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My name is Ray Valasak. I'm the president of
the chapter of the North Country Trail Association.
And we're here in the Tamarack National PPWildlife Refuge where the trailppis
currently being constructed. Well the trail is a big project.
It's actually a 4,600 mile long hiking trail.
It is primarily just a hiking trail. It starts in New York
at Lake Champlain and it extends to
Lake Sakakawea in western North Dakota.
About half of the trail is currently constructed of the 4,600 miles
In Minnesota the trail
goes up along the Superior Hiking Trail.
Superior Hiking Trail is an affiliate partner organization.
and then it follows across the Border Route Trail.
and the Kekekabic Trail and then there is a section that isn't complete
coming down from Ely to the Chippewa National Forest.
Then it runs from the Chippewa National Forest through the
Paul Bunyan State Forest to Itasca Park.
From Itasca Park it goes through the White Earth State Forest.
and then down to where we are now in the Tamarck National Wildlife
Refuge and the next main area it will go to after this is
Maple Wood State Park. The North Country National
Scenic Trail is actually a National Park Service project.
It's a partnership between the
National Park Service and the North Country Trail Association.
The National Park Service manages the overall trail project.
The North Country Trail Association and the chapters that
form it are the ones who construct and
maintain and promote the trail. The North Country Trail Association
has about 30 chapters and affiliate organizations.
Affiliate organizations similar to the Superior Hiking Trial
Association is a partner organization.ppIn Minnesota
there are 4 individual chapters, one is located in the Twin Cities.
And they've mainly been responsible for the Chippewa National Forest area.
There is another chapter the Itasca/ chapter which is responsible for
the trail east of Itasca State Park. I'm a member of
the Laurentian/Lakes chapter, we're responsible for the trail in Becker and Clearwater
counties west of the park. If you go to
of course websites is the best way to find out information about
the trail. All the chapters have detailed maps
of their sections on the website. northcountry trail.org
you can get to all the various chapters by looking
at that. North Country Trail is similar to
has the same status as the Continental Trail, the
Appalachian Trail. They are all trailsppof the same program.
We like to refer to it as a linear national park.
A park that is 4,600 miles long and 4 feet wide.
Well it gets harder and harder, you know you build the easier parts
first, which are typically the public land areas.
because public land it's easier to get permission.
When you don't have public land available PPyou have to partner withppprivate
land owners and it's a lot harder to find the PPprivate land owners that areppwilling
to have the trail on their property. But actually
in this area we have a couple private land owners and there will be
more of them as we continue to work toward Maple Wood State Park.
Well we have the help of the Minnesota Conservation Corps
helping us. Our volunteers work on the trail and then the
Minnesota Conservation Corps helps us construct the trail. Our specifications
for building a trial is that we clear an opening that is 4 feet wide.
and eight feet high. That's the opening we try
and create. Especially when we're working in area like this that's forested.
and then we refer to the treadway the actual walking
space that we walk on as the treadway and that will be for
from 18 to 24 inches wide. It will just be an earthen treadway
in most cases. When we construct the trail
and actual construct the treadway after we've done
the clearing of the 4 by 8 foot opening. The first
step is to remove a duff. A duff
is the organic material that collects in the forest.
and it can be anywhere from nothing like in this particular area
that were in has very little duff. Where at
in other areas it can be 6-8 inches deep. And generally
when we build a trail you like to get it down to mineral soil.
That gives you a good base for working on. So
the first step is they remove duff.
I'm Max Tiemann. I'm a crew leader on
the Bemidji crew. We're based out of Bemidjippbut we work for organizations
all over the state. And working on the trail
here trying to get the duff layer off soPPthat there is nice mineralppsoil so it won't
gets nice and packed down and it's easy PPto walk on. Get it nice andpplevel
for all the hikers that will be out here. ppWell if you get the main
layer off here. It's easy to use this the mccloud
scrape off the top layer of all this
organic material and get down into the mineral soil.
Every once in a while as it piles up
throw it all off to the side and
keep going. Well just knowing that this trail is going to be here.
like for a long time, pretty much forever.
It will be getting used by so many people and just being part of making it.
Ya know It's good to just get something out there.
Get out there and do something good for all PPthe people that can use it. Andppthen the
next step is they look for any roots or stumps, and stubs
of brush that we've cut off and they remove
all of those so there is no trippers including any rocks that are in
the trail. All the rocks are removed. Hello, I'm a crew member
on the Bemidji crew. Right now we're diggingPPline on the North CountryppTrail.
Every once in a while we run into a root.
When there are roots on the trail they are tripping hazards so they have to be taken out.
So what we do is take a pulaski and there is a hoe end and an axe end
and we use the axe end and just try to chop them out as best we can.
Then after they have removed all of those kind of things the last step
is actually the leveling of the treadway.
So that as you walk down the trail your feet aren't
dancing around. I like to define it as if their jumping
back and forth then the trail hasn't been smoothed out enough.
I can say a little bit more about our volunteers,
about the process of actually building the trail.
It's starts out with a map that has a line on
it of where somebody decided the trail
ought to be. We're given the latittude of
being within 10 miles of that original route.
that was defined. The very first thing we do is look at topographic
maps and with topographic maps choose a route that looks
good on paper. And then in the wintertime when there aren't leaves on the trees
we get out and actually flag a route
GPS it, so we know exactly where it is at. And then
when spring comes we begin to actually refine that route
by getting out and seeing what the ground looks like and that
the process that the volunteers go through. And the way we've been doing it is the
volunteers we have each chapter has volunteers
Laurentian/Lakes chapter has about 70 members. And the volunteers
will do the clearing of the trail. And then we try to get
grants to hire the Minnesota Conservation Corps to do the hard
work of building the treadway of the trail.
Although our volunteers do that at times also. Chapters are responsible
for maintenance. So what we do similar to the highway, the highways adopters
program is we have trail adopters. The trail adopters are responsible
for short sections of the trail. They get out
in the spring and clear up windfalls that have occurred during the winter
and then they try to go through and mow the trail a couple of times
during the summer to keep it in good shape. Another
aspect of building the trail is that sometimes
they are going along a hillside and we call the construction
when you're on a hillside is benching.ppAnd what they do then
is they cut out a grove in the side of the
hill so that the trail is level in that area.
And also when they are going up and down hills they will put in
what we refer to as water bars. So that the water
doesn't run down the trail, the water bar will direct the water off of the trail
so that the trail doesn't erode.
I'm a pulskiing getting this ground
so that it is not slanted so it's more at a 90 degree angle
and then the mcloud gonna come through and make it look prettier.
and we try to have about 2 feet wide.
Pretty smooth not all bumpy and stuff.
Yea it's pretty cool
working on a trail that's going so farPPand being part of like theppcrew that
is putting it together and putting all thePPpieces together to make such applong
lasting thing.
There are also specifications
on grade. We monitor the grade of the trail.
We never go over 10 percent grade. We try to limit
it to 8 percent. Even then those steep of
grades were only committed to do for short distances.
Well this summer we are building;
we're adding about 21 miles to the trail,
which is a great amount to accomplish in one year.
And that is the benefit of having Legacy grants
that we are able to use to hire the Minnesota Conservation Corps.
The designated trail is 4600 miles long approximately half of it
has been constructed. As time goes by we keep adding
miles to the trail. Know those areas where the trail hasn't been constructed
or defined. There is a defined road route
for those areas. So people who are through hiking they will
walk on sections of the trail that are complete.PPAnd then they'll be in certainppareas
they'll be hiking on designated road routes.
to make it through the trail. One of the things that we do
with the trail is interpret the area the history of the area.
And in this area we have the Native American history
that we can interpret and we have the original logging
of the *** forest in this area.
And we can interept those areas quite will because
there are archaeological issues in the area from the
Native Americans and the trail actually follows
some of the original rail grades that were used when the *** forest
was logged. There are some sections where
the trail actually follows those originally logging grades.
There was a lot of what were they, they were like tin cans
from people used to collect maple
syrup and their, yeah huge piles of these tins
all rusted out in the woods and you come across them
they can't really clean them up because
they are in National Forest and after 50 years
they are considered artifacts so you can't take anything out of the woods.
So if there is like a 50 year old trash pile there
it stays there. The trail goes throughPPthe southern part of Itascappfrom the east
to the west and it is one of the first areas
that the trail was constructed in Minnesota was in Itasca
State Park. So it has a long history as a matter of fact.
the trail in that area because it has been there as
long as it has, it's at a stage where it needs
some maintenance, some repair work just because of the traffic
that's occurred over the years. It's over 20 years old
in Itasca State Park. Every place that we put the trail. We are
dealing with a land manager of some type. Whether it be a
private land owner, a county, or state
forest, forestry department. Or in the
state parks. So in every case we have a
memorandum of understanding regarding how the trails
going to be constructed and how the trail is going to be maintained.
And so there is a partnership with all the state parks.
as the trail passes through those
units. And the same is true as we pass through state forest
areas and county forest areas and we
also have agreements with our private land owners. The trail
also has campsites. So people that are hiking
the trail the campsites are on all of the maps.
and generally there is a campsite approximately every 8 miles.
In some areas they're more frequent like around Itasca Park.
We have trails more frequent, the trail goes
past the minipoint scout camp
which is just a little ways north of here. So scouting
units use the trail and camp on the trail.
which is another good use of the trail. PPThat's one of the benefits ofppthis trail
is that people who are might be afraid to get out
in remote wilderness areas can go
and safely hike a trail that is a very remote area.
because it is well signed and well blazed and cleared and they're not going
to get lost. Most people who get out and
actually hike the trail hike sections of it.ppBut there are a few people
who hike it long distance, end to end the full 4,600 miles.
Some of them continuously. Ultimately,
of course it is a long distance hiking trail, like the Applachian Trail that most people
are familiar with. It's an opportunityPPfor people to get out in theppwilderness.
Get exercise.
Wilderness not only exercise your body physically, it exercises
your mind because your in this wonderful
forested area, very peaceful,
very relaxing. Projects like this are PPkinda cool because you can lookppback
and see what you've done. Yeah, you get to walk back on the trail that you made at the end.
of the day and it's like wow we made all this and it keeps going and going and going.
Well it's been great. For me this is a give back.
I was a boy scout myself. I was a scout
leader. I have 3 sons. I have grandsons
all of whom are scouts, Boy Scouts and when I was
a scout and I was a leader I hiked a lot of trails.
Did a lot of backpacking and now that I'm
retired this is my time to give back and build trails
for other people to use. And I just enjoy being in the outdoors.
and I enjoy physical work so it's great for me.