| Man on trek across U.P.
(Note: As though TNC needs any help raising funds ... This guy's a walking, talking advertisement for fundraising, and his jobs are -- are to guess? -- executive director of his family's Cook Family Foundation and trustee for TNC.)
July 23, 2006
By Christopher Diem, [Mining] Journal Staff Writer The Mining Journal 240 West Washington Marquette, Michigan 49855 800-562-7811 or 906-228-2500 Fax: 906-228-3273 To submit a Letter to the Editor: newsroom@miningjournal.com
Tom Cook is on a 480-mile trip from St. Ignace to Copper Harbor, and he’s doing it all on foot. His trek is raising thousands of dollars for the Nature Conservancy of Michigan -- and fueling Cook’s own simple desire to get to know the U.P. better. “I've had this on-and-off relationship with the U.P., but never as much time as I would like. So I really had an opportunity this summer to spend six weeks walking it and so far it’s just been a wonderful experience,” Cook said Friday while taking a little time off to rest up at Shiras Park in Marquette. People have made pledges of from 10 cents to $1 per mile for Cook’s journey. With the completion of his trip, he will have raised around $7,000. All the money will go to the Nature Conservancy which, among other conservation projects in Michigan, is protecting 248,000 acres of U.P. ecosystems. Cook started his trip three weeks ago and has covered roughly 272 miles so far. He has gone through several U.P. landmarks, traveling north on the North Country Trail from St. Ignace up to Whitefish Bay, past Tahquamenon Falls, over to the mouth of the Two-Hearted River and across Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. “Traveling along the shore of Lake Superior, there were four or five days there when I saw more bald eagles than I did people. It was amazing,” Cook said. He carries a 40-pound backpack filled with supplies like freeze-dried food, a one-person tent, maps and a GPS device. Cook gets resupplied with food about once a week and different people from Owosso bring him his laptop when he stops in easily accessible locations. Cook’s Web site http://web.mac.com/tomcook.cff/ charts his progress, contains photos of his trip, and has links to the Nature Conservancy’s Web site. He will travel next to the Michigamme highlands, past the Huron River, up to L’Anse and finally into the Keweenaw Peninsula. He expected to arrive in Copper Harbor around August 5. “I started training in February,” he said. “I took advantage of my local YMCA. Then I just trained with my backpack going a couple miles a day and worked up. I'm averaging 12 miles a day, though I've done a couple 18-milers. I think I've lost about 5-10 pounds so far.” Cook has been most impressed with the diversity of the U.P. landscape, and added that he hasn't seen very many people out on the trails. “There are not as many people as I thought, not as many people taking advantage of the North Country Trail as there should be. But the people I have met have been wonderful,” he said. When not hiking, Cook is the executive director of the Cook Family Foundation, set up by his grandparents Donald and Florence-etta Cook to support community institutions in Shiawassee County. He is also a trustee of the Nature Conservancy.
http://www.miningjournal.net/stories/articles.asp?articleID=5132 |