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.
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.