trail, along Highbanks Lake in Newaygo County…
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…and Conlon Lake, another among the scores of lakes in
the Manistee National Forest, visited by the trail.
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Farther north, bench in the High Rollaways section, high over the
Manistee River Valley, was built by volunteers…
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…and this is their view of the River.
The route finds peaceful wetlands in the Lower Peninsula…
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…and enters the Valley of the Giants in the Pere Marquette State Forest.
The valley was never logged and quite wet so the giants survived
Michigan’s great forest fires in the early 1900s.
The valley is
populated mostly by
old growth red and
white pines and this
one giant oak.
Foresters estimate its
age between 500 and
600 years.
Farther north still, the trail winds high above the Jordan River…
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…and reaches Wilderness State Park in the farthest
northwest corner of the Lower Peninsula…
…where it meets Lake Michigan at Sturgeon Bay.
Upon arriving at the Straits, walking
across is permitted just once per
year, on Labor Day. For other times,
there is a bus.
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The stretch through Pictured Rocks is a favorite among trail hikers.
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Too old for the Lake Superior’s big bluffs? Not this veteran hiker.
Throughout its 320-mile, East to
West width, the Upper Peninsula
abounds in exciting waterfalls.
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Overlooking Rob Falls in Presque Isle County.
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Sandstone Falls carves a path in the Hiawatha National Forest.
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The Black River is punctuated by falls on its way to Lake Superior.
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The Presque Isle
River’s final
plunge before
emptying into the
big lake.
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Overlook Falls
in Porcupine
Wilderness
State Park.
And, of course, mighty
Taquamenon Falls,
Michigan’s patriarch.
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Two last vistas in Michigan: the Porcupines’ Lake of the Clouds…
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…and the shore of Lake Superior.
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The trail heads westward for 200 miles in
northwestern Wisconsin. More than 120
are finished and ready to hike.
As in the UP, trailsides in
Wisconsin abound in
quiet lakes and rushing
rivers.
Atop, a resting place along a
lily pond. At left, the path
skirts Upton Lake in the Iron
County Forest.
The route also brings the gift of solitude and the evening
hush at Morris Pond…
…and follows the Brule River into Minnesota.
In Minnesota, much
of the NCT follows
the existing
Superior Hiking Trail
along the big water
and the Kekekabic
Trail heading into the
Boundary Waters.
Another rushing river, the St. Louis in Jay Cooke State Park
greets the North Country hiker.
Trail passes Lake Itabasca, source of the Mississippi River.
Once clear of the Border Route, the Itasca-Moraine section
offers rocky challenges on the way to North Dakota.
With 223 miles complete, the trail in North Dakota
is just about half finished.
Prairie, grasslands and
man-made lakes describe
most of the trail in North
Dakota.
Fields of sunflowers, waving in the wind, display their blooms along the trail.
The lakes and
sloughs dotting
the prairie and
grasslands
provide ample
habitat for
wildlife as here
at Lake
Audubon.
The trail’s western
end…for now.
The trail is being constructed by the volunteers of the North Country Trail Association.
A trail crew from the Western Michigan, one of 25 chapters and
nine affiliate hiking organizations creating and maintaining the
North Country Trail.
Like this trail crew from the West Michigan Chapter.
Most of the construction is
accomplished with hand
tools. Crosscut saws are a
favorite even with big logs
because U.S. Forest Service
rules prohibit the use of
chain saws except by
certified sawyers.
A significant number of
these certified sawyers
are women who have
completed the Forest
Service’s rigorous
training program.
Volunteers not only have
to build trail but clean up
and repair it like in this
flood aftermath project...
…or removing eyesores from the trail side like this junker tossed
into a ravine in the Lowell State Game Area.
Yet the volunteers persist,
even building a bridge
through a driving rain storm.
Partnerships
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NCTA affiliates:
In New York:
• Finger Lakes Trail Conference
In Pennsylvania:
•Rachel Carlson Trails Conservancy
•Butler Outdoor Club
In Ohio:
•Buckeye Trail Association
•NW Ohio Rails to Trails Association
In Michigan:
•Friends of the Jordan River Hatchery
In Minnesota:
•Superior Hiking Trail Association
•Border Trail Route Association
•Kekekabic Trail Club
•Parks and Trail Council of Minnesota
Source: http://www.co.hillsdale.mi.us/hc-history.htm
Source: http://www.hillsdalecounty.info/history0067.asp
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Hillsdale County, Michigan
Source: http://www.hillsdalecounty.info/mapspage0002.asp
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Lost Nation State Game Area
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Source: Michigan Department of Natural Resources
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Source: Michigan Department of Natural Resources
Source: Michigan Department of Natural Resources
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Baw Beese Trail
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NCTA Membership
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Chief Baw Beese
Chapter Members
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Your help is needed!
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Please join!
Get involved!
Have fun!
Meet some interesting folks!
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Photographs by
Dave Alexander
Jo Anne Baron
Clare Cain
Mike Dallos
Matt Davis
Tom Gilbert
Paul Haan
John Heiam
Dave Kenyon
Bill Menke
Roger Meyer
Lynn Moore
Corey Morse
Peggy Muzzall
Andrew Mytys
Aaron Phipps
Sharon Phipps
Ryan Sim
Bart Smith
Candy Stackable
Werner Veit
Joan Young
Maps by
Matt Rowbotham