No official Trail Time was planned, but Ramona talked about greatly increased problems with ATV’s this year, and also disturbing of loons. She told us how to recognize the loon’s harrassment call and to call the hotline to report incidents. Violators will be fined.

Meeting was called to order at 7:40 by President Joan Young. Ramona introduced summer intern Rachel Klein who will work with us on National Trails Day. Rachel has experience with trail activities and is excited to be helping us. She will be creating a self-guided nature tour from Highbridge to Blacksmith Bayou this summer. There will be numbered posts and an accompanying brochure, and she would be happy for any input we wish to give. She will also present Trail Time in July.

District Ranger Gary Cole stopped in to thank us for trail work and enthusiasm.

Minutes of the May 9 meeting were read and accepted with one correction and the note that a lot of details of that very busy meeting may not have been recorded. The official membership count is at 47, but there were 4 more memberships noted which have not come through on the monthly tally yet- potentially taking us to 51. Treasurer Ed Chappel reports $232.33 in the account. The $350 Field Grant for NTD has been awarded, but expenses already incurred but not yet reimbursed result in the available total of $230.63.

Trail Work:

• Road crossing sign info is being collected. Mary turned hers in to Ramona, Ramona will get it to Joan.
• The Emporium IGA on Sable Lake (Jenny Kester) wants the paper maps from the FS because they get many requests. Ed will place those maps with her. It would be a good idea to place a sign where the trail comes to 5-Mile Rd indicating that supplies are available.
• The MNF is proposing a route from 9-Mile Bridge to Udell Hills Rd which will eliminate a half-mile of road walking. They will flag the route and we can build it, perhaps as early as this fall. Two plant inventories must be completed, in June and again in August, in order to observe both growing seasons for wildflowers. Joan will participate in these with the FS biologist.

Ed and Stuart agreed to take charge of the July 7,8 campout and hike at Nordhouse Dunes

Chapter Volunteer of the Year Awards will be presented at the Labor Day Bridge Walk weekend on Friday evening. Nominees were Stuart Wolf, Gordon Wilkes, Ed Chappel, Howard Hopkins, Ramona Venegas, Angie Addington. Angie asked that each of the nominees state in a few sentences why they care about the Trail. Voting was by ballot and each person voted for two. Rachel (as a non-member) counted the votes, and Ed was the winner.

The remainder of the meeting was devoted to National Trails Day.

Publicity:

• Newspapers: Coverage good- we know articles appeared in Ludington, Manistee, and Lake Co.
• Ramona invited Howard Myerson of the GR Press
• Chappels will invite “Bucky” of Lake Co Star
• Radio: Spots were submitted, some have been heard
• TV: Angie submitted it to Channel 12 community calendar
• Joan reported frustration with lack of interest from Scouts, wants to give short presentations to troops about the trail over the next year to improve relationships.

Hike Leaders:

• All hikes now have leaders:
• Morning Canoe Loop- Mark Addington
• Morning 6-mile hike- Ed Chappel
• Morning 3-mile hike- Ray Dereske
• Afternoon Trail Cleanup- Ed Chappel
• Afternoon 3-mile hike- Gordon Wilkes
• Afternoon 2-mile family hike- Rachel Klein

Canoe Shuffling:

• Gordon Wilkes will take charge of moving the canoes across the river from Gleason’s Landing.
• Helpers Ellen Lightle, Nan Chappel
• Mark, Gordon, Joan will meet Friday at 12:30 to work out specific details

Food:

• Betty Wilkes will be in charge of food with help from Mary Soule
• various persons took responsibility for requesting donations of food
• we will use the campsite grills

Budget:

• Any money we make will come from sales of items, so we hope to do well. The cost of the campsites is very high, but was considered the best choice to give us water and latrine access

Crafts:

• Young explained the 3 craft items available for kids to do: woven newspaper sit-upons, nature notebooks with spatterpainted covers, wildlife track stamps. Nan will help with crafts and Angie will help prepare the potato stampers. Various people agreed to bring needed supplies

Photography:

• Stuart will take charge of this. He will get film and also 3 disposable cameras to be used on the hikes- half the pictures for the morning and half for the afternoon.

Set-up:

• Joan wll be at the site from noon Friday on. Set-up of the canopies, first-aid tent, signs, etc will begin around 4 pm. Joan, and others will camp overnight at the site. All helpers are welcome to do so.

Joan expressed concerns that she has not been able to find the name of the local contact who cares for this site. Ramona had that information and supplied it to Joan.

Stuart moved to adjourn, seconded by Nan. Meeting was adjourned at 9:50pm.

Members attending: Stuart Wolf, Ed & Nan Chappel, Gordon & Betty Wilkes, Angie Addington, Mary Soule, Ramona Venegas, Joan Young. Guest: Rachel Klein

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