A Race Against Winter - Part 1
Last Saturday I would help Julie by covering the art and craft show at Houghton High School to sell her children’s book “The Adventures of Hairy the Hare and the Yooperlites” since she was doing the show at the Copper Country Mall at the same time. I otherwise would have been out at Maasto Hiihto working on the boardwalk. While I would be absent from those responsibilities that day, I would be more than making up for it in the days ahead.
Sunday turned out to be a dreary day, but the rain let up in time for our hiking group to get in a 4.9-mile hike on the Michigan Technological University Trails. We would meet up at the Nara Nature Park Trailhead at the Pilgrim River and hike in from there.
Mark and I were a bit ahead of the rest of the group when we came face-to-face with a whitetail buck. Surprisingly, after lifting his head from browsing to take note of us, he chose not to bolt and went about his browsing.
We would also come across some MTU students engaging in some kind of field game where one side was trying to elude the other in the woods. After hiking up to the Chalet and going around the trail formerly known as the Inner Core, we headed down the Hairpin Loop where we took in the view of the waterfall along the trail.
We would continue down Hairpin and then pick up a bike trail to connect us to the Down Under Loop. We took in the Homestead Loop and then cut across on a bike trail over to the Ridge Loop along the Pilgrim River to take us back to the Nara Nature Park Trailhead.
It turned out to be a really great day for a hike!
Julie and I would start Monday with a swim at MTU. I put in 2,700 yards. After dropping Julie at home, I would head over to Maasto Hiihto to spend 3 1/2 hours working on the Trail 17 boardwalk with Mark, Wolf, Doug, and Stan. I would be part of a team working on placing swamp pans and posts/brackets for one side of the boardwalk and connecting the staggered three layers of 2 x 12s. Once we made a turn past a good sized cedar, we were able to make good progress.
That afternoon I would do a conference call with Chassell Township Supervisor Dave Mattson and Chassell Planning Commission Chair Brian Waters to discuss a potential land swap by the township that would position the community for future park development in conjunction with our preliminary engineering study of Centennial Park. I would subsequently have a discussion with Marty Fitante from InvestUP to discuss a couple of unsolicited offers I have received out of California for our tree farm. These came on consecutive days recently after having received a couple previously within the last year out of Tennessee and West Virginia. I was the first person Marty had heard from directly on this type of activity. There has been talk about Chinese interest in land in this region, but I have no idea who these organizations may be representing. We also talked briefly about Chassell development activities and we plan to meet in person about these the next time Marty comes through the area.
I also stopped by Centennial Park where MJO was making significant progress on the rebuilding of the waterfront boardwalk.
Tuesday I would be back at Maasto Hiihto to spend four more hours working on the Trail 17 boardwalk along with Mark, Wolf, Doug, Jim, and Stan. A heavy frost covered everything on top of the hill in Hancock. It reminded me of the freezing fog that I had seen on days six and seven of the Border-to-Border Ski in northern Finland back in 2023 when the freezing fog off of the Baltic coated the trees on those mornings.
I would continue the same activity as on Monday and we would complete placing all the swamp pans, posts/brackets, and attaching the 2 x 12s on the left side of the boardwalk going away from Swedetown Creek. The other crew would start decking the next segment of the boardwalk where the joists had been put in place.
Afterwards, I would stop by Centennial Park where MJO was continuing to make significant progress with the rebuilding of the waterfront boardwalk with the welding of the steel across the steel piles they had already driven thirty-one feet into the bottom of the lake.
I would spend the rest of afternoon chainsawing and splitting firewood.
Wednesday morning Julie and I would swim at MTU. I would put in 2,800 yards before heading over to work another four hours on the Trail 17 boardwalk with Mark, Pete, Jim, and Stan. My work on this day would be focused on decking the next leg of boardwalk where joists had been put in place. Pete would do a masterful job of decking out the curve leading into the bridge.
MJO would make significant framing progress on the waterfront boardwalk on this day as well.
That evening on behalf of the Chassell Township Planning Commission, I would present the land swap to the township board which would unanimously approve going forward with the action. The board would also concur with the Houghton County Brownfield Redevelopment Authority approval of the Brownfield Redevelopment Plan which includes a housing TIF for the Chassell Mercantile redevelopment project. The Brownfield Redevelopment Plan will now go to the Houghton County Commission for final approval.
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