Twin Cities Hiking Meetup

Please join the North Country Trail Association, Border Route Trail Association, Northwoods Volunteer Connection, and Superior National Forest for a trail crew leader training session at Gunflint Lodge on the Gunflint Trail northwest of Grand Marais. Because of remote nature and frequent natural disturbances, the Kekekabic Trail (“Kek”) & Border Route Trail (BRT) need a lot of annual maintenance and spring trail clearing trips are the normal vehicle for making that happen. Fortunately, it’s not hard to recruit volunteers to participate in these trips as people love visiting the BWCAW and helping out when someone else organizes the logistics. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to find enough crew leaders to pull together the trips required. Hopefully, that is where you come in! We are offering this training to enable more people to lead trail clearing trips on the Kek & BRT as well as for other sections of the NCT in Minnesota. Training session details: When: September 21-23; Friday noon through late Sunday noon with an optional Sunday afternoon field session hiking / canoeing / trail work Where: Gunflint Lodge – 50 miles northwest of Grand Marais, MN (all meals and lodging are provided) What: We’ll go over everything you would need to know in order to lead a trail clearing trip or trail crew on the NCT / Kek / BRT. Topics include: • Safety & dealing with potential emergency situations • Successful crew leadership • Breakout sessions for 1) front-country/day trips and 2) remote/ multi-day trips. • Topics will include: Trip logistics – e.g. volunteer recruitment & communication, planning your trip route, buying food, gear packing, etc. o The canoeing in, setting up, and running a group camp o The trail clearing work – trail standards, tools, volunteer management, etc. • The training will include both classroom sessions and sessions in the field. We will send out a list of what you need to bring. You MUST pre-register (required) by 9/14 at https://northcountrytrail.org/trail/upcoming-events/special-events/ (scroll to the bottom). If you have questions about the training session, contact Matthew Davis at (701)[masked] / [masked].