The chapter now will be known as the Marquette Area Chapter of the NCTA, which was announced at Tuesday’s annual meeting at the Peter White Public Library.

“It’s not a decision we went into lightly,” said chapter President Lynn Meister-Thomas, the new leader who succeeded longtime President Lorana Jinkerson. “However, the board did decide to change our chapter name.

“We’ve quite a few reasons, mostly because our name is confusing, and we’ve gotten a lot of feedback. People can’t figure out how to join our chapter because we’re the North Country Trail Hikers, and then they think that’s Vermont to Dakota.”

Meister-Thomas pointed out that the NCTA headquarters indicated that “non-descript chapter names” were identified as an obstacles to newcomers to understanding the association.

Larry Bell is pictured. (Photo courtesy of the NCTA)

The NCT Hikers thus became the Marquette Area Chapter.

The chapter is the NCTA’s first chartered chapter. Based in Marquette, the trail spans 120 miles of the central Upper Peninsula. Its 29 trail segments begin at Long Lake Outlet just west of Craig Lake State Park, travel across Marquette County and end at Rock River Road in western Alger County.

This region represents a portion of the North Country National Scenic Trail, which is the longest in the National Trails System. The trail stretches 4,800 miles across eight states, from Vermont to North Dakota.

The local chapter handles just a segment of that long trail, but it’s still quite a chunk, with Meister-Thomas saying it covers all of Marquette County as well as small portions of Alger and Baraga counties.

Marquette also has been named a Trail Town. According to the NCTA, which is based in downstate Lowell, a Trail Town is a community through which the North Country National Scenic Trail passes that “supports hikers with services, promotes the trail to its citizens and embraces the trail as a resource to be protected and celebrated.

“Trail Towns are built on a relationship between a town, the trail and its local volunteers.”

According to the local chapter, only 29 municipalities along the NCNST — 14 being in Michigan — have that designation. It also wants to raise awareness of Marquette’s Trail Town status and engage local businesses in offering support services such as helping hikers resupply and providing package drop locations.

The Marquette Area Chapter has been involved in several recent projects and has more planned, with three crew leaders in charge of the eastern, central and western segments of its portion of the trail.

One of those leaders, Brad Slagle, talked about some of the work at the annual meeting.

One of the new projects is having a route that runs into the Rock River Canyon Wilderness to the waterfalls and out of the canyon, “which was really not that easy to do,” he said, and then connecting near Silver Creek. More work, such as flagging, needs to be performed.

Another big recent accomplishment was the addition of new bridges at Craig Lake State Park, which Slagle said was a cooperative project that involved groups such as the chapter, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and the Michigan Army National Guard.

“They are amazing,” Slagle said of the bridges. “Those things will be there for 30 years or 50 years.”

Volunteers are needed for a variety of areas with the Marquette Area Chapter, including trail maintenance, membership, leading hikes and social outreach among others.

Attendees at Tuesday’s annual meeting spoke about their reasons for getting involved in the North Country National Scenic Trail.

One of those attendees was Marge Forslin, who said, “We want people to take care of the environment. We have to get them out there, get them out there safely and enjoyably, and I think that’s what the trail does.”

For more information about the local chapter, email nct@northcountrytrail.org.

“The more people we can get involved in this group, the better for everybody,” Jinkerson said.

NCTA receives gift

The North Country Trail Association is the recent recipient of a $500,000 gift made possible by the Fidelity Charitable Donor Advised Fund as recommended by the Larry and Shannon Bell Charitable Fund.

The Bells’ donation will help the association’s efforts to complete the route and protect NCNST resources.

The NCTA said that motivated by a life-changing experience, Larry Bell challenged himself to hike the entire Michigan section of the NCNST –1,150 miles. He experienced firsthand how spending time outdoors changes lives, and he wanted to share that opportunity with others.

His experience on the trail and conversations with NCTA staff and volunteers also helped him realize just how much work goes into building, maintaining and protecting a National Scenic Trail for everyone to enjoy, NCTA said in a news release.

“The North Country Trail has been a welcome tool for my physical and mental health in my post-cancer life,” Larry Bell said in a news release. “I am happy to help facilitate this contribution to the (North Country) Trail Association so that others may find the joy, beauty and well-being that I know from hiking this path, and so that the trail may be built out to its full potential.”

The Bells’ gift allows the association to build needed infrastructure and capacity to meet the ongoing demands of America’s longest National Scenic Trail, said Andrea Ketchmark, NCTA executive director, in a news release.

“Larry has shown his trust in the association as the stewards of the trail.” Ketchmark said. “His vote of confidence is a boost of thanks to the thousands of volunteers who make it possible for everyone to have access to quality outdoor recreation experiences near them.”

Christie Mastric can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 250. Her email address is cbleck@miningjournal.net.