Locals, dignitaries celebrate O Kun de Kun Falls project

By RICHARD JENKINS

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Bruce Crossing - A crowd gathered at the trailhead parking lot for O Kun de Kun Falls near Bruce Crossing Saturday for a ribbon cutting to mark the completion of a project to improve the hiking route to the waterfall.

"I think it's a testament of just what we can get done when we work together. Now we have a situation where the resource has been taken care of - this trail is now accessible to so many that in the past it wouldn't have been - and we've just improved the recreational experience for pretty much everybody who enjoys the northern forests up here," said Linda Jackson, the supervisor of the Ottawa National Forest.

The project included the construction of several bridges and boardwalks, as well as putting crushed aggregate on the roughly 1.3 mile trail between the trailhead and waterfall to make it less muddy and more accessible.

"It's wonderful. Did you notice what that muddy spot looked like? That's what this whole trail looked like, and then it's Ontonagon clay which is very slippery. So it was very difficult to come down here," said Connie Julien, the president of the Peter Wolfe chapter of the North Country Trail Association. "This is really a huge improvement."

Much of the trail that was improved is in the section of the North Country National Scenic Trail the Peter Wolfe chapter helps maintain.

Julien told the Daily Globe the contractor is expected to come back next year to fill in any spots that settle over time.

Jackson agreed that the project improved the recreational experience.

"It definitely has improved the access here. ... Especially when it gets wet, it was a pretty muddy, swampy area. By making those little bridges across some of those waterways with the aggregate, we've improved the enjoyment (of the trail and waterfall itself)," she told the Globe. "But also, it's protecting the resource so much. It's making such a difference with that."

Among those attending the ribbon cutting and subsequent hike to the waterfall was U.S. Rep. Jack Bergman, R-Watersmeet.

He not only praised the volunteers who maintain the trail but also said the project was easy to support.

"This is money well spent - to do this. ... When you're outdoors, you tend to be more physically healthy, but you also tend to be more mentally healthy because you're communing with nature," Bergman told the Globe.

Bergman said he enjoys many types of outdoor recreation, joking that he could live his entire life outside.

The work on the trail was funded through a mix of state and federal sources and was completed over the course of the summer.