The Duneside Trail

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Our club provided more than 920 hours of volunteer time to build an All Person Accessible Duneside Nature Trail in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. The trail, 1.2 miles round trip, goes from the Dune Climb parking lot into the woods to a platform viewing a wetland area. This project was completed from September 11 to November 9 of 1993. Under the supervision of a park service trail builder, club members dug 36 post holes, constructed a viewing deck, placed and nailed twelve-foot 4 x 6's all along the sides of the trail, and supported them with loads of dirt and filled the trail with loads of gravel. After hauling all this with a small motorized cart, it had to be spread by hand. A topper of diamond dust was brought in, spread, and compacted with a machine. Benches and interpretive signs were added by the Park Service.

Those who worked on the trail from our club were: Kay Beerthuis, Ken Beerthuis, Ann Chinn, Joyce Ellsworth, Leonard Graf, George Hutchinson, Clarence Kroupa, Martin Melkild, Molly (Harrigan) McCombs, Frank Miller, Mary Miller, Sharon Swartz, Kirk Waterstripe, Angie Willis, Harry Zeeryp.