The North Country Trail Association in Michigan now bands together rather than various chapters signing up for individual booths. We had seven of the 12 Michigan chapters represented. This was really great because not only were there enough people to cover things so that noone had to be engaged for the whole 8 hours, but we could send them to the section they were most interested in if they had a specific interest. This is pretty much all of our volunteers for the day.
Here is Loren, our chapter president, talking about the trail to people.
Alyssa is a Scout leader who wants to take kids at a variety of fitness levels on an interesting multi-day hike. She was interested in meeting me, but you know Scouts love patches, so my jacket just was over the top.
Our very own Dan Dueweke (Jordan Valley 45 Degree Chapter) gave one of the presentations about the crew he led to clear the Border Route Trail in 2022. A section near Clearwater Lake of about a mile was tangled by a tornado into an impassable mess. Because this is in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (Minnesota), no power tools are allowed. The crew cleared all that in five days with hand tools. (I hiked it in October 2022 with Bill and David S., and boy were we glad that work had been done.
I didn't do a good job of taking general pictures of the event. I'm pretty immune to the charms of events like this because of all the vendor events I do to sell books. However, it's a really fantastic venue with programs and demonstrations all day. Most of the booths are organizations associated with paddling, hiking and bicycling, but there are people selling books about quiet sports or nature guides, environmental groups, places that sell, paddles, kayaks, bikes, etc, health related booths, and more. Pretty much anything one can do outside that doesn't involve motors. It's gained a big reputation in Michigan over the years since it began in 1996.
I did take a picture of the moose skulls at the booth about the moose inventory done on Isle Royale each year. I was told these skulls are actually from Alaskan moose, which are slightly larger than continental moose. Still impressive.
One notable thing is that almost everyone that we talked to had at least heard of the NCT. Granted, this is the "right kind" of audience. However, it wasn't very many years ago that a lot of people hadn't even heard of it. A high percentage of people had even hiked at least a little bit of the trail.
I really enjoyed seeing so many trail friends, including Bill. Also, my buddy Robert was there as an attendee, so I got to say hi to him too.
Excellent day, but I am all talked out. I think I have turned into a vegetable at least until tomorrow.
 | See Quiet Adventures Symposium 2020 |
2 comments:
Sounds like a fun and interesting day
Ann- my tribe!
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