A Lot of Boardwalk Action
At the conclusion of my last post, our hiking group had just reached the Ruby Marsh during the course of our 6.1 mile hike at Maasto Hiihto and Churning Rapids. There is a small tower here that provides a great vantage point for looking out across the marsh.
We had looked toward two of the beaver lodges last time, this is the other one that can be seen from this location.
Hiking from the marsh toward Tomasi Road, the trail passes some beautiful mixed stands of birch and aspen. Even though the leaves had fallen, these trees still provide excellent subjects for photography.
We would wrap up the hike on the Iron Ring Trail which follows along the top of the north side of the Swedetown Creek Gorge. The portion of this trail closest to the Lakeside Cemetery was recently substantially improved with the help of a grant to the Hancock Trails Club from the Klungness Family Foundation.
Over the past week Julie and I would get over to MTU to swim on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings where I would tally up swims of 2,400, 2,000 and 2,300 yards. Significant progress would occur with both the waterfront boardwalk project funded by the MDNR Spark Grant at Centennial Park in Chassell as well as with the ninety-six foot boardwalk on Trail 17 at Maasto Hiihto in Hancock.
At Centennial Park, MJO would drive the steel pilings into the lake bed that will carry the new boardwalk and caps would be welded onto the tops of the pilings.
Meanwhile at Maasto Hiihto, our team of volunteers would work on Wednesday and Friday creating the outside frame for the twelve-foot wide boardwalk made up of three staggered layers of 2 x 12s bracketed onto to 6 x 6s attached to swamp pans while striving to maintain a level structure across an inclining wetland.
On Wednesday I would attend a Houghton County Brownfield Redevelopment Authority meeting where we would approve the Brownfield Plan for the Chassell Mercantile Redevelopment project. This will go to the Chassell Township Board for its approval at its meeting this coming week and then to the Houghton County Commissioners for its approval at their December meeting. This is the project that would bring twenty-two one- and two-bedroom apartments to downtown Chassell across from the VFW.
After this meeting and before I would start my volunteer work on the Trail 17 project at Maasto Hiihto, I would give an interview to Daily Mining Gazette reporter Ben Garbacz. Ben’s story would appear in Friday’s edition and you can find it at this link. If you would like to see a couple of time lapse looks at our work, you might want to check out my Instagram post at this link:
Or possibly this more intense look on the Remote Workforce Keweenaw YouTube channel at this link:
Thursday my focus was on turning out the previous month’s planning commission meeting minutes ahead of that evening’s Chassell Recreation Committee meeting and then the Planning Commission meeting. The focus of these meetings would be on Chassell Ski Trails transition and the work in progress and to be completed in conjunction with the MDNR Spark Grant. One awesome development for me was new planning commission member Cindy Cowell’s willingness to take on the commission’s secretary role which I have been fulfilling in addition to my Vice-Chair role since Ericka Malone had stepped down from the commission.
With the amazingly nice November weather we have continued to stretch our Airbnb season. Looking at the forecast, we will continue at least until November 17th. We had a really nice guest from Los Angeles this past Monday and a young woman with her dog from Madison on Friday. We are looking forward to shutting down for the season.
Remote Workforce Keweenaw would like you to meet remote worker Eric Watkins! Learn Eric’s remote work story by visiting this link to the Remote Workforce Keweenaw Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/ywsXyguhDgVqVi7U/
Do you embrace winter and have the ability to work remotely? Consider locating in the Keweenaw where you will find ubiquitous natural beauty, no congestion, and lower crime! Not sure? Come UP for a workcation to check it out! Learn how at Visit Keweenaw at https://www.visitkeweenaw.com/plan/trip-ideas-itineraries/workcations/ Visit Remote Workforce Keweenaw at https://remoteworkforcekeweenaw.com. Learn about those making the decision to locate here like Eric by following the Remote Workforce Keweenaw Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/RemoteWorkforceKeweenaw