#20 - Heather Werderman
This cache is part of a series of caches placed to honor those who have completed an end to end hike on the North Country Trail.
Heather Werderman was the twentieth person and the fourth woman to complete an end to end hike on the North Country Trail. Heather did not grow up in a hiking/outdoorsy family, however, while living in Michigan's Upper Peninsula she "heard about this thing called geocaching." She start hiking to get to some of the more remote caches, and she learned about the North Country Trail through some of her geocaching adventures.
After meeting a man obsessed with the Appalachian Trail, she set off to complete a thru hike of that trail in 2011. After a decade of hiking, she decided to try an end to end hike on the NCT. She set off in May 2020 from North Dakota and made it to Defiance, Ohio by November, 2020. After taking the Winter off, she headed out from Defiance in April 2021 to complete the hike to the Eastern Terminus in Vermont, completing her hike in August 2021.
Read more about Heather's journey:
https://northcountrytrail.org/ldh-werderman/
ABOUT THIS CACHE: This cache is placed along the section of the North Country Trail (NCT: https://northcountrytrail.org/) that runs through Albion, MI by MIGSPMom and Indenyl. The NCT is over 4,700 miles long and runs through eight states. There is quite a bit of foot traffic along the trail so beware of muggles. Every year the NCT association hosts a challenge for you to hike 100 miles. This cache will help you reach that goal.
The Chief Noonday Chapter also hosts their own challenge to hike the 119 miles in Barry, Kalamazoo and Calhoun counties. Check out their page at https://northcountrytrail.org/trail/michigan/cnd/
Bring your own writing utensil!