The small band of hiker only militants who run the NCTA and some of its chapters pursue a singular goal, to exclude as many human beings as possible from the North Country Trail.
They'll sweet talk politicians and landowners to appropriate existing public multi-use trails to extend or complete the NCT (then work like hell to get all but themselves kicked off that trail).
They'll organize trail work days, but exclude anybody who rides a bike or doesn't own a pair of Vasque Sundowners.
Or, they'll reroute multi-use trail segments with the intent of opening a the reroute as "hiker only."
A Hiker only reroute is occurring right now in Michigan, where the elitists at the NCTA are rerouting an existing segment of the NCT (which was on public land) onto land owned by Consumers Energy. But the new reroute will, of course, be open only to hikers. The current segment is part of a 20 mile north-south stretch of the NCT in the Manistee National Forest which is open to bikes. Once the reroute opens, that stretch will shrink to less than 16 miles.
How can we call the NCT a public trail if all but a tiny minority of the public is banned from the trail?
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I attended the NCTA meeting north of Manistee where they discussed this trail. I wasn't able to get much information but what information I did get was passed to the MMBA Director of Advocacy, MMBA president and MMBA ExecDirector.
The NCTA had been negotiating their land use agreement or memorandum with a department of Consumer's Energy.
The ExecDir ultimately had a meeting a higher up of Consumer's who then committed that if the trail goes along the Hodenpyl Pond as planned, it will remain multi-use-
that was the last word I heard on this as of mid-January.
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