NCTA: Chief Noonday Chapter Newsletters

Our next meeting is October 8 and our speaker will be Chuck Hayden of the Fortune Bay Expeditionary Team, who will briefly update on their hike of the lower peninsula portion of the NCTA. Chuck will also report on the Team’s kayak crossing of Lake Michigan to the Manitou Islands, and their search for a lost bush plane in Agawa Canyon, Ontario. Meetings are at 7:00 PM at the Barry Township Hall on Orchard Street in Delton on the second Wednesday each month, and are open to the public.

Our fall color hike will be held on October 11 at 9 am. We will hike the Fort Custer Cemetery section of trail that we are just about ready to open, and utilize our hikers to critique the trail so we can make any fixes needed before our anticipated Grand Opening in May. This section is about 2½ miles long, will take a couple hours, and will be held rain or shine. Hikers wishing to continue will hike an additional 3.4 miles after repositioning cars, from Hutchinson parking lot to the Kellogg Forest parking lot. We will meet at the corner of M-96 (also known as Dickman Road), and Fort Custer Drive, located about ½ mile east of the Augusta Drive intersection with M-96 in Augusta, and then carpool to the start of the hike on Armstrong Road.

As part of their efforts in gathering interpretive information for a future interpretive trail guide, Christy Stewart and Barb VanDyken are leading a hike starting from Norris Road to McKibben Road beginning at 9:00 am. This hike will focus on geology.

To get to the trailhead from Delton, head west from Delton to Prairieville, and then head north on Norris Road. The trailhead is on the east side of the road, just past the big brown North Country Trail road sign.

To get to the trailhead from Hastings, head west and follow M-43 after it splits from M-37, just briefly, and then go west on M-179 to Yankee Springs Road. Turn south on Yankee Springs Road, follow it past Gun Lake Road 0.4 miles (it changes name to Norris Road) and you will see the big brown North Country Trail road sign.

Christy Stewart, Jerry Pattok, Cal Lamoreaux, Jeff Fleming, Gerald Stein, and Eileen Oehler participated in the information gathering hike on June 28, and Christy Stewart, Jerry Pattok, Dave Chase, Ginny Chase, John Rudnicki, Tom Mohler, Katie Brandt, and Tom Garnett contributed their efforts at the September 6 hike. Thanks to all.

At the upcoming October 25 work session, we will be working on the Hutchinson parking lot fencing and stile at 9 am. Meet at 8 am for breakfast at the Lakeside Café at 209 S. Webster Street in Augusta.

On September 13, Steve Hicks, Jerry Pattok, Pat Bartig, Cory Lowery, Terry Lowery, Larry Hawkins, Larry Pio, and Tom McCarty, removed large downed trees at Fort Custer Cemetery, planned kiosk locations at Fort Custer and the Hutchinson parking lot, and worked on trail bed improvement at Dr. Sackett’s property (where it was disrupted by the 2001 wind storm).

On August 16, Steve Hicks, Jeff Fleming, Larry Hawkins, Eric Treadwell, Austin Wisner, Larry Pio, LaVerne BeBeau, Steve Chapman, Pat Bartig, and John Rudnicki finished the last major section at Fort Custer. Jeff Fleming took some photos that can be seen on our web site, thanks to Gail Speer.

Late October or early November, we will be doing a night hike, hopefully on a day with a full moon. More information will be in next month’s newsletter.

Jerry Pattok and Barb VanDyken have received an award for 100 hours of reported volunteer service. I suspect both are closing in on a 400 hour award, and we all thank them both for their contributions. I know there are others who have been earning these awards, and have not been mentioned here. Please let me know so we may recognize your efforts. Gail Speer maintains a page on our web site listing our past award winners; be sure to check it out.

The National Park Service provides matching funds for purchase of trail maintenance equipment, signs, kiosks, bridges, etc. based on the volunteer hours reported. (For example, 100 hours reported gives us the potential for about $1600 in matching funds, which we would have to request via a grant process.) Even small numbers of hours are important when added to the rest. Additionally, the total hours are reported to the National Park Service, and agencies that fund the NPS, and provide them with data to determine if interest in the trail is growing or not, and determines future funding. So, report those hours.

Steve Chapman, Dave Cornell, and Larry Pio installed the inner gate at the Hutchinson parking lot, with Ron Hutchinson’s help drilling post holes, and loaning tools. We have a little bit of fencing to install at the gate, with a stile to get over the fence needed. A picnic table has also been installed. The parking lot is now open.

Laura Riley, from Three Rivers, is a new member of our Chapter; please join me in extending a welcome to her.

Jerry Pattok has led the efforts for our promotional booth at the Hastings Summerfest in late August. He reports we gave out 111 brochures on our chapter, made some good contacts, and even sold a few maps. Jim Metzger, Merry Ossenheimer, Larry Pio, Bob Benham, Larry Hawkins, Steve Drenth, Sheryl Drenth, Steve Hicks, Christy Stewart, Dave Cornell, Neil Juhl, Roxanne Potter, LaVerne BeBeau, Barb VanDyken, Joel VanDyken, Jerry Pattok, and Joe Higdon all provided time as volunteers for the setup, manning, and take down of the booth. Charles Krammin stores our booth in a 2nd story location, and helped load it from storage, and load it back to storage after Summerfest. Tom Garnett volunteered to take two shifts if needed. Thank you to all these volunteers for making this event a great success for us.

Cory Lowery is building and leading the installation of 5 kiosks for our Chapter, as his Eagle Scout project. Last Saturday, he and his father Terry Lowery displayed a portion of one kiosk to those attending the work session. It looked great. Thanks Cory, for this contribution of your efforts.

See Katie and Christy’s Midlakes Screen printing and Monogramming in Delton for your Chief Noonday clothing logo.

See Gary Buckland’s storage business southwest of Delton for your storage needs.

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