Autumn Hike at Maasto Hiihto
A really awesome aspect of living in the Keweenaw is the many places you can hike in order to take in the fall colors! One place that can be easily overlooked are the trails at Maasto Hiihto and Churning Rapids on the north side of Hancock. With the weather being in the upper 70s a week ago Tuesday, we jumped on the opportunity to hike into Maasto Hiihto from the Tomasi Trailhead.
The Maasto Hiihto trails are dog friendly, so this meant Red and Blue were along for the adventure. We took the west side of the Tomasi Loop down to the snowmobile trail and picked up the north side of the Pine Loop where we found ourselves immersed in a blend of orange and gold.
From the Pine Loop we went down hill into the Swedetown Creek Gorge. This trail is one of my favorites to ski in the winter!
After crossing Swedetown Creek on the Pedestrian Bridge, we hiked eastward to the New River Trail.
As we headed upstream we noted the significant amount of leaves that had fallen over the previous days with strong winds out of the northeast. Our next stop was the large beaver dam spanning Swedetown Creek.
We made our turnaround a short distance upstream from the beaver dam and started making our way back to the trailhead.
The following day, the networking event took place in the lobby at the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts at Michigan Technological University. I would like to provide shout outs to Dean Dennis Livesay with the MTU College of Computing and Shannon Vairo with the MTU Partner Engagement Program for their support and collaboration in making this gathering possible. I would also like to thank our co-sponsors, including Orbion Space Technology, Aspirus Health, the Portage Health Foundation, and the Keweenaw Co-op for their support and participation in the event as well of the staff at the Rozsa and MTU Catering Services who helped us carry out the event without a hitch. We had quite a range of employers and non-profit organizations present to interact with the participants. While I won’t detail them here, they too have my heartfelt thanks for taking the time to participate. While the event made significant progress helping our remote worker community build relationships, an unexpected side benefit of the event was the opportunity for our participating organizations to learn about one another. Finally, I would like to extend a big thanks to all the remote workers, MTU faculty partners, and MTU students who came out and made this event a success!
With the networking event completed, my attention turned to a housing discussion on Thursday morning at the Lakeshore Center (more about it at another time) and 3 1/2 hours that afternoon brushing the corridor for the Chassell Historic Interpretive Trail in preparation for the boardwalk construction.
Last Thursday morning’s view of the Quincy Smelter from the Lakeshore Center.
Taking a break from brushing the corridor for the trail on Thursday afternoon. Friday morning, Chassell Planning Commission Chair Brian Waters, Chassell Historical Organization Curator Mat Moore, and I met with Dan Palosaari to review the trail corridor in preparation for the boardwalk construction which DP Construction will start work on in the next couple of weeks.
Do you embrace winter and have the ability to work remotely? Would you value living in a place with ubiquitous natural beauty that has NO congestion and lower crime? Consider locating in the Keweenaw where you will be surrounded by amazing places! Learn more by visiting Remote Workforce Keweenaw at https://remoteworkforcekeweenaw.com and learn about those who have made the decision to locate here by following the Remote Workforce Keweenaw Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/RemoteWorkforceKeweenaw.