President's Message
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FALL 2020 President's Message LISA ETIENNE It was my great pleasure to be able to present the Lifetime Volunteer Award to Margaret Kalogeropoulos in her beautiful backyard on Sunday July 5th and the Volunteer of the Year Award to Rick Waters after a Thursday hike in Jordan on July 23rd. Certainly, I would have preferred to present the awards at our AGM in April, but we all know nothing is proceeding as planned this year. I was also able to give a small gift of appreciation from the club to Margaret Northfield for setting up the AGM online. Continued on Page 2 | 1 The Grapevine Fall 2020 2020-2021 NBTC President’s Message From Page One Board of Directors What a relief when we • PRESIDENT Lisa Etienne received the great news on • PAST PRESIDENT June 2nd that most of the Trail Debbie Demizio had reopened. It didn’t take • VICE-PRESIDENT Alicia Aitchison long for word to spread and • CLUB SECRETARY to see groups of five hiking Janet Davey regularly. In July, when the • CLUB TREASURER Marinus Koole province moved into Stage 2 • PUBLIC RELATIONS AND PUBLICITY and groups of ten were DIRECTOR permitted, the BTC got to Margaret Northfield • LAND STEWARDSHIP DIRECTOR work immediately to update Vince Zvonar the hiking calendar with an • TRAIL MAINTENANCE DIRECTOR online waiver. Huge thank Rick Waters • LAND SECUREMENT SECRETARIAT you to Alan Laver for setting DIRECTOR the example for how to Craig Church schedule a hike so that • LANDOWNER RELATIONS/LSS ALTERNATE everyone who wanted to hike Klari Kalkman was accommodated. They • BTC BOARD REPRESENTATIVE were scheduled into Corrie Kellestine • MEMBERSHIP/VOLUNTEER staggered groups of ten with a leader for each group, sometimes with COORDINATOR different start locations. A difficult task that he made look easy. George Prins • HIKE COORDINATOR Things are still going to be different for a while. Bruce Trail Day has Alan Laver been moved online and our Annual Landowners Appreciation Dinner • NEWSLETTER EDITOR Kathleen Orth has been cancelled. We will still be reaching out to our Landowners to • ARCHIVIST deliver their beautiful 2021 BTC Wall Calendar and to say thank you for Jean Stephenson-Lucente letting everyone hike the section of the trail that passes through their • SOCIAL CONVENER Diane Marlatt property. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Klari • DIRECTOR AT LARGE Kalkman for volunteering to serve as the Landowners Relations Rhys D. Beak Director. I would also like to thank Kathleen Orth, Wendy NIAGARA BRUCE TRAIL CLUB Larman, and Margaret P.O. Box 331 Northfield for BEAMSVILLE ON L0R 1B0 representing our club on EMAIL the BTC Membership [email protected] Task Force. Their WEBSITE responses were niagarabrucetrail.club.org incredibly detailed and FACEBOOK provided vital Niagara Bruce Trail Club information and TWITTER @BTCNiagara1 direction to the task INSTAGRAM force. @niagarabrucetrailclub | 2 The Grapevine Fall 2020 Introducing NBTC’s Landowner Relations Director A GIFT OF MEMBERSHIP Hello fellow BTC members! I’m honoured to contribute to the Club in the A Gift Membership is a great way capacity of Landowner Relations Director, following in the able footsteps of to introduce a friend or family Koosje Stassen. member to the Bruce Trail and the wonders of the Niagara A resident of Niagara for 25 years, I joined the BTC about five years ago, while Escarpment. transitioning from marathons to hikes. Since then, I’ve started notching end- Your gift recipient will receive: to-ends and other badges, as well as multi-day walks, such as Hadrian’s Wall • a welcome package and the Camino de Santiago. I’m hooked! • a personalized card letting I recently retired from the Ontario Ministry of Transportation, having served them know of your gift in various areas including operations, finance, HR, communications, strategic • all the benefits of BTC planning and change management. Earlier work includes owning a membership. communications and design business and lecturing in microbiology and • any products you purchase in applied communications at Guelph and Brock. Key volunteer experience the same order as part of the includes chairing the Board of Guelph-Wellington Women in Crisis. gift membership I wish to acknowledge the significant challenges we are living through these You will receive: days. We in Niagara, along with so many other communities across our • a charitable donation tax country and elsewhere, are struggling to keep ourselves and others safe from receipt for the full amount of the scourge of Covid-19. Through collective action, determination, and the gift membership consideration for others, we will persevere. Especially now, the treasure and To order a gift membership, see gift from the past that is the Bruce Trail affords us the enjoyment of nature https://brucetrail.org/membershi while maintaining our mental and physical health. May we keep it so for ps/gift future generations. Klari Kalkman BENEFITS OF NBTC MEMBERSHIP For a membership fee of $50 Spain 2018, annually, you get the quarterly February 2020, at Machu Picchu walking the Camino Frances Bruce Trail Conservancy magazine, NBTC’s quarterly newsletter The Grapevine and unlimited access to the regular hikes. (Special event hikes are an extra charge.) You get a tax receipt for $50, an invitation to special BTC and NBTC events, membership access to the BTC website and voting privileges. NBTC offers opportunities to assist at events, such as Bruce Trail Day. Check out the Niagara Bruce Trail Club’s online Calendar at http://niagarabrucetrail.club/ wp/calendar/ You are welcome to come out on a couple of hikes of your choice to help you decide if NBTC is the group for you. | 3 The Grapevine Fall 2020 The night hikes on the Monday closest to the full moon have restarted and you can earn the night hike badge Welcome back to the trails! by participating in two organized night hikes and three independent night hikes in the Niagara region. ALAN LAVER HIKE COORDINATOR Watch out for those hikes that follow some of the side A big welcome back to all! After months of road walking trails, as again this will assist in the completion of the and hiking in small groups, the trails are at last fully Niagara Side Trails Badge. open and the province has moved to Stage 3, which Car Pooling is unlikely to be sanctioned in the allows of 100 or less whilst social distancing. immediate future and therefore we are offering a series The hiking program has been immensely challenging of ten in and out independent end to end hikes which during recent months with unofficial hikes starting will allow hikers to complete the full Niagara section with five people in May and increasing to ten in June. and collect an end to end badge. Most people were desperate to hike on the trail again, Thank you all for your patience and understanding as well as meet up with old friends, and with a lot of during these trying times. Maintain Social Distancing patience and coordination, we were ale to introduce protocols, stay safe, and enjoy our wonderful trails. multiple unofficial hikes that ensured social distancing practices were followed and hiking buddies were reunited. ~ ~ ~ We have now reached the new normal for the hiking Bruce Trail Reference Guide - Edition 30 program with all hikers required to register online for https://brucetrail.org/store/view/274-bruce-trail-reference- hikes. This replaces the paper sign-up sheet. Changes guide-edition-30 have been made to the online system and hikers are required to include their membership number, an email $34.95 for members, addresses and emergency contact info. In addition, they non-members $39.95 are required to read the BTC Covid guidelines and agree to them. Guests of members are allowed to register; however, they should use the member’s number and their own name. Whilst the provincial guidelines allow us to have up to 100 hikers, we will initially cap hikes to 20 people. This will be at the complete discretion of the hike leader, and, if they are only comfortable with a lower number, then it will be adjusted accordingly. Featuring: 42 topographic maps of the Bruce Trail from The weather in July has been extreme and the hottest Queenston to Tobermory (including parking and on record. Hiking the trail does offer some shade but access points, camping locations). unless hikers are adequately prepared with water, Trail descriptions, kilometre-by-kilometre, for the snack, bug spray and sunscreen, then there is a risk of main Bruce Trail and Side Trails dehydration or heatstroke. Expect the unexpected and Index Map of the entire Bruce Trail ensure that you are prepared as this will take some of Introductory sections on the Bruce Trail Conservancy, the burden and responsibility from the hike leader. Niagara Escarpment geology, flora and fauna, Carry a mask and hand sanitizer to give you that extra Indigenous Culture, Trail Safety, Map Information, protection should the need arise. and more The hiking program is beginning to take shape and Field Guide to Niagara Escarpment Species there are weekly hikes on Tuesday's and Thursdays. The (laminated fold-out) longer hikes start at 8:00am and the shorter hikes at NEW: Indigenous Cultural Landmarks (identified in 9:00am. For these weekly hikes, you do not need to partnership with Plenty Canada register each week as a single registration should https://www.plentycanada.com/ ) suffice. The hikes will leave on time after the names are Packaged in a durable six-ring binder. Comes with a checked against the waiver sheet and the hike leader convenient vinyl sleeve that lets you hike with just the will make note of the hikers attending should the need map you need for the day.