North Country Trail continues expansion into Iron County

By ZACHARY MARANO

[email protected]

GURNEY, Wis. — Volunteers from the North Country Trail Association and other organizations continued expansion of the North Country National Scenic Trail in Iron County on July 16-17, according to NCT Heritage Chapter member Laura Bethany Thomas.

Thomas said the work in the town of Gurney will continue on Aug. 13-14, on a section of trail from Wisconsin Highway 169 east for 5.5 miles to Wren Falls. Work will begin at a parking lot and kiosk on the trail along Highway 169. The trail heads west from there to Copper Falls State Park.

This current project extending the trail to Wren Falls will include construction of another bridge over the Tyler Forks River in addition to the one built last summer. Thomas said that this bridge will be placed by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. She also said that the state’s bridge-building group of the NCT, the Wisconsin Rovers, will also be working on this stretch.

Thomas also said that eight volunteers from the NCT’s Chequamegon Chapter joined their Heritage Chapter neighbors for work on this section of trail last weekend.

Thomas said that the NCT Association has wanted to expand the trail eastward for some time but has been restricted by limited funds and manpower. Both these problems were mitigated through a partnership with the Alberta, Canada-based company Enbridge, which agreed to fund a group of youth from WisCorps to work alongside NCT members through September.

Overall, Thomas said that this project represents a great opportunity for the NCT’s Heritage Chapter to expand its portion of National Scenic Trail System, as well as reforge some partnerships that went dormant during 2020-2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Thomas said that they plan to finish this section of the trail by June 30, 2023.