My lead picture tonight celebrates Spirit of the Woods' own Loren Bach, who with her husband, Dave Martus, received the Blue Blaze Benefactor award for outstanding financial contributions to the NCTA. Those of us in the Chapter know that Loren has served in many ways and roles in addition to monetary support. Horray for Loren and Dave!
Most of the pictures I took today are nothing special. I attended a leadership seminar in the morning, but then I did get to have a wonderful visit with the retired and longest-serving Park Service Superintendant of the NCT, Tom Gilbert. He's pretty special, and I was pleased to have time to visit with him.
Just to balance things out, this is the current Park Service Superintendant of the NCT, Chris Loudenslager. Local trail people may recognize him because he used to work for the Forest Service, and he was the liaison from the Manistee National Forest to our Chapter.
The highest award given by the NCTA is the Lifetime Achievement Award, and one was presented to long-time friends, Florence and Carter Hedeen of Minnesota. I know that most of you don't know these people, but this is what keeping the North Country Trail "alive" is all about. There are volunteer trail builders, maintainers, promoters, hikers, supporters, advocates, etc. Recognizing some of the outstanding people each year for their service is important, and we all cheer (literally) for the people we have come to know and care about because they all care for this trail that we love.
In addition to long-time trail friends, I also reconnected with many new trail friends- people who have helped me on my way on this hike.
Tomorrow will be even more busy. It's all wonderful, but I have to get some sleep. My eyes won't even focus any more today.
 | See NCTA Celebration - Almost |
3 comments:
Nice to have time to reconnect with all these people.
Lulu: "Looks like fun, seeing all those people!"
Charlee: "You have a different definition of 'fun' than I do, Lulu ..."
Sounds like you're having a great time with older and newer friends and honoring many who do so much for the NCT--enjoy your "rest" days!
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