On November 7, 2007, the SEEK (Students Enhancing Environmental Knowledge) Club on campus headed out into the Ashmun Creek area for what inadvertently turned into a moonlight hike.

Dr. Greg Zimmerman led the intrepid students, joined by the new club faculty advisor, Dr. Suzanne Thomas, on an interpretive hike through the Ashmun Creek Natural Area. The area is approximately three hundred acres of woodland that follows Ashmun Creek right through the corner of the city of Sault Ste. Marie. Dr. Zimmerman reports spotting all manner of Northern Michigan fauna, either living in, or passing through the Ashmun Creek area, including bear, deer, elk, and moose. “If we were an urban area,” Dr. Zimmerman says, “we could call it an urban wildlife corridor, but I guess we’ll have to call it a small town wildlife corridor.”

The area is city property, which makes it free for all to enter, and has a one and a half mile trail loop. The property is located between the expressway off of Easterday Avenue and the airport on Meridian Street off of the Business Spur. Students who choose to visit the area are asked to stay on the trail (the property is surrounded by privately owned property which the trail does not extend to), keep the place clean, and watch out for skiers and those on snowmobiles.

Along the trail, with thanks to the LSSU Biology Department students, in a project started by Mr. Drew Afton, there are several informative signs about the area, including information about the wildlife, the vegetation, and the various land formations and their purpose in the greater woodland ecosystem.

The hike on November 7 was an adventure of the kind the Upper Peninsula is famous for. Challenging and muddy, the natural area had already become just the sort of place that everyone’s mother has chastised them for tracking onto the living room rug at one point or another. With one little flashlight for the entire group and traversing some of the biggest puddles one can hope to find in the city, this reporter does not mind saying that it was the most fun she has ever had with wet socks.

The SEEK club is far more than mushy marches through musty mud puddles, however, chemistry instructor and faculty SEEK member Mr. Roger Blanchard is the Trail Coordinator for the Hiawatha Shore to Shore Chapter of the North Country Trail Association. The NCTA works in close cooperation with the National Park Service to provide upkeep and safety construction projects on the North Country Trail as it winds its way from Lake Superior to the Mackinaw Straits through three counties. This past year, the Association built footbridges, cleared trails, and made the trail safe for foot passage. Next spring and summer, the Association has pinpointed several areas for improvement, including raising the trail near Tahquamenon Falls, making a particularly steep incline near Swamp Lake safer for hikers, and rerouting the trail past Loon Lake so as not to disturb the delicate marshland in the area.

Students interested in joining SEEK, hiking in the Ashmun Creek Natural Area, or joining up with the North Country Trail Association to help out with their various projects may contact Dr. Greg Zimmerman at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or Mr. Roger Blanchard at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it for more information.

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