Getting Serious about #hike100NCT
With half of the summer nearly behind us, it was time to start getting serious about building mileage toward our goal to hike 100 miles on the North Country Trail in 2023. Since the first year of the Hike 100 program in 2016, I have hiked at least 100 miles on the NCT each year to qualify for the annual patch. Julie has hiked at least 100 miles each year starting in 2017. After spending last Saturday cutting grass and splitting wood in preparation for our next Airbnb guests, our Sunday afternoon would be spent taking a 5-mile out-and-back hike on the NCT to the east of the Canyon Falls Roadside Park south of L’Anse. For those who have been following this blog for awhile, you will recognize this segment as one of our go to locations for building NCT miles. In this instance, our hiking group leader Mark happened to set this segment for the weekly hike.
The course of this hike follows closely to the Sturgeon River. There are a couple of climbs along the way. Both provide decent overviews of the river. This segment also includes a place we call Flat Rock where the river and surrounding shore are made of solid slate. On a warmer less rainy day, we would typically find ourselves in the river here floating with the current.
You can check out my GoPro video from this hike on the Remote Workforce Keweenaw YouTube channel at:
Monday started with a 1,750 yard swim at the MTU’s SDC and then cranking out minutes from the last Hancock Trails Club board meeting. Colin Jackson gave me a call from TV 6 at the suggestion of Visit Keweenaw to talk about the Historic Trail. We met up at the trail at 3:00 p.m. along with Don Lafreniere and James Juip to do interviews for a story about the trail that would appear on the 7:00 p.m. and late night news.
You can see Colin’s story at this link.
We had our Chassell Historical Organization annual meeting at the Chassell Heritage Center that evening at 7:00 p.m. It was a nice opportunity to reflect on our accomplishments over the last year both with our grant-funded projects and increased attendance!
Tuesday we turned over the cabin for our next Airbnb guests and I kept the minutes at that evening’s Hancock Trails Club (formerly the Keweenaw Nordic Ski Club) board meeting. Among many topics at the board meeting, we had some very good discussion about a future bridge project our family has contributed toward that I will get back to in future blog posts.
Wednesday morning I drove up to Mark’s to trailer a load of lumber out west of Alberta that would be used for tread on the Plumbago Creek Bridge repair on the North Country Trail. A group of us spent 6 1/2 hours dismantling and reconstructing a significant portion of the bridge ahead of incoming rain.
Thursday I weedwhacked the Chassell Historic Trail and received confirmation from Lowell with Feighner Dock that they will install the kayak launch on the Sturgeon River on Monday. I then coordinated with our key partners on the launch so they could be present at this big moment on the project.
Julie provided volunteer coverage at the Chassell Heritage Center on Thursday along with our friend Sue. We then attended Dana Richter’s very informative mushroom presentation that evening at 7:00. Be sure to check out our schedule for the rest of the Thursday evening programming at the Chassell Heritage Center at this link!
Early on Friday morning I met up at the Chassell Historic Trail with Thomas Fournier with ABC 10 to give an interview about the trail. It was a beautiful morning to be out on the trail and Thomas indicated that he would have story out on Monday.
Shortly after the interview we headed down to the Baraga Plains with our friends Mark and Jennifer to do a six-mile out-and-back hike on the western edge of the Baraga Plains on the Peter Wolfe Chapter’s segments 42 and 43. Getting ready to start the hike, we ran across a lot of ripe blueberries which made a great snack!
I am space limited on this post, so I will discuss this hike in detail in my next post!
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 this link. Visit Remote Workforce Keweenaw at https://remoteworkforcekeweenaw.com. Learn about those making the decision to locate here by following the Remote Workforce Keweenaw Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/RemoteWorkforceKeweenaw.