This was posted on the NCT Friends Yahoo Group Site.
It's for my hike on Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Hi Everyone
My Winter Hike has started.
It began this morning around 8:30 am
at Baseline Rd and 39 st at
the Kellogg Biological Station Farm.
Ron Sootman of the Chief Noonday
Chapter of the NCT spotted me there.
Thank you Ron for helping me
I hiked South through the KBS farm.
I hiked over 3 fence stiles,
which I thought were pretty easy.
But after awhile, hiking through the
snow began to wear me down. This area
only has a few inches of snow, but hiking
through it is more difficult than I thought.
At C Avenue, I began to road walk. I hate
to road walk, when the great people of
the Chief Noonday Chapter has built a
very good trail, but I needed to take it
easy for awhile. So I road walked down
C Avenue and then down 42nd street.
I eventually rejoined the NCT at the
KBS Forestry Farm Picnic area. There is
a really nice footbridge at this location
which crosses Augusta Creek, which is more
like a river.
Then I hiked by the main buildings of the
Forestry Station. Nearby, the NCT crosses a Covered
Bridge, again over Augusta Creek. Then the
NCT passes through different varieties of
Trees that are grown in groves. This section
of the NCT is wide and is also used as a Ski
Trail. Then the NCT leaves the Ski trail and
eventually takes a left on a country road.
I had a hard time figuring out where the NCT
leaves the road. Then I saw a sign which read
"Hunters Present" on a gate, and saw some blue blazes
behind the gate. The NCT goes through some
woods next to a barren farm field. I choose
to hike at the edge of the woods.
Eventually I entered the woods and followed
the NCT to another farm field, where it
actually runs on the edge of the field.
This is a straight hike for over a mile.
Then I entered Augusta. Ron Sootman called
while I was hiking down Augusta Drive.
He directed me to Player's Grill, which
is right on the way to the Fort Custer
Area.
Ron soon joined me at the bar, and devised
a hiking plan. He would park his vehicle
near the VA Hospital and Hike back towards
me. Meanwhile, I would hike towards the
VA Hospital through the Fort Custer
National Cemetary Property.
As I hiked, I met up with Larry Pio, who
was doing some trail maintenance. He knew
I was hiking in the area, because I notified
the Chief Noonday Officers, so he went out
and had cleared a puncheon of snow for me.
He wanted to hike with me, so we hiked east.
We got to the puncheon, which Larry explained
was being over flowwed by beaver dams in the
area. The water was less than six inches from the
top of the puncheon. It was a tricky walk to
get over it.
We kept hiking and met up with Ron Sootman
on a series of berms that cross a swampy area.
Ron and Larry had a little meeting and talked
about the trail. I took photos.
Soon Ron and I were on our way back to the
vehicle. But it wasn't easy because we were crossing
a very swampy area. At one point my leg sunk in
past my knee. That only happened once.
Then we finished the swampy area and were back on
solid ground. We hiked through the National
Cemetary Property in mostly wooded areas. The
NCT doesn't actually go through any parts
of the property that have graves. But it does
go by some maintenance buildings.
After hiking through some more woods, we made
it back to the car.
Overall, it was a great day for a hike. I hiked
12.6 miles total.
My winter hike is continuing for a few more days
so stay tuned. And as usual, I take a lot of photos.
I took over 250 today.
Regard from me, Todd McMahon, aka Tman