DNR and Chief Noonday team up:   Who would have thought you could schedule a hike on the morning of New Year's Day, and 70+ people would show up?!  But it happened this year, and Yankee Springs Recreation Area was the scene.

NCTA Board President Larry Hawkins (in the beret and red parka) provided an introduction to the North Country National Scenic Trail and Chief Noonday Chapter to the 62 members of the public who turned out for the hike.  (See the video here.)  (Image by Larry Pio)

The event was called "Shoe Year's Day," a venture in which the Michigan DNR management and staff of YSRA teamed up with Chief Noonday Chapter to get people outdoors for some healthy exercise and to showcase both Yankee Springs as a resource-rich State Park and the North Country National Scenic Trail.

Shoe Year's Day has become a nationwide event, sponsored by the National Association of State Park Directors.  It seeks to get people to kick off their New Year’s fitness resolutions outdoors in State Parks, and in the process promote the use and enjoyment of State Parks in general. 

By all accounts the idea, which has been going on for a number of years now, has been a great success.  This was the first year for Michigan State Parks to get in on it. 

Hosting the Shoe Year's Day event, along with Chief Noonday Chapter, was Yankee Springs Recreation Area's Park Manager, Andru Jevicks.  (Image by Larry Pio)

The name of the event implies that snowshoes probably figured largely in the original idea — although in Lower Michigan snowshoeing on New Year's Day tends to be ... a fantasy.

Chief Noonday Chapter (North Country Trail Association) normally schedules a monthly hike.  For Shoe Year's day we scheduled things somewhat later that we usually do — breakfast at 9:30 at Sandy's on Gun Lake Road, with the hike to start at 11:00 — to give New Year's Eve celebrators a somewhat later wake-up time while getting ahead of New Year's Day football games.

The hike was designed to be a two-tiered affair.  Sort of.  To wit:
●  You could hike the basic hike from the NCNST west trailhead at Norris Road up to Hall Lake (1.6 miles) and go another quarter mile to the old superintendent's residence on Gun Lake Road for a break and refreshments.  You could call it a day at that point and get a ride back to your car, or you could walk back to Norris Rd, which would come out to being about 3.75 miles of hiking.
●   Or you could continue on an extended hike from the super's residence, going on north up the NCNST and northwest on the Chief Noonday DNR Trail behind (west of) McDonald Lake, coming out at the M-179 parking area to catch a ride back.  That way you'd have ended up walking about 4.5 miles.  And if you were really feeling your oats, you could walk back to Norris Rd — and take credit for hiking about 8.7 miles.

Compliments of the DNR, you would be awarded a hiking stick medallion for completing the basic hike, another medallion for completing the extended hike, and a hiking stick if you did the whole thing in both directions.

Larry Hawkins was assisted by two members of the public in carrying out his mission as "sweeper" for one of the hiking groups.  (He is suspected of having slipped them NCTA membership applications by the end of the hike.)

A lot of work over a couple of months by both DNR management and staff and Chief Noonday members had gone into preparations leading up to today's activities.  The DNR had cleared a new path from the NCNST west of Hall Lake leading over to the old superintendent's residence, where refreshments and a "PortaJohn" would be available.  Routes and turns were marked, and signs were placed along Norris Road leading up to the NCNST crossing to direct traffic and promote safety. 

Larry Pio and Ron Sootsman had made multiple trips to the Little Mac bridge and boardwalk to clean the wood walking surfaces, put up safety warning signs ("Slippery When Wet!"), and apply sand just before the hike.  Jeff Fleming came early and put in a needed Carsonite post Trail marker.  Refreshments were provided by the DNR. 

Kicking things off at the Norris Road trailhead, Chief Noonday Chapter's unofficial historian-in-residence Charles Krammin provided an orientation to the interesting history behind the trailhead, as well as an orientation to the Trail segment itself featured in today's hike. 

Back in the early 1800's the trailhead had been the site of Yankee Bill Lewis's stagecoach inn, popularly known as the Yankee Springs Inn.  Charlie took a few interested parties on a short side trip to see the old spring that had given Yankee Springs its popular name.  Charlie and Andru Jevicks, the DNR Park Manager for Yankee Springs, had been the driving forces primarily responsible for the present routing of the NCNST through the south portion of the YSRA.

Larry Hawkins, President of the North Country Trail Association's Board of Directors, provided the group with an introduction to the North Country National Scenic Trail, the North Country Trail Association of volunteers who develop, maintain and promote the Trail, and to Chief Noonday Chapter.

Chief Noonday Chapter members on the hike included (from left) Jason Buckner, Eunice Jennings, Cal and Jean Lamoreaux, and Mary Rebert.

Reportedly there were 62 people who came for the hike, in addition to 11 Chief Noonday Chapter members and 4 DNR staff.  An impressive turnout! 

In addition to Charles Krammin and Larry Hawkins the Chapter was represented by Larry Pio, Jeff Fleming, Steve Hicks, Jason Buckner, Cal and Jean Lamoreaux, Mary Rebert, Jane Norton, and Eunice Jennings. 

DNR staff on hand included Andru Jevicks, the YSRA Park Manager, and Joe Jandernoa, YSRA Park Supervisor.

After the introductions the hikers broke up into roughly three groups and headed out, each group with a hike leader and a sweeper from Chief Noonday Chapter.  As planned, the hikers turned off at Hall Lake to go over to the old (now unoccupied) superintendent's house for refreshments and a "jake break." 

Quite a few of the hikers in multiple groups continued on to complete the Extended Hike north on the NCNST and Chief Noonday Trails.

And this was where things sort of got ... well ... interesting.  It didn't entirely go as planned.  Seems signals got crossed, and some hiking groups missed the turn-off where the Shoe Year's Day hike was supposed to leave the NCNST, switch onto the Chief Noonday DNR Trail, and come out at the Chief Noonday DNR Trail parking area on M-179.  Instead, these groups stayed on the NCNST, went by McDonald Lake on the east side instead of the west side, continued on through Yankee Springs SRA and into the Barry State Game Area — and came out at the NCNST M-179 trailhead (also sometimes referred to as the "Chief Noonday Road Trailhead" from back in the day before Chief Noonday Road became M-179).  Those hikers ended up having trekked about 6.5 miles by the time they were picked up for their ride back to Norris Road.

So, in the end, a good number of the participants in this first Shoe Year's Day event in Yankee Springs hiked a fair amount more than the originally planned 4.5 miles.

Chief Noonday Chapter thanks the YSRA DNR manager and staff, the CND members, and all the members of the public who turned out to make this a truly impressive experience — and one that is likely to be repeated in the years ahead (but with no missed turns!).

Mick Hawkins   
Webmaster, Chief Noonday Chapter   

P. S. from the Webmaster:   Much to my regret I had to sit this hike out, staying at home and nursing a cold.  My thanks to all my "spies" who provided the information, video and still images for this Trail Log item: Larry Pio, Charles Krammin, Andru Jevicks, Larry Hawkins, Mary Rebert, and Jean Lamoreaux.
 

Images from the Fall:   "Fall" in the autumnal sense, of course.

The hands of Chief Noonday members will bear no hip pocket marks from being sat on this fall.

Among other things, hikes were held on the first Saturday of each month — thanks to the careful planning work of our Hikes Committee-of-one, Robert Sulaski.

And our Program Committee-of-one, Eric Longman, arranged for very interesting programs for our Chapter meetings three months in a row, featuring leaders from the National Park Service, Steve Elkinton and our new NCNST manager Jeff McCusker, as well as book author Loreen Niewenhuis who hiked around the entire circumference of Lake Michigan and lived to write about it.

And we devoted three workdays, plus some individual personal time, to efforts to re-claim the North Country National Scenic Trail path through Kimball Pines County Park in Calhoun County — and we're still not done.  Much of it still lies buried somewhere under a gigantic mass of downed trees felled by the brief but powerful wind storm of May 29th. 

Pictures tell the story.  The Webmaster amassed so many of them that it took him nearly till Christmas to get them sorted and some of them posted.  Review the evidence in the Photos section. 

Mick Hawkins   
Webmaster, Chief Noonday Chapter   

PS:  Trail update:  In the aftermath of the clearing work done on November 19th, the North Country Trail is now open again, more or less, through Kimball Pines partly along a temporary re-route.  So it will no longer be necessary to follow a road-walk down Wattles Road between the Ott Biological Preserve and Historic Bridge Park.

Take a look at our map mash-up for Kimball Pines:  Coming from the north, at the kiosk (waypoint 2) continue south on Kimball Pines Park Road.  At the "T" bear left/east and continue to follow the road past all the stacks of chain-sawn tree trunks, limbs and branches.  The route is blue-blazed.  Contrary to the Google Map, this vehicle road runs out as it approaches the railroad tracks.  Follow the blue blazes onto the original NCNST path and continue on the path southeasterly through the wetland toward Harper Creek school property.
 

On a trail of culture

ArtPrize's top winner:  The top prize in this year's Grand Rapids huge art competition, $250,000, went to Mia Tavonatti, a native Michiganian now haling from Santa Ana, California.  Her prize-winning work was a stained glass mosaic entitled Crucifixion, seen here on display in the DeVos Place Convention Center.  Originally commissioned as an altar piece for a parish church being built in California, this piece took 2,500 hours to complete.  — Ms. Tavonatti's mother passed away in Iron Mountain, Michigan, shortly before the she won this award.

Posing with the sculpture of Noahquageshik — a.k.a. Chief Noonday — during our walk at ArtPrize were (from left) Larry Pio, Joyce Kramer, Jane Norton, Sue Darling, Mary Rebert, Bob Sulaski, Eunice Jennings, and Steve Hicks.  Not in the picture: Mick Hawkins (who, as usual, was behind the camera), and Diane Woods.      The sculpture was unveiled August 10, 2010.  Created by Antonio Tobias Mendez, it had been commissioned by the Grand Rapids Community Legends Project for the City of Grand Rapids, Michigan. The seven foot bronze figure stands looking east across the Grand River from its location on the campus of Grand Valley State University.

Chief Noonday Chapter definitely went for something different for its monthly hike in October. 

We walked around downtown Grand Rapids with a huge crowd of people on a sunny (if initially crisp) day enjoying the art on display in quite a unique exhibition.

It was Grand Rapids' third annual ArtPrize international competition in which artists come from all over the place to display their creations all over the place in central Grand Rapids. 

The art was installed and displayed, indoors or outdoors, in 164 locations over 3 square miles of Grand Rapids real estate.

Bob Sulaski of Wyoming did a yeoman's job of putting it all together for us.

After lunch at The BOB, we walked to the campus of GVSU to have our picture taken with the sculpture of Chief Noonday.  Then we pretty much went in every which direction to see the art that most appealed to us.

There was little doubt at the end of the day that the only way to really see ArtPrize would be to spend several days doing it.  In the few hours we were there we hardly even scratched the surface.  But what we did see was truly impressive.

Steve Hicks (who has built a boat or two in his own right) admires the remarkable craftsmanship that went into the creation of this wooden boat.  The artist was John Hamelink of Holland, Michigan, who titled his work of art "Quarter Bounce" (click on the link to see his explanation for the name).   Goodness, even the fenders on the trailer were works of inlaid art!  This boat was, appropriately, displayed outdoors within view of the Grand River.

Although ArtPrize does have a juried component, what I suspect is pretty unique about the affair is that the principal ArtPrize awards are given based on popular vote.  This is one cultural arena in which the professional critics do not reign supreme.

This year a total of $498,000 was awarded to 18 artists, two of the top three of whom had Michigan ties. 

As noted above, Mia Tavonatti from California (a native of Iron Mountain in the U.P.), won the top prize of $250,000.  Tracy Van Duinen of Chicago won $100,000, having led a collaboration of artists who created a mural “Metaphorest.”  Lynda Cole of Ann Arbor, Mich., won $50,000 for her sculpture, “Rain.”

About 382,000 votes were cast in the competition, which began Sept. 21 with 1,582 artists from 39 countries and 43 states, according to the Battle Creek Enquirer.

I did some checking around to try and find out approximately how many people came to experience ArtPrize.  Clearly nobody really knows for sure.  Estimates ranged around a half million, but it's definitely not the sort of thing where you can take attendance. 

I anticipate we'll probably be part of next year's half million visitors taking advantage of ArtPrize.  Thanks to Bob Sulaski for coming up with this great idea.

Mick Hawkins   
Webmaster, Chief Noonday Chapter   
 

This was where the day's work started.  The Lowell Road Bridge had been dismantled in Clinton County and the parts stored here about five years ago on property of the Calhoun County Road Commission.  We had to do some weed clearing and even digging to get at the bridge components and move them to where we could begin inspecting and organizing them.

Bridging History on the Trail:   Today on a beautiful Fall day in September, volunteers from the Chief Noonday Chapter of the North Country Trail Association, the Calhoun County Trailway Alliance and preservationists for the Historic Iron Bridges of Michigan gathered near Battle Creek, Michigan to begin the process of moving the historic Lowell Road Bridge to its new home on the Trail.

Working with mallet and die, Bob Cooley of Chief Noonday stamps number codes on metal tags that will be wired to each bridge part indicating its exact location in the bridge structure.

The Lowell Road Bridge was originally built by iron work artisans to span the Looking Glass River in Michigan’s Clinton County.  When the historic bridge was no longer able to support and provide passage for today’s modern traffic demands, it was disassembled by bridge preservationists and moved to the grounds of the Calhoun County Road Commission near Battle Creek where a host of other historic iron bridges have been stored as they have been replaced by more modern structures.

The Chief Noonday Chapter has already benefitted from the restoration of the historic bridges when its first iron bridge was placed on the NCNST for a wetland crossing in Calhoun’s County’s Ott Biological Preserve.  (See pictures from the March 2002 dedication of this bridge.) 

This bridge in the Ott Preserve includes components from an old bridge recovered from Smith Road in Livingston County and fabricated by bridge preservationists headed up by Dr. Frank Hatfield, Professor Emeritus, Michigan State University Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

The Calhoun County Trailway Alliance is a consortium of many stakeholders in Calhoun County who have come together to develop a greenway along the beautiful Kalamazoo River and create a multiuse trail from the eastern end of the Battle Creek Linear Path (part of the NCNST) through the Ott Biological Preserve, Kimball Pines County Park, to Historic Bridge Park following the general course of the NCNST and then on through the cities and villages of Marshall, Albion and Homer.

The participation of this Sky Trak, operated by Mike Bock, was donated by Johnson System Inc. of Marshall to lift the heavy components out of the weeds and park them on heavy steel sawhorses, where they would be inspected and catalogued.  Guiding the component into place are (left) Chris Rowell, one of Vern Mesler's students at Lansing Community College, and James Ahrens of Bach Ornamental & Structural Steel Fabrication.

The concept of the Calhoun County Trailway Alliance grew from a dream and from seed money provided by the NCTA through the Chief Noonday Chapter.  The President of the CCTA is our former Chapter President, Tom Garnett, ably assisted by our current Vice-president of Administration, Ron Sootsman.

Not long after the dream of the new trail in Calhoun County took on a life of its own, the concept of the Historic Bridge Trail emerged.  The trail is destined to pass through Historic Bridge Park where many of Michigan’s beautiful historic Iron bridges are already preserved. 

It was just a natural extension to continue to place more historic bridges along the trail as it wends its way to the village of Homer. Thus the Historic Iron Bridge Trail was born.

Our job today was to find, inventory, identify and tag all the various parts of the Lowell Road Bridge that lay in the weeds in the back of the CCRC property.  The “lighter weight” struts, stringers, uprights and diagonals were manhandled out of the weeds and set up on heavy duty steel saw horses.  At least 18 people were on hand to work today, most of them volunteers.  No Calhoun County equipment or personnel were utilized in the project.

Working with an acetylene torch and a pry bar, Nels Raynor and James Ahrens of Bach Ornamental & Structural Steel Fabrication work to separate two large bridge components.

Nathan Holth, a bridge preservationist, had taken extensive pictures of the bridge before it was dismantled.  Using his pictures, Vern Mesler, Frank Hatfield and Nathan identified the various structural pieces which were then meticulously measured, assessed for damage, structural modifications identified, and then they were tagged for future reconstruction.

The more massive pieces such as the top chords, floor boards and end pieces were moved with a Sky Trak, which was provided by Johnson System Inc. of Marshall, along with its operator, Mike Bock.  Howard Johnson, owner of Johnson System Inc., was an active participant in the day's work.  We were able to sort these massive pieces and subject them to the same scrutiny and measuring that we did the lighter weight pieces.

Nels Raynor, his son Brock and coworker James Ahrens from Bach Ornamental & Structural Steel Fabrication donated their steel working expertise in separating stringers, diagonals and other pieces still attached to the larger basic framework . Nels is one of the historic bridge preservationists.  After Nels and his crew complete what is left of the dismemberment of the bridge, the volunteers will meet again to catalogue and mark what remains of the Lowell Road Bridge.  After that, the bridge parts that require repair or replacement will be dealt with, the many years' accumulation of rust will be removed, and the bridge will be ready to be put back together.

At the culmination of all the volunteer hours by the NCTA, the CCTA and the historic bridge preservationists, the Lowell Road Bridge will sited at its new home on the Historic Bridge Trail in the wetlands near the Ott Preserve in Emmett Township, adjacent to or possibly on the North Country Trail, once again fulfilling its function as the way to the other side.

Larry Hawkins   
President, Board of Directors  
North Country Trail Association  

Compiling the parts list:  Working to identify and catalogue the components of the Lowell Road Bridge are (from left) bridge preservationists Nathan Holth and Dr. Frank Hatfield, Chief Noonday Chapter's Dr. Larry Hawkins, bridge preservationist Vern Mesler, and Ron Sootsman, Calhoun County Trailway Alliance and Chief Noonday Chapter.

Ron and Linda Sootsman (left) and Mary Fleming, Mary Rebert, and Jane Norton (right) were on hand, along with Larry Pio, to give the North Country National Scenic Trail and Chief Noonday Chapter some useful exposure at Western Michigan University as school was starting for the term.  Larry Pio was behind the camera.

Outreach event at Western Michigan University:   We had a table to promote the North Country National Scenic Trail in the basement of the Bernhardt Center at Western Michigan University for two days as school started, on September 6 and 7.  Ron and Linda Sootsman joined me for one day; Mary Rebert, Jane Norton, and Mary Fleming joined me the second day.

We tried implementing some of the ideas generated from our try the previous January, and from Lorana Jinkerson’s efforts in the UP.  The laptop slide show didn’t attract much attention or comments.  The banner looked good, and folks could decide pretty quickly if they were interested or not.  The tabletop easel advertising the Annual Conference didn’t attract much attention either.  Lorana’s idea of working to get e-mail addresses for the newsletter worked well.

Our basic presentation to each person who stopped:

• Have you heard about the trail? – show the NCTA map

• It goes through Kalamazoo County, and here are some local hikes – show the new brochure with a map

• We do group hikes, and have speakers – show list of events on newsletter

• If you want to keep up to date on future events, sign up for an email newsletter, and get a chance to win the bag of goodies

We kept track of how many folks listened to our presentation and took literature.  On day one, we had 43 “quality” conversations.  On day two, we had 67 “quality” conversations.  We got 25 e-mail addresses on day one, and 42 e-mail addresses on day two, not counting one new member, who would make it 43 once we retrieve his e-mail address.

We found out Bronco Bash was on September 9.  Bronco Bash has 400+ booths and 20,000 plus attendees.  We thought maybe we should have gone there instead.  I went to Bronco Bash to check it out.  I saw Jane there too.  Bronco Bash is outside, and it had rained. It was noisy, wet, and didn’t look too conducive to getting the conversations we were getting.  Most of the kids there were looking for free stuff, so I’m pretty happy with the way things did work out.  Bronco Bash is 4 hours long, and costs $125 for a 10 foot square space.  We spent $100 for two days (although we spent a lot more hours than we would have at a 4 hour event).

We talked to folks who are getting recreation degrees, and environmental science degrees, and we should see if we can get an entrée into those and similar programs.
 
We met several folks who would make interesting speakers for Chapter Meetings.

One gentlemen recommended we include Otis Sanctuary and Warner Preserve on our Chapter brochure map.

We met another young lady whose family owns about a mile of land parallel to a connector/ roadwalk section of trail, and may be willing to sell, and we will try to follow up on that.
 
Weather was pretty good while we had our event, which may have reduced traffic to the food portion of the basement.  Still, we kept fairly busy.  I think we should consider going back in January for a day, and going again in September next year for two days again.

Larry Pio   
President, Chief Noonday Chapter  
  

NCTA Board's new President makes the news:  The following article, by staff writer David DeDecker, appeared recently in the Hastings Reminder and is reproduced here with permission.

Hastings resident Larry Hawkins (center) is presented with the gavel by out-going national board president Bobby Koepplin (right) of North Dakota while Bruce Matthews, Executive Director of the North Country Trail Association, looks on.

Dr. Larry Hawkins of Hastings has been named President of the national Board of Directors for the North Country Trail Association (NCTA). Hawkins officially became President at the association’s 2011 National Conference Aug. 11 to 13 in Dayton, Ohio.

Hawkins, an avid trail user and supporter, has been President of Chief Noonday Chapter — which includes Barry, Calhoun and Kalamazoo counties —  since 2004.  He has also served a number of years as a member of the Board of Directors of the NCTA.

In 2009, Hawkins was elected First Vice President of the Board. He will now begin his two-year term, taking over for outgoing Board President Bobby Koepplin of North Dakota.

“I am very pleased,” said Hawkins. “It’s a wonderful organization. We have wonderful staff and volunteers. I became involved because of the trail itself, but have taken on more of a role over the years, although administration is not my favorite thing. I am still working full-time with the Gun Lake practice and overseeing two hospices.”

At the July 13 monthly meeting of Chief Noonday Chapter in Delton, Hawkins stepped down as president of the local chapter in preparation for his new duties on the national level.

In keeping with a tradition in the Chief Noonday Chapter, Hawkins was presented with a personalized hiking staff made by Peter Phelps of Battle Creek. The presentation was made by the previous Immediate Past President, Tom Garnett of Kalamazoo.

Hawkins took over his position as Board of Directors President for the national association Aug. 11 and led his first board meeting.  The following day, he presided over his first NCTA Annual Meeting of the General Membership.

“The board is scattered over seven states and we meet three times a year,” said Hawkins.  “I serve on the Board’s Executive Committee also, and we meet by telephone every four weeks. I am fortunate to live near the NCTA headquarters in Lowell, which makes it very easy for me.

“The main focus for me over the next two years will be trail protection.  We have been focused on trail certification and bringing the trail up to National Park Service standards.”

Hawkins said he wants to focus on protecting the trail corridor into the future. The North Country National Scenic Trail runs through public and private land, urban and rural land, from New York, through Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota to North Dakota.

“So, we need to focus on agreements which are more than a handshake, whether that means a conservation easement or something else,” said Hawkins. “We need to make sure the trail is protected in perpetuity."

Another goal of his as president is to communicate better with the 2,500-person membership to make them feel part of the national trail.

“Most often, members are only focused on their section of trail,” explained Hawkins.  “Of our total membership, we might get 250 at the national convention. That’s 10 percent, and we can do better.”

Hawkins, who served as an emergency room doctor at Pennock Hospital for several years, said safety is a concern of his.  Volunteers clear and maintain the 4,600 miles of trail, often using chainsaws and other tools.

“We need to have more training available in safety, first aid, construction (like bridges), and how to work with land owners,” he said.

His final goal is monetary.

“Like any organization in this economy, we are operating on a thread,” said Hawkins. “We need to work on financial development.”

The trail, one of 11 national scenic trails chartered by Congress, is a linear national park administered by the National Park Service.

The NCTA is an organization of volunteers who are dedicated to developing, maintaining and promoting the NCT across its seven states. The NCTA is headquartered in Lowell,  which is near the center point of the seven-state trail.

David DeDecker  
Staff Writer for the Hastings Reminder  

The Events of August

Personal invitation from Nawquageezhig (Chief Noonday):  At the 2011 National Conference of the NCTA in Dayton, Eric Longman, filling in for Nawquageezhig, issued an invitation to the crowd to come to Michigan in 2012 for the next national conference, being sponsored by Chief Noonday Chapter.  CND members on hand, appropriately garbed, were (from left) Dave Cornell, Larry Pio, Mary Rebert, Jan Cornell, Linda and Ron Sootsman, Steve Hicks, Linda and Mike Wilkey, Larry Hawkins, and Jane Norton.  (Mick Hawkins was behind the camera.)

Larry Hawkins, the NCTA Board of Directors' new president, wields the gavel like a pro.

Chief Noonday Chapter was well represented and highly visible at the 2011 National Conference of the North Country Trail Association, hosted at Dayton, Ohio, by our affiliate, the Buckeye Trail Association.

Thirteen CND members were among the sizeable contingent of Michiganians who traveled to southwest Ohio for the occasion.

As those of us who have attended past conferences have gotten used to, the conference kept us busy with meetings, discussions, tours of the area, hikes, workshops, presentations of awards, and, of course, great food.

Larry Hawkins, Chief Noonday's Immediate Past Chapter President, took over as President of the NCTA Board of Directors from retiring (but only as NCTA President!) Bobby Koepplin of North Dakota, and deported himself admirably as he presided for the first time over a meeting of the Board and the Annual Meeting of the NCTA Membership.

At the concluding banquet Saturday evening, CND members garbed in blankets reminiscent of the times of Noonday, were led by Eric Longman in the role of Chief Noonday inviting the association to Michigan for next year's Conference in Chief Noonday country.

Also this month we enjoyed a postponed (by one week) annual potluck picnic at Delton, where CND's new Chapter President Larry Pio presided.

And we wrapped the month up with a workday in Kimball Pines where we began what promises to be a long process of clearing the unbelievable damage wreaked by the Storm of May 29.

Note: More pictures of the Events of August are posted on our Photos page. 

Mick Hawkins   
Webmaster, Chief Noonday Chapter

Kimball Pines:  Believe it or not, chain-sawyer Ron Sootsman is (we think) standing on the North Country Trail as he operates a chainsaw clearing some of the 500+ trees, mostly pines, that came down in Kimball Pines County Park in Calhoun County in the storm that swept through the area on May 29, 2011.  Most of the Trail was pretty much buried.  It will be a while before we'll have the Trail completely cleared through the park.

Sprucing up our image:  A new banner has been acquired by Chief Noonday Chapter for displaying at outreach events -- just about anywhere we want to make sure everybody knows who we are and what we are up to.  The banner gets its first airing after a chapter hike at Ft. Custer by (from left) Mary Rebert, Larry Hawkins, Susan Bond, Larry Pio, Ron Sootsman, Mick Hawkins, and Andy Boddy.  (Robert Sulaski photo.)

Bootworthy conditions at Fort Custer:  The North Country National Scenic Trail section through Fort Custer State Recreation Area and the forest behind Fort Custer National Cemetery provided a good experience today of what can transpire when significant seasonal rainfall and significant beaver activity conspire to raise the water levels.

Chief Noonday members Larry Pio, the Brothers Hawkins, Mary Rebert, Ron Sootsman and Susan Bond were joined by Andy Boddy of Algonquin Lake for our August Chapter hike.  Based on his experience measuring the section with a surveyor's wheel last Thursday, Mick had forewarned everybody that the uniform of the day should include good waterproof hiking boots.  Most complied.  Even Susan was persuaded to break in a spotless brand new pair of hiking boots, which definitely received their "baptism" of water and mud today.

We hiked from Fort Custer Drive to Armstrong Road, which Mick had unofficially/officially measured at 2.76 miles.  Along the way, the Fort Custer section Adopter Larry Pio demonstrated several examples of the beavers' relentless prowess at dam-building, although in at least one case we weren't sure why they were building where they were building.  We were able to get across the puncheon line on the wetlands without using waders, although in places the ground between the puncheon sections definitely was waterlogged.

At one location last Thursday Mick had come upon a flooded section about 1.04 miles from Fort Custer Drive which he guesstimated to be about 75 feet across and which was too deep for his hiking boots.  It was still there today, but Larry Pio led the way around the flood on what he plans to be a re-route of the Trail, which will lop off about 50 feet of the original Trail section length.  Approximately the last 0.5 to 0.6 miles of Trail west of James Eades Drive is wet in places but negotiable with the right footwear.

The Trail between James Eades Drive and Armstrong Road apparently is on higher ground, because it afforded dry and easy walking the whole way.  We did come upon an old tall pine that had come down and was blocking the Trail near that ancient rusted Oldsmobile that has sat a little ways off the trail in the pine grove since time immemorial.  After the hike, Mick and Bob Sulaski went back and made short work of that obstruction with loppers and bow saws.

New banner for Chief Noonday:  As an extra treat for the occasion, Mary Rebert brought along our brand new Chapter banner which had just been produced by Katie Dolfman and company at mid-Lakes Screen Printing & Monogramming and K. R. Designs in Delton.  Mary had done the leg work gathering designs and graphics and consensus among the members, and Katie produced the excellent finished product.  Good work, Mary and Katie!

The banner will be put to immediate use this coming week at the 2011 National Conference of the North Country Trail Association at Dayton, Ohio.

Mick Hawkins   
Webmaster, Chief Noonday Chapter  
 

Chief Noonday Chapter has a busy week

The latest in gear:  Charlie Hall, of Lee's Adventure Sports in Portage, brought in a whole table-full of the newest and greatest in camping and hiking gear for us to drool over at our July 13 Chapter meeting.  He discussed the highlights of the newest in footwear, water purification, cooking gear, packs, sleeping bags, tents, and camp lighting, answered questions, and passed gear around for close examination.  Curiously, he could not be persuaded ... to leave free samples.

In keeping with established Chief Noonday tradition, out-going Chapter President Larry Hawkins received his "staff of office" after proving his mettle by serving as President for seven years.  Tom Garnett made the presentation.

Presidential Line-up:  For the first time in its history, Chief Noonday Chapter has four past and present Presidents.  From left: Dave Cornell, Founder and first President of the Chapter; Larry Hawkins, Immediate Past President; Tom Garnett, second President of the Chapter; and Larry Pio, who was elected as the current President at the July 13th Chapter meeting.

Team Sootsman:  Ron Sootsman, who had been serving as Treasurer for Chief Noonday Chapter, was elected to take over for Larry Pio as Vice President/Administration.  And Linda Sootsman was elected to take over as Treasurer.

Mid-term transitions:  Larry Hawkins, who had served as Chief Noonday's Chapter President since late 2003, has stepped down as Chief Noonday's President in order to take over as President of the North Country Trail Association national Board of Directors at the National Conference in Dayton next month.

Larry will become the the third member of Chief Noonday Chapter to serve as President of the national NCTA board.  His predecessors included CND members Martha Jones and Dave Cornell.

In a special mid-term election held July 13th, Larry Pio was elected to don the Chapter presidential hat, along with the other ones he already wears.  Ron Sootsman was elected to take over for Larry as Vice President for Administration.  And Linda Sootsman was elected to take over for Ron as Treasurer.

Congratulations to them all, and thanks to them for their service!

And best of luck to Larry Hawkins as he takes on a huge new responsibility in the presidential chair of the North Country Trail Association's national board.  As a salute to his dedicated service to Chief Noonday, he was presented with a brand new hand-carved hiking staff by now fellow Past-President Tom Garnett at the July 13 meeting.

Guidebook in the making:   Dr. Ron Strickland, PhD, has been contracted by the NCTA Board of Directors to author a trail-wide guidebook for the North Country National Scenic Trail.  On July 14 Ron hiked what will appear in the guidebook as Chief Noonday's Premier Hike from the Norris Road west trailhead in Yankee Springs to the Chief Noonday Road (M-179) trailhead in the Barry State Game Area, a hike of nearly 6.5 miles.  Looking on as Ron made an entry in the trail log at Norris Road were (left) Ron Sootsman and (right) Charles Krammin, who accompanied him on the hike, as did the picture-taker Mick Hawkins.  You can learn more about Ron Strickland and his impressive accomplishments from his Web site.

Sandhill cranes at KBS:  We saw these guys on the horizon just south of B Ave.  Mick regretted not bringing his better (but heavier) telephoto zoom lens.

Learning and soaking up some sun in Kalamazoo County:   We had a rather ambitious experience lined up for ourselves on Saturday, July 9, in Kalamazoo County — getting some agricultural education and hiking as much as 4.7 miles on the North Country National Scenic Trail in mounting temperatures by mid-day.

We started the day, as is our wont, with a bountiful breakfast at Duda's in Augusta, shared by Jeff Fleming, Bob Cooley, Ron Sootsman, Mike and Julie Nofs and family, and Yrs Truly.  While we ate we did some discussing and planning for our next workday, so you can bet we'll include that breakfast next time we report our NPS Volunteer Hours....

Robotic milking:  We watched as a couple of cows were robotically hooked up to the milking system and milked.  The machine identifies each individual cow as she comes in, and if she's not due to be milked and fed, the gate opens and the cow continues on about her business.

From Duda's we repaired to the W. K. Kellogg Biological Station, spotting vehicles along the way.  The hike was set up as a graduated affair with departure points along the way for those who did not plan to hike the entire 4.7 miles.

At the north kiosk at KBS we met up with Larry Pio and Donna Andres.  Larry was there making sure all the participants arrived safely and on time, but he did not hike with us, going instead to his NCNST Adopter section at Ft. Custer to work.  More power to him!

KBS and the North Country Trail have an interesting and valuable symbiotic relationship.  KBS has a research and educational mission as part of Michigan State University, and the NCNST provides one means of access to the education that is available there.

So our hike started out with the educational portion of our day, as we hiked from the kiosk up to the New Barn and visited the viewing room to see firsthand KBS's impressive robotic milking and feeding system at work.  The room was nicely designed with information panels explaining how the whole system worked, and there was a wide viewing port through which we could watch two cows coming in and going through the robotic milking operation and feeding operation. 

It was pretty amazing for a relative city slicker like myself to watch.  I came in there with questions — such as how do the cows get ... er ... "hooked up" to that thing — and I came away with all my questions answered.  It was truly an impressive display of modern technology put to work in an otherwise ancient endeavor, dairy farming.  (Check out this video to learn more about this amazing program.)

Daylilies (Mick thinks this is called the "Tawny Daylily") were in brilliant bloom along the Trail and B Avenue.

From there we headed out to get our exercise (and sun exposure) for the day, hiking south on the NCT through KBS.  Along the way we saw beautiful Daylilies along the trail (Mick thought they were Tiger Lilies till Cal Lamoreaux set him straight). 

And as we walked through the wood lot immediately south of B Avenue we heard the easily identifiable, raucous call of Sandhill Cranes up ahead.  As we came out of the woods we got a closer look at the cranes meandering around in the field.  I was sorry I hadn't brought my tele-zoom lens.

At the middle kiosk by the Kellogg Bird Sanctuary the Nofs family and Donna peeled off, having hiked about 2.3 miles.  Rumor had it that a side trip to the bird sanctuary might be in the offing.

The rest of us, Bob, Ron and Yrs Truly, continued on through the rest of the KBS section, with appreciation for all the mowing and downed tree clearing that KBS section Adopter Jim Martin had done the week before the Fourth.  Jim had the KBS trail looking good.

After climbing over the fence stile at C Avenue (the only stile still in use at KBS) we continued on through the Cheff Center section of the NCT between C Avenue and M-89.  We enjoyed the breeze and the shade in the woods (not to mention Adopter Ron Sootsman's extensive mowing and trimming job there from a week ago) — as the day's temperatures continued to climb.  I was surprised that there weren't more bugs about — or maybe I just wasn't their type.

By the time we came out on M-89, we had enjoyed a good midsummer hike — but were ready for the a/c in our vehicles!

Our next hike will be Saturday, August 6, at Ft. Custer — weather and beavers permitting....  Hope you can join us.

Saturday's work crew in the MSGA didn't take a picture break till the work was done.  From left: Bob Cooley, Steve Hicks, Steve's son-in-law Randy Brodbeck, Larry Pio, Larry's son-in-law Derek Johnson, Larry Hawkins, Robert Sulaski.  Not in the picture were Jeff Fleming and Jason Buckner, who worked in YSRA, and Mick Hawkins, the picture-taker.

Busy day in Chief Noonday country:   Oftentimes winging it is the name of the game for Chief Noonday workdays.  It's tricky to plan and organize them because we're never quite sure how many workers we'll have till breakfast on the morning of — and sometimes not even then.  Five of us made it to breakfast at 7:30 Saturday morning at the Thornapple Kitchen, after the time and place had been adjusted to allow for the big 24 Hour Challenge bicycle tour in downtown Middleville.

Two of the five, Jeff Fleming and Jason Buckner, were dispatched to the Yankee Springs Recreation Area to clear downed trees from the Trail, leaving Larry and Mick Hawkins and Bob Cooley to work with Steve Hicks in the Middleville State Game Area.  Steve had gotten an earlier start going after our tool trailer in Delton and getting some mowing started at the Crane Road trailhead in the MSGA.  But things quickly got better as our MSGA work crew rounded out to eight, including Larry Pio and Larry's son-in-law Derek Johnson, Steve's son-in-law Randy Brodbeck, and Robert Sulaski.

We had a really productive day:

• Steve and helpers mowed several laps between the Crane Road trailhead and the day's main work area about 2,500 feet back where we would build a trail revision.  And after the day's main project had been completed, they moved on to Robertson Road where they mowed both trailheads plus 500-800 feet back from each parking area, with Randy trimming even further back with the DR trimmer.
• Steve also wore his certified chain-sawyer hat (well, safety helmet with face screen and ear protection!) and cleared a downed tree along the trail on the way to the work site.  And on the way back, Larry Pio toppled a moribund tree across the Trail which subsequently was lifted and horsed off to the side and out of the way.  We did some other miscellaneous lopping and trimming as we went along — a never-ending chore in parts of the MSGA.
• We all worked on a revision of the Trail starting about 0.4 miles from Crane Road (just north of Waypoint #3 on the map mashup).  The Trail there had long ago been routed up an unacceptably steep slope that had resulted in a fall-line trail that subsequently suffered considerable water erosion.  Using the mighty DR mower, hazel hoes, McLeod tools, Pulaski's, loppers, bow saws, a stump-puller, and the chainsaw a time or two, we built a very nice trail that by-passed and replaced about 200 feet of the old trail.  The new trail had a considerably more humane degree of slope and shouldn't be vulnerable to the erosion that had ruined the old trail.  We blocked the old trail as best we could in hopes that it would now over time simply return to nature.  And Randy got his first taste of blazing as he marked the new trail.
• While all this was going on, Jeff and Jason, two of Chief Noonday's certified chain-sawyers, cleared about ten trees down in the Yankee Springs Recreation Area between Hall Lake, at Gun Lake Road, and just beyond the old Norris 2-track the other side of McDonald Lake. One of these trees next to Hall Lake was completely blocking the Trail.  Jeff also cleared a couple other trees down near the Norris Road west trailhead including another one that had fallen on the Little Mac bridge boardwalk.  Chief Noonday had been given permission by YSRA managers to do the clearing.

We should mention that Ron Sootsman, the dean of Chief Noonday's crew of certified sawyers, probably held the long distance record for doing trail work this weekend.  Ron put his sawyer talents to work helping to build new off-road trail for the Buckeye Trail on the historic Miami & Erie Canal towpath route in northwest Ohio between the communities of Texas and Grand Rapids in Henry and Wood Counties.

Thanks and a big Attaboy! to all who contributed to today's great productivity.

   A doozy of a storm system tore through the midwest including lower Michigan during Memorial Day weekend.  Particularly hard hit was a swath through the Battle Creek and Emmett Township area in Calhoun County — and the Chief Noonday Chapter's section of the North Country National Scenic Trail did not escape unscathed.

The Trail goes through three county parks in Emmett Township — and it appears that pretty much the whole stretch of the Trail through Kimball Pines County Park was buried under hundreds of toppled or decapitated trees, including far too many of the tall stately pines for which the Park was named.

I say "it appears," because there was a large portion of the Kimball Pines section that I couldn't even get to from either the north or the south ends when I visited there on Thursday, June 2.

I had driven to Emmett Township that morning expecting to walk down the Trail and get pictures here and there of trees and limbs down.  Maybe even a lot of trees.

But I knew it was way worse than that when I drove in on East Michigan Avenue from the expressway.  I saw trees down everywhere in people's yards, a couple of roofs that had blown off and were lying in yards, utility crews out block after block working to get power and phone lines back up.  And too many people out using chainsaws without a stitch of safety gear in sight!

Approaching Kimball Pines from the medical facility, uh oh!  I found the gate locked.  I hoofed it from there, hard hat on my head, camera in hand.  And I was blown away by what I found. 

Not to diminish in any way the loss that people suffered on their properties, or to forget the tragedies of last month and earlier in Joplin, Missouri, and Birmingham, Alabama, and elsewhere in the Midwest, the destruction I saw in   the outer areas around the Kimball Pines Park was heart-rending.  Even if the damage was at its root fundamentally "natural," it was still sad to see.

I just have to let the pictures speak for themselves.

There was a fair amount of damage in the central core of the park — a picnic pavilion totaled, etc. — but to my inexpert eyes it looked as though most of the destruction was in the north end and along the west side of the park.  That's logical, because those parts were immediately exposed to winds from the west and southwest.  The west side of the big open clearing at the north end of the park and the road going down the east side toward the wetlands were covered with downed trees that had fallen from the west toward the east.

There was simply no way to walk on any but maybe 50 feet of the north 1500 feet of the Trail from the kiosk on.  What I could see of the Trail (the parts I could find) was by viewing it from where it crossed roads, which by Thursday had been cleared somewhat.  I tried to walk down the side road along the east side of the Park to try walking north from the wetlands, but that road was covered with downed pines, and I couldn't get through ... without wings.

I drove down to the old Harper Creek school on Crosby Drive to try going up the Trail from the south, but that didn't work either.  About 0.2 mile from the school, I ran into a giant pile of about a half dozen trees that had fallen pretty much all in one place, completely blocking the Trail, and the brush on either side was too dense to navigate.

I lack the authority to declare a North Country National Scenic Trail section closed — but de facto it is well and truly closed for the foreseeable future in Kimball Pines. 

The NCTA office in Lowell has been notified.  Ron Sootsman has arranged for an alternative roadwalk detour between the Ott Biological Preserve and Historic Bridge Park to be posted on the national Web site.  Basically it's a roadwalk between Arlington Avenue via Olive Street, Wattles/9½ Mile Road, and F Drive North.

Speaking of the Ott Biological Preserve and the Historic Bridge Park:

• By and large the Ott Preserve did not fare too badly in the storm, despite being so close to Kimball Pines.  There were a few trees down blocking the Trail in the Preserve in the first 0.6 mile from the Jameson Avenue Trailhead on June 2.  Most of the blockages weren't hard to get around, but one was a bit more difficult.  However, a Chief Noonday chain-sawyer crew was slated to clear them on Sunday, June 4.  There was also a moderately easy step-over on the Trail a short distance from the Arlington Avenue kiosk.
• In Historic Bridge Park I found a few limbs down, and I wasn't sure they were even from the 5/29 storm.  The park was still closed to vehicular traffic, I believe because of the oil spill clean-up.  The Kalamazoo River in that area was still off-limits to the public.

Again, don't forget to check out the picture gallery on our Photos page.

In the Ionia State Recreation Area, Bob Sulaski and Bill Winstanley bring up the rear on a chapter hike in either the waning days of winter or the early days of spring — too soon yet to tell which.

The April File:   There's a school of thought that, in Michigan, April and Spring don't belong in the same sentence.

A few hardy souls in Chief Noonday Chapter endeavored to speed up the clock a bit by going on a hike around Sessions Lake in the Ionia State Recreation Area south of Ionia. 

Bill Winstanley taking in a bit of orientation info.

Heading out after breakfast at Big Boy, Bob Sulaski, our hikemeister who had planned and organized the hike, Mick Hawkins, Mary Rebert, and Steve and Josie Hicks were joined by Yahoo Group member Bill Winstanley of Eagle. 

We thought we were going on about a 3.5 mile hike on a nice DNR trail on a cool, cloudy day typical of early April. 

We were right on all counts except the 3.5 mile part.  It ended up being more like 4.2 or so.

Along the Sessions Lake trail there are supposed to be a number of not-very-big bridges or puncheons of varying sizes (see the DNR trail map) — nine of them, to be specific.  We only found eight.  One rather important one was missing — the tall bridge that was supposed to span Sessions Creek, which was a pretty good sized creek, if you weren't disposed to go wading on a chilly day.

We followed the creek a ways upstream looking for a more felicitous place to cross.  Bob found one spot where a downed tree in the creek combined with a few big rocks seemed to afford an opportunity for fording — but he didn't find a very enthusiastic response from the rest of us.  So, we ended up hiking out to David Highway, crossing the creek via the road bridge, then hiking back in to where we should have been able to cross.  And that added maybe 0.7 miles to the 3.5 miles we had been expecting.

The rest of the hike was uneventful and enjoyable.  We saw evidence here and there that winter hadn't totally given up yet — occasional patches of snow, and an impressive rank of icicles hanging inside a cave near where we'd opted not to ford the creek.

Sprinkles of rain held off until just the last ten minutes or so of the hike.

At the very end of April, we again ventured out into the barely-spring weather to build a puncheon on the North Country National Scenic Trail near our kiosk by Armstrong Road at Ft. Custer. 

The Trail going by the kiosk there had been just fine until a year or so ago when something changed in area drainage patterns, causing the Trail segment to turn into a running creek every time there was a hard rain.  Significant erosion had resulted and forced us to re-route the Trail to the other side of the kiosk.  (Click here for a more detailed description of the situation there.)

The re-route crossed the run-off track that had been causing the erosion.  When we'd done the re-route we'd plopped a couple logs across the track to serve as a crude puncheon — which proved unwise, as it turned out.

So on April 30 we devoted our workday to fixing this situation.  The crew consisted of Steve Hicks, Jeff Fleming, George Lee, Mick Hawkins and Jim Heaton.

Four of us completed a project organized and prepared by Jeff and Steve, building a nice new puncheon spanning the run-off track which we were confident would solve the problem once and for all. 

The only thing that remained to be done at a later time was moving the kiosk a few feet to a better location away from the run-off track.

While we were thus engaged, the fifth member of the crew, Jim Heaton, made his way into Battle Creek and applied stain to the NCNST Trail kiosks located on the Battle Creek Linear Park pathway near Bedford Road and near the Horseshoe Bend park and playground.

After we were finished with the puncheon project we packed up, and Steve, George and Mick drove to the west end of the Ft. Custer section to walk back in and check out the puncheon we'd installed over "Beaver Creek" back in January 2005.  We were pleased to find that somehow the dam constructed downstream by furry engineers last season had sprung a leak, enough that the water in the creek was down a good foot or so, affording easy (if a bit muddy) access to the puncheon. 

So we crossed over and hiked on to the "poplar buffet" section where two and a half years ago the beavers had taken down a whole grove of poplars, creating a "pick-up-stix" situation on the Trail.  Ft. Custer Trail Adopter Larry Pio had since done a nice job of opening that area back up.

Be sure to check out the photographic evidence from our April endeavors.  It's been a good month.  Thanks to all who took part!