Canyon Falls Hike on the NCT
After going through the somber experience of laying Blue to rest at our friend Becky’s farm and waiting out the K-Day crowd (note: this is an annual student organizational fair by MTU at Chassell’s Centennial Park to help students learn how to get involved and connected at the university), Julie and I would head over to the Chassell Trails for a two-mile walk. Starting from behind the Chassell Heritage Center, we would initially follow the ski/fitness trail.
Pretty soon we would end up off trail looking for mushrooms. We would not be disappointed with that decision as many varieties were fruiting throughout the forest.
We picked up the Nature Trail and then hiked downstream from the small bridge over the creek in the ravine.
The two primary streams running through the lower 67 acres of the Chassell Trails cut down to the sandstone bedrock and provide interesting places for exploration.
Last Saturday morning I would get out for a 4-mile rail-trail run at a leisurely 8:53/mile pace. I would run into Marty Jurgensen and stopped to talk with him for awhile about current events in Chassell. That afternoon after getting a lift from our friends Mat and Carol (our truck was waiting for a brake job on Monday), I would spend 4 1/2 hours with Mark, Jay, John, Wolf, Murphy, Stan, and Bryant brushing out the corridor where our planned bridge and boardwalk will be built at Maasto Hiihto. The first order of business was to determine the precise location where the bridge will be constructed over Swedetown Creek so we would take down the correct trees.
We would then measure out a 12-foot width with string on each side for the 96-foot boardwalk and connecting trail that would tie into the existing Trail 17. The width requirement is driven by the size of the club’s groomer.
With everything measured out we got serious about lopping and chainsawing.
The team made really great progress opening the corridor.
Sunday morning would start with Julie and me turning over the cabin for out next guest and then traveling down to the Canyon Falls Roadside Park to hike the North Country Trail westward to the Plumbago Creek Bridge and back. The Sturgeon River had a much more decent flow than what we had seen during our last hike in the area.
We would take a break at the Plumbago Creek Bridge before turning back and re-tracing our steps. You may recall from the summer of 2023 that this is the bridge that we were involved with re-decking.
On the hike back, three guys were cliff jumping into the river. You can see my phone’s video of this daring act on the Remote Workforce Keweenaw YouTube channel at this link. My GoPro didn’t make the journey, but I will plan to share more photos and videos from the hike once I run them through GoPro Quik.
After the hike we headed up to Huron Bay to see our friends Mary and Jeff who had just finished building a new house.
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