February 17, 1999
Hikers maintain & improve trails
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Members of the Grand Traverse Hiking Club have a secret. Well, they don't want it to be a secret, but it seems they are the ones in the know about a little known natural beauty snaking through the Grand Traverse region: a slice of the North Country Trail.
The North Country Trail is a 4,000-mile long hiking trail spanning states from New York to North Dakota. Michigan includes the longest stretch with more than 800 miles running from the Ohio border through the Upper Peninsula.
"The bulk of the trail in our area runs along the Manistee River," said Arlen Matson, chair of the Trail Building Committee for the Grand Traverse Hiking Club. "That makes it just beautiful."
The Grand Traverse Hiking Club formed five years ago, one of a network of clubs along the trail created to maintain and upgrade it. The clubs work with the National Parks Service to maintain a corridor four feet wide and eight feet high.
The local section of the North Country Trail spans approximately 60 miles, running from the Manistee Forest to just north of Walton. The Grand Traverse Hiking Club has broken this up into 14 sections and club members or teams sign up to maintain a section for a year. This includes a spring and fall clean up of brush clearing, trash pick up and branch trimming. Members often sign up for a new section each year to learn more about the trail.
"By working on this trail, I am leaving a legacy for other people to follow in my footsteps," Matson, a retired elementary school science teacher. "Working on it also keeps me in physical shape. Walking with a chainsaw for two miles just to trim one branch, then carrying the saw back, that's a workout."
Besides trail maintenance, the Grand Traverse Hiking Club also has plans to upgrade portions of 'their' trail. They want to add trail, mileage, water and camping site markers as well as some benches near the trailheads. Through an alliance with the Department of Natural Resources, the club also maintains four of the five state trails in Grand Traverse County, including the Sand Lakes Quiet Area and the Brown Bridge Quiet Area.
"We have the manpower, tools and skills to help other trail systems," Matson said. "We are trying to expand our reach, maybe to Mancelona or the Upper Peninsula."
The club also holds monthly meetings in the winter to present members' hiking adventures and occasionally sponsors skiing or winter hiking outings. Slide shows sandwiched between hiking talk keep members' ready for the next time they can lace up their boots and set off into the wilderness.
"Hiking is a confidence builder because you have to be prepared mentally and physically," said Sue Makrianis, a city resident who gave a slide show at the February meeting. "It is just as much a mental challenge as a physical one."
Makrianis has been hiking for 25 years and a member of the Grand Traverse Hiking Club for four years. She attends meetings to hear other people's presentations and get ideas for her own trips. From the club she learned about the North Country Trail and has gone on day trips along the trail.
"It is absolutely beautiful," said Makrianis, who one day aspires to through-hike the Appalachian Trail.