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Except as otherwise noted, all contents of this
Web site are Copyright
© Chief
Noonday
Chapter,
the North Country Trail Association.
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 NOVEMBER
CHAPTER
MEETING:
Our
Chapter
meeting
was
highlighted
by a
presentation
of
the
annual
summer
wilderness
experience
of
the
Pio
clan.
Larry
Pio,
our
VP
of
Administration,
his
brother,
nephew
and
friends
regularly
trek
a
wilderness
area
out
west.
This
last
August
they
visited
the
Sawtooth
Wilderness
Area
in
south
central
Idaho,
an
area
that
had
been
snowed
in
for
them
in
the
past.
 Larry
bravely
carried
an
additional
4.5
lbs.
of
video
camera
with
him
to
bring
the
adventure
home
to
Michigan
for
us,
as
we
shared
his
brother
getting
lost,
his
nephew
nearly
being
crushed
by a
boulder
when
he
was
in a
very
...
er
...
compromised
situation,
and
a
major
packing
mishap
involving
wine
--
not
in
Larry’s
pack!
The
rugged
mountain
scenery
was
beautiful,
and
we
greatly
enjoyed
it.
Martha
Jones,
our
senior
statesman,
shown
here
with
Chapter
president
Larry
Hawkins
(center),
joined
us
from
Royal
Oak,
as
did
our
old
friend
Bud
Leonard
(right)
who
is a
frequent
visitor
to
our
Chapter
meetings.
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 CHIEF NOONDAY'S COVER GUY: Dave Cornell, member of Chief Noonday Chapter, VP East and at-large representative on the NCTA's National Board of Directors, made the cover of the October-December issue of North Star, the Magazine of the North Country Trail Association.
Dave was honored with this year's Lifetime Achievement Award at the Annual Conference in Clarion, Pennsylvania. Larry Hawkins, president of Chief Noonday Chapter, and Tom Garnett, Immediate Past President and current member of CNC's board, had the honor of making the presentation of the award to Dave at the banquet on the Conference's concluding evening.
Dave was one of the main ringleaders who got Chief Noonday Chapter officially started in the spring of 1997.
The accompanying North Star article quotes Dave's credo for his involvement with the Chapter and the Trail: "I'm available, just tell me what you want me to do." He's been doing it tirelessly ever since well before the Chapter's beginnings.
Tom Garnett wrote in the nomination of Dave for the award: "He methodically moves through the hierarchy of government offices, NCTA trail leaders and comes comfortably alongside private land owners to influence decisions favoring the further development and protection of the Trail.
"Following his retirement he immediately challenged himself by through-hiking the Appalachian Trail. He then chose to make a contribution to another trail's future, so in 1995 he accepted a role on the NCTA Board, and was elected Treasurer soon after. During these important years in the life of the NCTA, he influenced the decision to hire a full-time executive director. The NCTA owes much to Dave for the many contributions he has made over the past dozen years.
"The Chief Noonday Chapter also owes him its very existence, as it was through his leadership that the Chapter was founded in 1997. He accepted the appointment as its first president serving for four years. The Chapter has successfully built approximately 40 miles of trail off-road, approximately half of that on private property. Through his gentle yet persistent way, he has developed a very successful approach to achieving private owners' support of the Trail. A few years back he presented a workshop at the annual conference on gaining permissions from private owners.
"He is also responsible for the Chief Noonday Chapter's Trail Adopters program, watching over the work of 22 individuals who are responsible for all of the off-road trail miles in the Chapter's area of responsibility.
"Approximately three miles of the NCNST pass through the Ft. Custer National Cemetery property in Augusta, Michigan. He made all the contacts with the local Veterans Administration and led them along the path to total acceptance of hosting perhaps the only National Scenic Trail that passes through a veterans' cemetery.
"Although he spends most of the winter in Florida he is still actively helping the work of the Chapter and the NCTA by e-mail and telephone. He is always available whenever he is needed. When nobody else can seem to do it, his response always is, 'I'm available, just tell me what you want me to do.'"
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 INTRODUCING CHIEF NOONDAY CHAPTER! Pardon us if we blow our own horn a bit -- through a new page we just posted on the Web site. What used to be our Chapter Contacts page will now be our Who Are We? page to tell folks a little bit about who we are and how we got here. It will still provide our contact information.
It provides a thumbnail history of Chief Noonday Chapter's founding and work over the past 10 years. In a way it's too bad we only have room for a thumbnail. If we tried to describe all the work that's been done and all the contributions made by so many people to get where we are today, the page alone would be gigabytes in size.
Let the Webmaster know what you think -- especially if there's something we missed that ought to be included.
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NEWS BRIEF: Dave Cornell, NCTA VP East and member of the Board of Directors, announces that on December 1 the Board appointed Larry Hawkins, Chief Noonday president, to a Search/selection committee charged with the responsibility of hiring the next Executive Director of the Association.
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ADOBE READER users: On January 9th, Adobe issued updates for users of Adobe Reader version 7.0.8 who for one reason or another cannot update to Adobe Reader version 8.0. For the version 7.0.8 updates, Windows users click here -- Mac users click here. If you can update to Version 8.0, click here. Updating your Adobe Reader version is necessary as a result of a security flaw.
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| Divvying up the well organized materials before setting out for the kiosks in Barry County that needed refurbishing. |
WORKDAY REPORT: On a relatively warm day for January, we met at the Hastings Big Boy for breakfast and planning and then set out in separate parties to attack the kiosks.
Larry Hawkins had put in many hours in preparation for the workday. The “You Are Here” maps had been laminated at KBS by Jan Cornell. The NPS national maps, the CNC Barry County hikes maps, and the LaVerne BeBeau memorials were all laminated professionally. Mick Hawkins had created a “Blue Blazes” guide off the web page. That, the State Game Area land use rules, and the NCTA brochure were all laminated in clear contact paper in preparation for the day. Chicken wire covers to replace damaged Plexiglas for the State Game Area kiosks was all pre-cut as well.
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| (Left) Both kiosks at Robertson Rd. had been shot up and vandalized, rendering their contents basically useless. Broken Plexiglas and shattered displays had to be removed. (Right) New laminated displays, including new "You Are Here" maps specially prepared for us by Matt Rowbotham, NCTA cartographer at Lowell (mounted to the left on the mapback) were put up. The displays were then covered with heavy gauge chicken wire to replace the Plexiglas. This two-sided kiosk has more informational material posted on the back. |
Bob and Brenda Jones repaired and refurbished the kiosks at Mullen Rd., McKibben Rd., the two kiosks at Norris/Yankee Springs Rd. and Hall Lake. Jerry Pattok started at McDonald Lake and then onto his adopted section repairing and replacing material in the kiosks at M-179, Yankee Springs Rd., Bowen's MIll Rd. and Peets Rd. These are the kiosks where the BeBeau Memorials were placed. Ron Sootsman and Larry Pio worked the kiosks at McCann Rd./Paul Henry Trail, Stage Coach Park in Middleville and Crane Rd. Mick and Larry Hawkins ventured into the Middleville SGA to repair the damage done to the kiosks on Robertson Rd., which was considerable, and to update the Johnson Rd. kiosk which sported only one bullet hole.
Interestingly, the map thief had, for the third year running, visited the Johnson Rd. kiosk, and, as usual, left the screws in place. This year, he'd stolen the national map as well as the game area map; so maybe he was getting interested in the trail!
Thanks so much to all who turned out for the workday. It's very gratifying to work with such a great group of dedicated trail workers.
Larry Hawkins
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A rest stop at a scenic outlook: (from left) Dave Goodman, Ron Sootsman, Joe Higdon (Hikemaster), and Charles Krammin. |
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WINTER HIKE: Following a tradition we'd apparently set last year, we again picked the coldest day of the season thus far for our winter hike -- this year an urban trek on Battle Creek's Linear Park.
With the Weather Channel showing blizzard conditions elsewhere in West Michigan, we weren't counting on many to make it from Barry or Kalamazoo Counties. But as it turned out we had two representatives from Barry and one from Kalamazoo.
In temperatures hovering around 8° with wind chills probably around 4° below zero, we started out with four -- Joe Higdon (Hikemaster) and Charlie Krammin, both from Barry County, Dave Goodman from West Michigan Chapter and haling from Clinton County, and Mick Hawkins from Ingham County. We caravanned from Clara's on the River to Bailey Park and set out on foot from there.
| The Battle Creek River may be forgiven for not looking exactly inviting today. |
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It was a real winter hike along the Battle Creek and Kalamazoo Rivers, with maybe a half foot of snow to tromp through as the winds whipped around us. But all in all the hiking conditions were decent for the season. The sun even came out for a while -- sort of. Charlie kept our minds off the cold by recounting tales from his treks on the Appalachian Trail in days of yore.
Our party grew by two along the way. Ron Sootsman, the sole Battle Creeker as it turned out, had arrived at Clara's probably minutes after the rest of us had departed for Bailey Park, so he started hiking from that end and met us before we were even halfway along the trail. And Larry Pio from Kalamazoo County caught up with us toward the end -- in time for the hot drinks part....
We didn't get a lot of pictures along the way. It was too cold to take gloves off to snap the shutter!
| Nearing the hot drinks part: (from left) Joe Higdon, Mick Hawkins, Dick Goodman, Charles Krammin. |
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Only mishap was a broken boot lace for one who had no spare -- and it was a mighty cold day to have to take gloves off and knot a lace to get it back in service!
We made it back to our starting point a little before noon and repaired to the Brownstones Coffee House for hot drinks and an hour or so of fellowship, till Charlie ran out of stories to tell. The sugar-free amaretto latte was to die for (well, "sugar-free" except for the whipped cream on top...).
Weather in the BC area was already starting to deteriorate as we were leaving town, so evidently we'd been blessed with a limited window of opportunity -- of which we'd made good use.
Thanks to Joe Higdon, our hikemaster and guide, and to all who participated.
Mick Hawkins
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 New N.C.T.A.
e-Newsletter:
As if our tireless
National Office
staff didn'talready
have enough on their
plate, they recently
started issuing a
neat new electronic
newsletter from the
Lowell Office.
The Blue Blaze
Bulletin will
provide a means for
notifying members,
and anyone else
interested, of news
items, Trail needs,
and up-coming
events.
It's very nicely
designed and
user-friendly with
links to pertinent
material on the Web.
It was automatically
sent to members and
supporters who had
e-mail addresses on
file with the Lowell
office.
However, if by any
chance you were
missed and did not
receive the first
issue on February
20,
click here and
sign up for it.
Stay in the loop!
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(Next
page of our Paths Once Wandered)
Last modified:
Sunday, April 13, 2008
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