By Bruce Matthews, NCTA Executive Director

9:00am

Andrea Ketchmark, NCTA’s Director of Trail Development and I wrapped up our 2012 participation in Hike the Hill this week. See the previous Blogs and Facebook postings for the specifics. Here are some of our takeaways from this year–what we learned, what we might do about it. In no particular order:

• We hope the American Hiking Society and the Partnership for the National Trails System work out the bugs next year that impeded cooperation this year. Too much to gain by working together not to be doing it!
• We were discouraged by the commonly expressed sentiment, by both Congress and administration representatives, to “not expect much” out of the rest of the 112th Congress. Frankly we haven’t seen much of anything yet so far except partisan bickering and a lack of ability to even pass a budget. The forecast calls for more gridlock, and more election-year jockeying and one-upsmanship. Feels like the ship of state is dead in the water. For sure the prevailing attitude in DC is depressing.
• The above bullet point notwithstanding, there are still islands of hope and faith among our elected representatives, and the cool thing is that our trails, their story and that of the folks who volunteer to bring national trails to America are a real antidote to this DC malaise we’ve observed. Staffers light up when we tell them our stories. They remind them of what’s still very good and right and valuable about America, and in our case about our rugged red plaid nation in America’s northern heartland. I don’t think I could stress enough how important this message was in our meetings, and how important it is to be getting out there. We bring hope.
• We may, with a lot of hard work and some political legerdemain,possibly get an Arrowhead Re-Route Bill introduced in this congress. But almost no one believed it would go anywhere. We will keep trying .
• NCTA needs to dramatically ramp up its advocacy efforts at the state level. We need to grow our advocacy capacity so we sustain our current momentum year-round. One lesson from the Cravaack debacle (refusing to introduce the Arrowhead Re-Route) is that the more we can frontload the discussion with constituents from the same district as the Member of Congress, the more doors open, and stay open.
• There are administration initiatives underway (America’s Great Outdoors, Federal Interagency Commission on Outdoor Recreation) that may yet generate benefits of consequence for the National Trails System.
• The Congressional re-districting going on in this election year will have important implications for future NCTA advocacy. Not only will some of the Representatives’ faces be changing, but representation on the trail as well. One example is MI-01, which adds about 200 more miles of the NCNST to its already 600 miles!
• Our Federal Agency partners are more focused on working with partners than ever before. As budgets shrink, they understand the value our organizations bring to the table. The USDA Forest Service, National Park Service, and US Fish and Wildlife Service are listening to our concerns and needs and trying to find creative ways to get the job done.
• We will continue to communicate with our Representatives about the importance of keeping Transportation Enhancements and the Recreational Trails Program in the Transportation re-authorization. RTP and TE funds have been instrumental in completing sections of the NCT.

By Bruce Matthews, NCTA Executive Director

10:00am

Wednesday featured another busy day of Hill visits and federal agency meetings for NCTA Director of Trail Development Andrea Ketchmark and myself. A beautiful day in DC–sunny, cloudless and low 50′s–as a contrast to our rugged red plaid north country winters…well, maybe less so this year!

Anyway, visiting Members of Congress is an interesting thing. Every year I get to visit 20 to 30 offices of Senators and Representatives from the 7 states and 43 Congressional Districts through which the North Country Trail passes. This is my 5th Hike the Hill. In my previous job I lived in DC (7 years) and got to know the drill pretty well.

Some folks think we go to DC to meet with the Members themselves, which in my experience is a pretty rare thing. And, as I’ve learned, probably a good thing. You meet with “staffers,” individuals from Member staffs with job titles like legislative correspondent or assistant, and occasionally the legislative director. They’re the ones doing the legwork formulating the Members’ positions on legislation, issues and so on. You get the right one who handles
environment/conservation/recreation/natural resources policy issues, you build a relationship (hoping they stay in their job long enough to make it matter) and you work at it like any other relationship, with good communication, honest sharing of views, and eventually requests for action from their boss in supporting legislation or appropriations.

You do these visits long enough and you start learning some things. You learn which Members value constituent input enough to adopt a real customer service attitude. You learn who truly respects the democratic process and the citizen involvement/engagement necessary, and who just gives it lip service. You learn who respects people. You learn who you can count on, if not for support all the time at least for an honest response. You learn who is interested in a relationship, and who really values the work we do as an organization of volunteers committed to citizen stewardship and a legacy activity that’s more likely to benefit our grandkids than ourselves. You learn who cares.

We’ll leave DC with a greater understanding of today’s political landscape and what its going to take to get the job done for the NCTA and NCNST. Tomorrow I’ll blog about our takeaways, what we learned and what we’re likely to see regarding NCTA’s agenda.

By Bruce Matthews, NCTA Executive Director

7:00am

Highlights of Tuesday’s Hike the Hill include meetings with the offices of 8 Congressmen representing districts through which the NCNST passes, a meeting with Vermont Senators Leahy and Sanders staff about the eastern terminus extension, and a meeting at Interior with Will Shafroth, who heads up the President’s America’s Great Outdoors program among other things.

The main strategy with our House visits yesterday was to try to keep the Arrowhead Re-route alive in this Congress. We hoped we might persuade a Member to introduce the legislation even though Congressman Cravaack declined. Understandably no one want to do so, which in this political environment built on party politics and ever-shifting allegiances you’d never want to do to another Congressman what you don’t want to have done to you. Maybe that’s Washington’s version of the Golden Rule, and the bottom line is, while I got lukewarm support for a bipartisan introduction from a couple of Michigan Congressmen on the Natural Resources committee, we’re going to have to at least get Rep. Cravaack to agree to not oppose the introduction of the Re-route bill. So, we’ll work on that,

The President’s budget proposal is being dissected, and the topline is that Trails made out OK; at least it appears funding levels have been maintained and there are some new possibilities within the NPS budget that are trail targeted. No one expects next year’s budget to look like the President’s proposal, widely regarded as more of a political statement in this election year. In fact, prevailing opinion seems to think there won’t be a budget until after the November elections, and we will see government-by-continuing resolution, well, continuing.

Today we’ve got more Hill visits, plus Andrea will be representing NCTA in a meeting with National Park Service officials. Stay tuned!

From Dave Adams:  The Parker Truss Bridge will be closed from March 1 through mid-November for rehabilitation and painting.  Northbound NCT hikers normally use this bridge to access the Allegheny River Trail on the East side of the river and then hike north to Foxburg,  etc.  Trail detour is to hike north along W berm (not along river side) of  Rt 268 for 2 miles and cross Foxburg Bridge to access the Allengeny River Trail.  Southbound hikers cross the Foxburg Bridge and hike 2 miles South along East berm of Rt 268 to Parker.

By Bruce Matthews, NCTA Executive Director

6:00am

Monday turned our to be Budget Day in DC–the day when the President delivers his next year’s budget proposal to the Hill. Not a great time to be scheduling meetings with Congressional offices–all the focus and energy is on the budget and what it means to states/districts and political positions and whose ox got gored, etc. But I have to say we were a breath of red plaid-clad fresh air to a number of folks we met with, especially in Senators Stabenow, Klobuchar and Levin’s offices.

We’ve built relationships with these folks over time, they love the story of the North Country Trail and the people that are building it. I walked into Senator Levin’s office yesterday afternoon and the first thing his staffer said when she looked at me was “I’ve got to get outside more!”

We made progress Monday with getting the Senate introduction for the Minnesota Arrowhead Re-Route bill. In meeting with Rep Pete Welch’s folks (VT) they are asking all the right questions about the eastern extension of the NCNST into Vermont–there was palpable excitement in talking about it.

Today most of my meetings will be House-side. Stay tuned–I’m hoping to have a commitment by day’s end for a House introduction of the MN Arrowhead Re-Route. If Congressman Cravaack won’t do it I bet we can find someone who will!

Photo from the 2011 Hike the Hill (from the AHS website - http://www.americanhiking.org/hth/)

By Bruce Matthews, NCTA Executive Director

7:54am ET

We’re in Washington this week for the annual Hike the Hill, a gathering of the National Trails System representatives visiting Members of Congress as well as leaders in the federal agencies (National Park Service, Forest Service) that administer the trails.

Andrea Ketchmark (NCTA’s Director of Trail Development) and myself are here, with Hill visits planned to many of the 43 Congress-persons and 14 Senators representing the states and Congressional Districts through which the NCTA passes. NCTA’s advocacy committee members are contacting the local offices of these Members as well. Our legislative agenda is simple–the necessity of maintaining the level of appropriations in the federal budget for the NCNST; getting the MN Arrowhead Re-Route introduced, supporting full/increased funding for the Land And Water Conservation Fund, and keeping the transportation enhancements (which includes rails-to-trails) in the omnibus transportation bill. Our federal agencies’ focus has to do with consistent management commitments throughout all 10 national forests, including establishing protected corridors for the trail and unit status with the NPS among other things.

We’ll keep you posted on our progress. I’m off to see Senator Klobuchar first off this morning. Andrea’s headed for the Forest Service HQ. Hopefully we can get the Senate version of the Arrowhead Re-route introduced real soon!

Check for more updates throughout the week.

Michigan Map MI-06 Cedar Creek Road to Charlevoix just hiked last week I ran in to a problem after crossing Jordan river road the second time heading to M-32 on th warner creek pathway – the lake has flooded over and preety much knocked the trail right out. Couldn’t get through and had to back track to Jordan River Road and than to US-131 until I found the trail again.

-Arthur L.

From Brad Bosley…..The bridge on the North Fork of Little Beaver Creek and on Pancake-Clarkson Road west of the PA Gamelands 285 trail is open agan to traffic with all construction completed and hikers can now cross the creek again heading West. The bridge at Beaver Creek State Park which was under construction this summer is also open for access to the main Park area.  Thank you for your patience on these construction issues.

The bridge has been rebuilt with a pedestrian walkway and is now open to traffic.

PREVIOUS POSTING:  From Ron Sootsman – I just ran across a problem. I hiked from Litchfield to Albion today and had my Mom pick me up in Albion. The trouble: the bridge that is on the south side of Albion M-99 is out of service starting today and ending sometime in November (15th or 30th). Luckily the workers had left for the day and they were just positioning the equipment today. So I was able to go across. However when I followed the MDOT highway reroute to Homer it is 40 miles rather than the regular 7 miles (and on I-94 so it cannot be hiked).

For now the easiest reroute (South to North) would be to take D Drive South east at Condit Road to 29 Mile Road and go North to Albion Rd (also named Haven Rd) and go West to Victory Park and pick up the regular trail there. Adds 1.3 miles according to google maps.

After doing some looking on the MDOT site, the new bridge will have a pedestrian walkway which will be a big improvement.