Has anyone winter camped and checked out the North Country Hiking Trail. 72 miles are done in the Chippewa Natl. Forest?

I'm looking to make that my next trek.

I will be attending a meeting on starting up a local volunteer chapter for the NCT here in ND tonight.

I have not heard a whole lot about the trail yet, but it appears to be very segmented.

Never been there but looks interesting. Let us know what you find out. I may want to try this sometime for a change of pace. Thanks!

I've got it all worked out. One of my sons and I will be on the trail between Co Rd 125 and hike east about 10 miles to Highway 200. It's crosses some privet land and crosses several roads.

Trip report to come next week.

WINTER TRIP REPORT

North Country Scenic Hiking Trail
Saturday and Sunday March 15-16, 2008

Our plan for the weekend was to start at Co Rd 125 north of Longville, MN and hike east about 10 miles to Boy River. On this trip would be My 20 year old son Jared and myself. We were planning on 4 miles Saturday, 4-6 miles on Sunday and a quick walk out on Monday.

I have friends and relations in this part of the world so; my wife went up for the weekend to visit some friends. She and some friends helped to drop a car at Boy River and drive us to Co Rd 25. The Parking lot at Boy River was not plowed, and I parked on the edge of the road. I had checked in with the Walker Ranger Station and they told me to park here and that they would talk to the local Sheriff and let him know we were on the trail.

We hit the trail on Saturday about 11:30 and headed east. The temps were near or maybe even above freezing and the sun was out. The Trail was well blazed and nearly untraveled. We did very little post holing for the most part. The snow was anywhere from nothing to about 2 feet deep depending on how much sun it was getting and the angle.

All went very smooth, the terrain here is not completely flat, but rolls with little hills and nothing of size. So, if you want some flat hiking this is the place. Our average speed was well over 2 mph and we traveled the first 4 miles much quicker than we had planned and faster than any other trek we had been on in the winter.

When we got to highway 84 we lost the trail. I mean LOST it. We couldn’t find a blaze anywhere. The “walker notes” said that we could camp anywhere in this part of the trail so we set up camp. In March the sun sets late and we had more than enough light to make supper and water. When camp was made we scouted for the trail and just couldn’t find it. With only ½ mile to the next road we decided that, in the morning we would bushwhack to the next road and see if we could pick up the trail there.

The setting of our camp was the edge of a nice Norway pine plantation with a hardwood forest to our east. For the first time ever I got cold through the night and I had to slip on a jacket and pants. As it turned out it was about zero that night and about 15 deg colder than I was expecting. The next morning was another bright sunny morning. We broke camp and hit the trail.

Bushwhacking the first ½ mile we ended up coming out about 200 feet north of the trail. We crossed the road and we were back on the trail again. Nice easy terrain. We ended up walking the rest of the 6 ½ miles to the car on Sunday.

This was a nice hike but you are not in the wilderness like in the BWCA. There are roads and people and you cross some private land. From Highway 84 you could even hike the 4 miles into town and wet your whistle if you wanted. Other than the ½ mile that we couldn’t find the trail it was a well maintained trail and I’d recommend it to anyone out for a hike. It’s not normally used in the winter so bring your snow shoes and expect a little trouble parking.