AmeriCorps volunteers build trail in Upson

By RICHARD JENKINS

[email protected]

UPSON, Wis. - An AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps team has been hard at work the last few weeks building a spur trail off the North Country National Scenic Trail to an overlook above Upson Lake.

The eight-person team - comprised of team leader Aliza Mendelowitz; along with Joy Graves, Kim Snyder, Chris Watt, Ashli Hollis, Regina Guan, Ramion Smith and Levi Breier - arrived in Iron County in mid-September and have been working with the local Heritage Chapter to build the trail.

"We have been helping Heritage Chapter clear out this planned trail route; so we've been digging out tree roots and reinforcing some of the banks on the trail so it doesn't erode away, packing it down so it's all nice and firm," Snyder said. "They just have this whole route planned out from a section of the North Country Trail out to a scenic overlook over Upson Lake and then out towards Foster Falls. So we've been kind of working our way along that."

The AmeriCorps program is a 10-month service program for those between the ages of 18 and 24, according to Snyder, with this team having been deployed to several locations throughout the Midwest prior to arriving in Iron County.

The work has been one of the more physically challenging projects Snyder and the team have been assigned to.

"You have to hike in a mile, mile-and-a-half, before you even start the work," Snyder said. "Every single day we have to get ourselves up the mountain and then get ourselves motivated for a hard day of work. ... I think we enjoy it as much as we can."

The project is expected to be completed later this week.

The North Country National Scenic Trail is a 4,600-mile hike trail, running between New York and North Dakota.