LONG-DISTANCE HIKER’S PLANNING TOOL

NORTH COUNTRY NATIONAL SCENIC TRAIL

CHIEF NOONDAY CHAPTER SECTION — LOWER MICHIGAN

In the summer of 2007 we were tasked with developing a databook which through-hikers on the 4,600 mile seven-state North Country National Scenic Trail could use for planning their treks. This tool would provide data on resources on and near the Trail, including water, camping, off-trail lodging, food and supplies.

It quickly became apparent that this would be one mammoth undertaking requiring far more fundamental spadework than anyone anticipated. Accordingly we decided to start small by developing a databook just for the section of NCNST for which our Chief Noonday Chapter in Lower Michigan is responsible.

Once we got that done, we’d expand the project to include all of Michigan, then move into the other states hosting the NCNST, and ultimately amass a data tool covering the entire North Country National Scenic Trail. This would be loosely modeled on databooks already provided by two other trails in the National Scenic Trails system — the Appalachian Trail, whose databook was started back in the 70's, and the Pacific Crest Trail.

Even that is proving to be an ambitious task. So we decided to post what we’d accumulated so far on the Web so that motivated hikers could use it now as a limited resource for planning their hikes through our section. It is a work-in-progress which we will continue to develop, and we will continually update the data provided here.

A big thank-you is due to Ron Sootsman for engineering the Google link system (more on this below) — and for a lot of other help he has provided for this project, both in engineering the spreadsheet and gathering the data on the ground.
 

OVERVIEW:

Each line in the tables provides data on a particular landmark along the Trail. The sequence of the lines is in geographical order.

For each landmark (i.e., on each line) you get the following:

Preliminary versions of the tables are posted for Calhoun County, Kalamazoo County, and Barry County.  We continue to work on refinements for the whole project, so check back from time to time.
 

CONVENTIONS:

For now, except on the Calhoun page, the tables are oriented in a westerly direction, as though you were hiking from New York toward North Dakota. 

We've begun experimenting with making the tables bi-directional — and the Calhoun page currently shows in separate columns (following the landmark description column) the directions to go at each landmark depending on whether you are trekking westward toward North Dakota or eastward toward New York.  This isn't the easiest tabular arrangement to follow, so we may change it if we can come up with something better.

Of course, if you are trekking eastward, you need to read the tables backwards (and note that you’ll need to adjust the way you interpret the differential mileages).

Which brings up compass directions. Where we have the data, we usually provide actual compass directions ("north", "south", etc.). But since the Trail on the ground tends to go in every which direction and we don’t always have exact data, we sometimes resort to using "Rt" or "Lt" for "right" or "left".  Currently with the Kalamazoo and Barry pages, this assumes you’re going toward North Dakota. So, if you’re on a trail segment that runs N-S and something is labeled "Rt", it’ll be roughly to the east of the Trail — and so on.  Once the pages are bi-directional (as the Calhoun page already is), "Rt" and "Lt" will be relative to the direction of your trek.

Speaking of mileage, the distances listed are approximate averages — calculated from GPS coordinates. They are estimated point-to-point distances as the crow flies (we call ‘em "crow miles"). They will be fairly accurate for straight roadwalks. For off-road trail segments, which are rarely straight, crow miles will tend to be less than actual walking distances — so you’ll want to pad your estimates a bit to make allowance.

Cumulative mileages are calculated (based on GPS coordinates) from the starting and ending termini of the Trail. Ultimately they’ll be based most likely on state lines, but for now we’re basing them on the county line boundaries of the Chief Noonday Trail section, which are Hillsdale County to the south and Kent County to the north.
 

CODES & ABBREVIATIONS:

(Note whether a code or abbreviation is UPPERCASE or lowercase. E.g., "W" means "West" while "w" means "water".)

USING THE GOOGLE LINKS:

A time-consuming and labor-intensive aspect of compiling data for this project is ID’ing resources such as lodging and meals along the Trail. The links provided here are intended to be temporary short-cuts which we hope will enable you to plan long-distance hikes now while we continue to acquire data for this project.

When you click on a link, it’ll take you to a Google Map of the area surrounding that Trail landmark. You can zoom in or out on this map as desired.

The location of the Trail landmark will be indicated by a green arrow (right).

If Google has found any resources which it figures correspond to what you’re looking for, these will be indicated by an orange balloon with a letter in it (right) keyed to a link-list on the left. You can click on the indicated link to get more data about the particular resource.

It goes without saying that you are limited by how complete and up-to-date Google’s information is. So, before you actually hit the Trail, you’d be wise to contact any resources that interest you, such as restaurants or bed-and-breakfasts, to make sure they’re still in business and are where Google says they are!

CAUTIONARY NOTES:

Camping: Along the entire length of the NCNST, where you can camp along the Trail is determined by the rules and requirements of the land-owner. In some places you can simply step off the Trail and set up camp, as long as you’re beyond a required minimum distance from the trail and ponds, lakes or flowing water. Unfortunately in Chief Noonday’s area very little camping along the Trail itself is permitted, and you’ll need to utilize nearby campgrounds. See the Camping Along the Trail page on our Web site for more information related to Kalamazoo and Barry Counties.  If a particular commercial campground looks like a prospect, it would be a good idea to contact it ahead of time to make sure owners are willing to accommodate hikers.

Water:  Always assume that water from any sources indicated in these tables needs to be treated.

Hospitals:   Our "Hospitals" link, unfortunately, is not as useful as we'd like it to be.  Clicking on the link invokes results that are often out of date (or pertain to pets or inanimate objects!).  FYI, the hospitals with emergency rooms closest to the Trail in Chief Noonday's area are located in Marshall, Battle Creek, and Hastings.  (There is currently no acute care hospital in Albion.)

Post offices: We’ve indicated when post offices are located within reasonable walking distance of the Trail. However, not all PO’s handle General Delivery mail. You’ll need to contact any PO’s that interest you and confirm whether they can handle your in-coming re-stock mailings. You can obtain location information at the USPS Web site and contact the USPS at (800) ASK-USPS.

FEEDBACK:

If you have comments, suggestions, recommendations, constructive criticisms, corrections, etc., we'd appreciate hearing from you. 

We would especially appreciate any additional information you may have about particular Trail landmarks or about services and resources along the Trail.  Much of our information about off-trail resources (grocery stores, restaurants, lodging, etc.) has been gleaned on-line and may not be complete or up-to-date.  If you can be our eyes-on-the-ground for such things, it would be very helpful.

E-mail your comments to the Webmaster.

Databook for Calhoun County
Databook for Kalamazoo County
Databook for Barry County