Getting Serious about Bridge Building

Last Saturday would start out with a beautiful sunrise over the lake.

I then headed up to Maasto Hiihto along with a small crew of volunteers under Mark Roberts’ supervision to wrap up the work on the cribs that will hold the spans of the Trail 17 bridge over Swedetown Creek.

Part of the way into our work session McGanns would deliver the beams for the bridge. It was very impressive how the delivery driver threaded the available space to place them at a reasonable distance for us.

Included in the delivery would be the rebar that Mark would cut for us to pin the cribbing together.

Saturday evening Julie and I would go to a well attended potluck gathering at our friend Beth’s home to hear our friend Amy give a presentation about a trip that she and her husband Robert had taken to southeastern Europe.

Rain on Sunday would wash out the hiking group’s planned hike down in the Ottawa National forest to Sturgeon Falls and Silver Mountain. Our friends Sue and Beverly would stop in with Beverly bringing fish chowder that she had made from successful crappie fishing with our friend Eero. I had the opportunity to enjoy some before I headed up to the Rock House in Houghton to meet up with my fraternity brother Mark who is up from downstate and camping at Baraga State Park with his dog to go waterfall hunting. We had dinner while watching the Lions game and strategized on how he might go about getting to Gleason Falls which can be found along segment 11 of the Peter Wolfe Chapter of the North Country Trail. During his trip this past week he would bring his total of U.P. waterfalls visited to six hundred!

Monday my foot was feeling the best that it had since the start of its infection. We got an early start over to MTU and I was able to put in a 2,700 yard swim. I attended a Houghton County Recreation Authority meeting that afternoon in Hancock and caught this view toward Houghton over the lift bridge.

Tuesday I would do some important follow up calls with Andy Powers at the Michigan Department of Transportation on his progress with the rail corridor between Chassell and Arnheim and Jeff Kakuk at the Michigan Department of Natural Resources about the possibility of declaring the Quincy Trail non-motorized at Maasto Hiihto. I also reached out to Ben Garbacz at the Daily Mining Gazette about potential coverage on the bridge construction project. I would spend the rest of my morning cranking out the minutes from the September Hancock Trails Club meeting and getting those distributed to the board ahead of that evening’s Hancock Trails Club board meeting. I ran into Houghton for a blood draw to help determine if I had cleared the infection with the antibiotic. I drove home by way of the Paradise Road to enjoy the fall colors

Wednesday morning I would put in a 2,600 yard swim at MTU and then headed over to Maasto Hiihto to spend the rest of the morning working on the Trail 17 bridge over Swedetown Creek. On this morning Wuebben Sand & Gravel would deliver mined rock that would go into the cribbing.

The fall color along the Creekside Trail near the bridge construction site was incredible!

The below freezing temperatures overnight must have impacted on the trees as we worked under a shower of falling leaves.

Our friend Maureen was in town from Chicago and we enjoyed a very nice dinner with her that evening at Sky Sushi in Houghton!

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