John Rudnicki (commenting on getting his picture taken...), and Ron Sootsman at Albion.

Ambassadors for the Trail:  Chief Noonday Chapter members were on hand at a couple of recent events in the neighborhood to spread good will on behalf of the North Country National Scenic Trail.

John Rudnicki, Ron Sootsman and Mick Hawkins were there as the City of Albion cut the ribbon for its brand spankin' new Albion River Trail on Friday, October 5. 

The new trail is a paved 1.6 mile long trail along the Kalamazoo River in Albion from Victory Park to Harris Field. 

Dignitaries were on hand from far and near to offer congratulations, including Nancy Krupiarz, Executive Director of the Michigan Trails and Greenways Alliance.  

After the ribbon was cut by Albion Mayor William Wheaton, a celebratory hike on the new trail was led by a large contingent of the school children, who were very obviously having a good time.

On Saturday, October 6, Tom Garnett, Larry Hawkins and Mick Hawkins repaired to Corunna with Chief Noonday's work trailer to promote the North Country National Scenic trail with the Tall Pines Council of the Boy Scouts of America.

The Council was holding a Councilwide Encampment at the Shiawasee County Fair Grounds, celebrating their 90th Anniversary in Scouting.  1,500 scouts and leaders were expected.

They had a sunny warm day for the occasion, and the Chief Noonday-ers were able to discuss the Trail and display the tools for trail building and maintenance with quite a number of scouts and their leaders through the day.
 

Larry breaking in our new toy.

JOHN GAY WORKDAY #3:  Saturday was an absolutely perfect day to be out in the woods working on the Trail.  As usual, we met for breakfast, and we were joined by John Denis and Britany Loreng from GVSU, two newcomers to the Trail.  John is majoring in natural resources and Britany in biomedical science.  A little later, Sarah Tanis from Grand Rapids joined us.  Sarah is an experienced trail worker having put in a couple summers working on the Cumberland Trail in Tennessee.  Larry and Mick Hawkins, Steve Hicks and Charlie Krammin rounded out the breakfast crew and gave our new friends an introduction to the NCNST.

Fred Miller and George Lee joined us at the trail head to complete our work crew.

We had a couple unusual pieces of equipment with which to work. Charlie Krammin brought his Rototiller which he proudly noted was older than John and Britany.  From the looks of it, we were sure he was right.  It took a little scraping of the spark plug and some other magic, but Charlie and Steve got it running.

Much quicker to start was the brand spanking new Stihl BR 600 backpack blower that Ron Sootsman had purchased for us.  As no one else seemed game to try it out, Larry hefted it and headed out.

Fred Miller and Sarah Tanis wield a cutter mattock and a Pulaski tool in the re-benching operation.

When we reached the trail section, we were immediately very happy that we had our new blower.  Mother Nature had gifted us with about six inches of leaves and, without the blazes, you never would have found the trail.  Sarah started the blower up, and Larry was off up the trail with leaves and sticks flying everywhere.  He had always been convinced that the blower would be a good idea.  Bill Menke had sold him on the idea at a trail building workshop in Pennsylvania a couple years ago.  By the time Larry got done, he was a “dyed in the wool” supporter of backpack blowers.

Sarah asked if that meant he was a “blowhard.”  Even from the newbies, he got no respect....

Charlie would have benefited from a mule to help pull the Rototiller.  At time both he and Steve had to battle with it to keep it under control, but his efforts sped up the benching process in good shape. 

Steve and Charlie keep the Rototiller in line.

John and Britany proved quick studies with the McLeod and did a really nice job with the final dressing of the trail. 

Sarah seemed to be more of a Pulaski girl and proved that she “didn’t need no rototiller” to move dirt. By the time we were done we had benched a solid 300’ of trail as well as clearing a downed tree. 

Britany, John, Fred and George hard at work putting on the finishing touches.

And of course Larry blew all the leaves he could find, having a great time with the new blower.

As we were coming to the close of our work day, Rod Brownell and Stephanie Curtice showed up with four scouts from Troop 50 out of Delton.  Rod had part of his troop working on our trail in the Yankee Springs Recreation Area and brought these boys down to where we were working. 

For the first time ever, we didn’t have enough tools for a work crew! 

Larry gave the scouts a mini-workshop in trail building techniques, and then they did some lopping for us, and a couple worked with us at the main site.

While Larry gives an orientation on trail building to Rod Brownell, Scoutmaster, Stephanie Curtice, troop committee member, and members of Delton's Troop 50, Fred Miller and Sarah Tanis (foreground) keep working at tamping down the newly benched trail and removing roots and rocks from the tread and the backslope.

 

George Lee is the trail adopter who regularly tends to this section of the Trail.

So far we have benched about 1000’ of really nice trail through the John Gay property and we have about another 200’ of benching to complete in the spring. 

The rest of the trail can certainly stand some dressing up with some McLeod work, and then we think we’ll have a section of trail that can earn us a Gold Star rating from the NPS.

Sarah, John and Britany, it was really great having you, and we certainly hope that we’ll see more of you at our events!

Larry Hawkins

(P.S. from the Webmaster: If we got any of the names or details wrong, please let us know.  Thanks.)