Peter Wolfe Chapter North Country Trail Association

The following is the text of an article entitled "Goodbye to Peter Wolfe," by Ruth B. MacFarlane.  The article appeared on page 11 of the North Country Trail Association Newsletter, Summer 1990.  Read on to find out why we named our chapter for this extraordinary man...

"Last week, Peter Henry Wolfe died in his sleep.  He was seventy-four years old.

Hed had lived among us for only three years, in a little house on the East Branch Road bought from the late Beatrice Lakkala.

Pete first came through the Upper Peninsula in 1978, hiking the 3200-mile then-proposed route of the North Country National Scenic Trail (NCT).  He limped into Jack Neph's Adventure Mine campground in Greenland, pitched his little orange tent, and sat down to let his feet recover.

Wherever Pete went, his courage and humor made friends.  As he hiked on, continuing the trek from Bennington, Vermont, to Lake Sakakawea, North Dakota, he kept in touch with friends with occasional postcards.

In 1986 he returned to the U.P. to lay out, nearly single-handedly, the Adventure Trail, an auxiliary trail that makes it possible for long-distance hikers to leave the NCT and come up through the towns of Rockland, Greenland, and Mass City for resupplying and for motels and restaurants.  The first two people to hike the entire twenty-three mile length of the Adventure Trail, marked by yellow rectangles, were Kathy Allen and Kathy Dravillas of Mass City.  Since then, others have taken pleasant hikes on shorter segments of the trail.

Following that task, Pete made a circuit in his old blue and black pickup down to New Orleans, thence to New York to see his sons, and then back to White Cloud, Michigan, where he helped to remodel the headquarters building of the North Country Trail Association (NCTA).

When it came time to settle, though, he chose the Mass City area of the U.P. because of the warm friendliness he had met there.

The house, the first he had ever owned, was small, waterless, and in need of repairs, but weather-tight.  He attacked problems with vigor, shoring up sags, fixing wiring, mending this and that.  He jacked up his garage and moved it ten feet with the help of his neighbor, Gerald Makimaa.  He ditched his yard, hauled mine rock and sand for his driveway, and studied the lay of the land.  When social agencies were informed that he was living there with no water source, means were found to drill him a well.

Pete's new neighbors looked him over with caution.  After all, his long white hair and beard made him a striking character.  He waited, did a good turn here and there, and before long it was "Hi, Pete,", "Hi Pete" whereever he went.

Pete's head was full of plans.  He wanted to buy another acre of land and plant trees-shade and fruit trees, with a little park where kids could come and camp.  He sent for maps and dreamed of hiking the Pacific Northwest Trail out of Montana.  He planned to attend the NCTA annual meeting in White Cloud, and he was working to plan and promote the 1990 tenth anniversary hike on the NCT.

Pete's early days had been spent in Connecticut and New York.  He married and had three sons, but he was parted from them by alcoholism.  When in about 1972 or '73, he said "God turned off the alcohol faucet," his first act was to hike the Appalachian Trail.  The experiences of that hike transformed his life, and he determined to hike the then-proposed North Country Trail.

The first spring out, too early in the year, he froze his feet and spent much of the summer in Ticonderoga, New York, befriended by local people.  It took him seven summers to complete the hike.  In 1980, he arrived triumphant to be welcomed by the Indian tribes at Lake Sakakawea, North Dakota.  They understood a man who would hike a long trail.

Over the years, Pete became convinced that God wanted him to hike the NCT, for what reason he did not know but events on the Trail seemed to him more than coincidence.

Pete was an unlikely saint.  Salty-even profane-language left over from his years of drinking and bumming sprinkled his speech.  He was no crusader against alcohol.  Abstinent himself, he mingled with and understood others who drank.

Irascible, especially when his feet hurt him (which was often) he would flare into anger.  And TALK!  Full of his own ideas and experiences, he mesmerized his listeners.

Then humor, a twist of a phrase, a twinkle, and he inspired friendship.

Local people of all ages gathered to say goodbye to Pete at the morning service on May 5, conducted by Rev. Father Olson.  Kay Preiss and Cheryl Brandt sang "How Great Thou Art" with its line "When through the forests and glades I wander, I hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees..." and Kathy and Donica Dravillas and "Who will Sing for Me When I am Gone?"  There were tears.

Pete's remains will be buried in a family plot in New York, but his footprints will remain here, in Michigan's Upper Peninsula."

Some photos of Peter Wolfe, and of a sign honoring his efforts
Kathy Dravillas, Peter Wolfe, and Kathy Allen at the Adventure Mine, July 24, 1986
Kathy Dravillas and Peter Wolfe at farewell party at Adventure Mine, July 31, 1986
Peter Wolfe and Werner Lamsa at farewell party at Adventure Mine, July 31, 1986
Sign in Greenland, Michigan, near the Adventure Mine, honoring Peter's efforts