KBS through Fort Custer Cemetery

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