NCT group scouts new Ironwood Township route

IRONWOOD TOWNSHIP - While grooming snowmobile Trail 160 Friday, part of the leadership team of the Ni-Miikanaake chapter of the North Country Trail Association took the opportunity to scout a potential route for the North Country Trail through parts of northern Gogebic County.

Cal Kangas, Ric Olson and Karl Jensen were helping the Gogebic Range Trail Authority groom one of the routes snowmobilers take between Ironwood and the Wisconsin border, but also visited several key points they hope to incorporate into future segments of the North Country National Scenic Trail in Ironwood Township.

"(We) enjoyed a sunny if cold day and were struck by the beauty of the trees in the Bald Mountain area, part of the Gogebic County Forest," Jensen said in an email about the effort. "Bald Mountain itself offers a nice overlook across the middle of the Gogebic Range."

While the route still hasn't been defined, Jensen said a tentative plan calls for trying to go west from Copper Peak to north of Lost Lake, before traveling southwest through the Powers Road area of Little Girl's Point and then angling back northwest to the state line near the Montreal River Gorge. Jensen said there was also some talk of exploring the possibility of creating an offshoot of the trail to Little Girl's Point.

The current trail route uses Lake Road, Airport Road and Black River Road to get hikers traveling the North Country Trail from the Wisconsin border at Lake Road to Copper Peak.

The entire trail stretches 4,600 miles from North Dakota to the New York-Vermont border, making it the longest trail in the national trail system.

The Ni-Miikanaake chapter maintains 55 miles of the trail between the Wisconsin border and M-64

-Richard Jenkins