Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Karl Zinsmaster, left, and Charlie Zinsmaster strip ironwood branches of bark on Saturday morning.
by MEGAN HUGHES
PENCE, Wis. - The Penokee Rangers gathered Saturday morning for an important task, preparing trail markers for the summertime.
The markers, which are fashioned out of Ironwood, will mark the trail for summertime hikers, and are planned to last for a long while. Volunteers gathered at the Pence trailhead to work on stripping bark and smoothing down branches. "This is the first time they have met to do this as a group," according to chief of trails, Charlie Zinsmaster. "And it will be the first time we tried to do some summer marking."
The markers will be tipped in paint, and act as an alternative to painting living trees.
The historic Montreal ski trails butt up with several private trails and tend to confuse people. "(private landowners) have gotten pretty used to people wandering in," explained Zinsmaster. "(People have said) 'I love the trails in the summer, but I always get lost.' Well, okay we got to do something. So that's what we are doing."
The trails are groomed by the group during winter and are a portion of the total system they cover. The trailhead in which they met is the farthest west of the Pence loop, and in total there are 11 kilometers, just shy of 7 miles, of trail on the Historic Montreal Ski Trails.
"We plan to mark every 100 meters," said Zinsmaster, "So we need 110 (of the markers)." He expected that by the end of the two hour session, the group would have about a quarter of the markers prepared.
"We plan to keep doing smaller group events through the summer" said Karl Zinsmaster. "They will be posted on our social media and website."
The group runs by donation and through grants, which go toward operating costs such as fuel and oil. For more information about the group, visit penokeerangers.com.
