News : NCCC Maple 4 Team travels into the woods to preserve popular Michigan trails

Maple 4 poses on the 422ft boardwalk they helped build on the High County Pathway.

Maple 4 member JJ Moses re-establishes trail. The team completed up to 60 miles of trail blazing.

By Jill Ament

Maple 4 started week one with the Northern Michigan Mountain Bike Association (NMMBA) waking up between 5 and 5:30 in the morning and heading out the door of their bunkhouse in the Pigeon River Country State Forest by 6 a.m. The team then began their hour-long commute under the deep, pine canopies outside of Vanderbilt, Mich.

“The commute wasn’t that bad really,” said Maple 4 member JJ Moses of Lyons, Mich. “It gave me time to mentally prepare for the day. Usually I’m not a morning person. This gave me an opportunity to work on that."

With the back of the van filled with a variety of handsaws, loppers and other tools, corps members arrived at their work site across the forest. There, a 422 foot boardwalk was being built on a swampier portion of the High Country Pathway (HCP). Some of the team spent their time on the boardwalk, while others headed into the woods foot blazing, rebuilding and clearing miles of trails.

The HCP encompasses 80 miles of the state forest and is largely used by mountain bikers and hikers from across the state, country and the world. The International Mountain Biking Association (IMBA) has labeled it an epic ride, but over 53 miles of the trail was in disrepair. NMMBA has taken a large responsibility to fix that. They recruited Maple 4 to help.

Alongside a handful of community volunteers, the boardwalk was finished in just three days. During that first week, over 20 miles of the pathway was covered.

“I like the trail work. It requires long days outside, doing manual labor,” said Moses. “It can be daunting knowing you have to clear this huge mileage of trail. But I know our team provided the needed access to this recreation to the community and others. I’m happy about that.”