Where to begin?

From the horses mouth:

WHAT IS THE NORTH COUNTRY NATIONAL SCENIC TRAIL?
In March 1980 Federal legislation authorized the establishment of the North Country National Scenic Trail (NST) as a component of the National Trails System. It is one of only eight trails authorized by Congress to be National Scenic Trails. National Scenic Trails are long distance, non-motorized trails.

In many ways, the trail is similar in concept to the more widely known Appalachian Trail--both are NST's. In other ways, it is uniquely different as it crosses a more diverse geographic area. The North Country NST will extend from the vicinity of Crown Point, New York, to Lake Sakakawea State Park, on the Missouri River, in North Dakota, where it joins the route of the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail.As work on the trail has progressed, it appears that the final length will approach 4,200 miles, instead of the originally estimated 3,200 miles.

HOW LONG IS THE NORTH COUNTRY TRAIL?
The best current estimate is that the North Country National Scenic Trail will be between 4,200 and 4,500 miles long when completed.

WHAT USES ARE ALLOWED ON THE
TRAIL?
The North Country Trail is built primarily for pleasure walking and hiking. However, in places other uses such as cross-country skiing, nowshoeing, horseback riding, and bicycling are appropriate and are allowed. On all public lands, local managers determine the uses that will be allowed in accordance with their management objectives and the capability of the land to accommodate the various uses without damaging the natural resources.

Over the past three decades the North Country Trail has slowly grown from an idea into a patchwork of trail segments stretching form New York to North Dakota. To date, many sections of the NCT utilize existing local trails that were/are already in place. In some places the NCT overlaps public rail trails. In other areas, such as lower Michigan, the NCT follows multiuse public trails.

While the NCT grows, it is also under attack. Not by loggers or developers, but by the people who would claim to protect it. The North Country Trail Association, a private group headquartered in Lowell, Michigan, acts as an advocacy group for the trail. But the NCTA has a myopic agenda. Their focus is not only to complete the trail and help to maintain it through volunteer support. The NCTA explicitly seeks to ban all other users from the trail. In areas where the NCT has overlapped local mountain biking and hiking trails, the NCTA is working to exclude everyone except hikers.

Imagine biking on a public trail your whole life, and even putting in volunteer trail work to keep it maintained, only to find-out one day that bikes have been banned from your local trail! That is exactly what the NCTA is trying to do.

This blog is intended as a place to present a view and opinion of the NCT that includes access for human powered locomotion where the terrain and trail can sustain it. The backcountry does not belong to one small clique. Like those trees in the forest, it belongs to all of us.