NCT conference, last 2 days.

Oh ya, this post will be Saturday and Sunday at the conference and at hikes we did.

Orec is a company who makes trail building
and mowing tools and on Saturday they
came with some machines for us to test.

This tracked material mover was sweet!
Arly tested it as well and says Orec builds HD, professional stuff.

Here is a flail mower they build with tracks.
They also have wheeled and rotary cutting mowers.

Wow, does this beast cut down weeds-n-trees!
Arly found that steering it was a breeze.

Ya, lots of smart talk happening here.

But I did make many new friends too!

After the equipment demo, we went to hike at the
Sugarbush trail head. Hunting was excellent!
This one has no idea who he's dealing with!

Many great views from the top.

Lotsa steps up one side and then down the other.

Yet another beautiful gully.

Hey! I found more friendly hikers.

Finally, we found a cooling spot. It was hot!

That evening I said goodbye to my new friends from the twin cities

We got to chat with Matt from NCTA HQ, but more importantly...

Emmy rubbed me!  I do like little girls who'll pet me some.
Will I see you again?

Sunday we got out for one last hike before we headed for home.

We parked off of 505, to head to Hogback Mountain.
I found a nice cooling stop along the way.

It was warm even in the morning, and muggy!

We climb and climb...

And climb some more.

We were rewarded with great views and a bit of a breeze on the peak.

After heading down, we hiked over to Lily Pond again,
and this time we trekked around the loop that
followed along its southern bank.

I was glad to be able to cool off again!

Hiking throughout this area is rough and rocky. And pretty!

It reminds us of Duluth, or Ely. Lotsa rocks!

Glacer scratches.

At our lunch break, I rolled around in the brush just because I can.

Bye-bye, Lily Pond.

Later, we hiked by Wetmore Pond, and spied the old
growth forest near by. It reminded us of the Porkies.

We hope to visit here again, one day.

NCT conference in Marquette!

On Wednesday when Sandy got off, we headed east to Marquette MI to attend the annual national conference of the North County Trail.   You know how I love trails, especially the NCT!

This post shows the first 2 days.

We camped at the Forestville Trailhead.

This is part of the Noquemanon Trail Network.

They recently put in a camp ground. It was lovely!

We even got there early enough to cook supper over the fire.

 

No mosquitoes either!

Then on Thursday morning, we met up with lots of friendly
hikers at NMU.

We got special attention from Ray, our personal chauffeur.
We figured out, that Sandy works at the same place as his son Brian!

70 hikers showed up to stroll along the Little Garlic River.

It was quite a procession.

I don't know you, but I love any NCT hiker who'll rub me some.

We took a little break here.

There were 2 other 4-leggeds here besides me.

Up the spur trail we go.

We were headed to a nice water fall.
Trail mutts don't mind leading the way.

Once back to the trail head, we waited for our shuttle back.
We did about 7 miles today.

Oh good! A car load of little girls pulled up, just to see me.
You know I don't get to see many kids!

I got acquainted with many more hikers as we waited here.

In fact, I tried to get to know everyone.

Our chauffeur back was Mark, who wasn't a dog lover,
but I tried to change his mind.  Oh ya he did rub me good.

Back in camp, we found neighbors! They were friendly cyclists.

Roasted lamb! Ain't nuthin' like mutton.

What a glorious evening.

I even got groomed.

Friday morning, they had bacon and pancakes.

Then we all headed out from camp to hike the NCT,
located spitting distance from our site.

We hiked the NCT to a spur trail, which we took to see Lily Pond.

It lived up to its name!

In the afternoon, we headed back to NMU so I could meet
more hikers.

This fella led work groups to clear the Kek trail near Ely.
He was friendly, too! I hope we can hike the Kek this fall
when we go up there.