North Country Trail
| North Country Trail | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Length | 4600 mi (7403 km) |
| Location | New York / Pennsylvania / Ohio / Michigan / Wisconsin / Minnesota / North Dakota |
| Designation | National Scenic Trail (1980) |
| Trailheads |
Lake Sakakawea State Park, North Dakota Crown Point State Historic Site, New York |
| Use | Hiking |
| Hiking details | |
| Trail difficulty | Easy to strenuous |
| Sights | Northern hardwood forest; prairie; agricultural fields; low mountains; sand dunes; boreal forest; lake shores; small towns. |
The North Country National Scenic Trail, generally known as the North Country Trail or simply the N.C.T., is a footpath stretching approximately 4,600 miles (7,400 km) from Crown Point in eastern New York to Lake Sakakawea State Park in central North Dakota in the United States. Passing through the seven states of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and North Dakota, it is the longest of the eleven National Scenic Trails authorized by Congress. As of early 2017, 3,009 miles (4,843 km) of the trail is in place.
The NCT is administered by the National Park Service, managed by federal, state, and local agencies, and built and maintained primarily by the volunteers of the North Country Trail Association (NCTA) and its partners. The 28 chapters of the NCTA, its 3,200+ members and each affiliate organization have assumed responsibility for trail construction and maintenance of a specific section of the NCT.
The NCT was created on March 5, 1980 by an amendment to the National Trails System Act. When the Trail was established in 1980, portions of it were designed to follow the already existing Finger Lakes (New York), Baker (Pennsylvania), and Buckeye (Ohio) Trails. Their sponsoring organizations became affiliates of the North Country Trail Association and agreed to maintain those portions of their trails to be used by the North Country National Scenic Trail. The Northwestern Ohio Rails-to-Trails Association joined later to help create a link between the Buckeye Trail in Ohio and newly constructed trail in Michigan; the Superior Hiking Trail Association and the Kekekabic Trail Club joined when it was proposed that the North Country National Scenic Trail route through Minnesota be changed to include an already-completed section of the Superior Hiking Trail along Lake Superior, and the Kekekabic and Border Route Trails along the Canada–US border in Minnesota's Arrowhead Region. There is currently legislation in Congress to also add an extension through Vermont to the Appalachian Trail.
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