Building the North Country Trail

Area hiking enthusiasts are putting in a lot of sweat to extend the country’s longest scenic outdoor trail.

It’s the North Country Trail.

It extends from the New York-Vermont state line through the Upper Midwest, including the U.P.

Area members of the North Country Trail Association are working off of County Road 510 in Negaunee Township.

They’re spending today, tomorrow, Sunday and Monday building a section of the trail that anyone can hike.

The group calls it a Volunteer Adventure.

And everyone working on it is learning the proper way to build and maintain a trail that meets National Park Service standards.

Marge Forslin of the local chapter, the North Country Trail Hikers, says the best way to make sure people care for the trail system is to get people out onto it.

When they break camp next Tuesday, they’ll have a 2-mile-long section of trail stretching through Plum Creek Timber property to the road.