NCTA Ely Northwoods

10/12/2026

Celebrate fall with your Ely neighbors at Paths and Pumpkins Community Night, a family-friendly pumpkin carving contest and Halloween night hike at Kawishiwi Falls. Carve a pumpkin at home, then bring it to the trail to be part of Ely’s community pumpkin display. You can enter a pumpkin, come to the hike, or both!

Details below

🎃 Fall is here, and we’re celebrating with Paths and Pumpkins Community Night in Ely! Carve a free pumpkin for our community contest, then see the pumpkins light up the trail during a free night hike at Kawishiwi Falls on October 29. Come carve, hike, vote, or all three!

10/05/2026

On Saturday, Sept 26, we celebrated our 3rd year as an NCTA Chapter!! We had a beautiful fall day to enjoy food and an inaugural hike on the nature trail adjacent to the Regional Trail Center. Thanks to all the folks who came to celebrate with us!

10/04/2026

Last week our Chapter honored Aaron Kania with a 2026 "Friend of the Trail" award!

Aaron provided our Chapter with many helpful route suggestions for the segment of trail we are scouting and developing between Ely and Bear Head Lake State Park. He has been a faithful supporter of our Chapter since it's formation. Thank, Aaron!!

Pictured with Aaron is Ozzie Reif, our Chapter president.

10/03/2026

The last week of September, a wonderful crew of volunteers with the American Hiking Society came up to work on the North Country Trail east of the roller portage on Triangle Lake. The AHS crew worked 4 days with one rest day in between. One unique aspect of this trail work is that they camped on an island and then accessed the trail by canoe!

One of our Chapter volunteers, Jeff Pike, joined them for a couple of days and commended them for the nice job on our trails. We appreciate everyone who volunteered!!!

Photos by Jeff Pike

09/19/2026

Mushrooms 🍄🍄 are sprouting up right now! We spotted these around the new nature loop trail near the Trail Center.

Fall is great time of year to get out on the trails...the colors are starting to come out on the maple trees 🍁🍂🍁🍃🍂

If you're looking for a quick getaway, we encourage you to make a trip up to Ely, and while you're here, check out the restaurants, shops, galleries, and museums. Always something to do!!

Photos by Ozzie Reif

09/12/2026

We are at the Harvest Moon Festival this weekend in Ely! Stop by and say hello!

08/28/2026

https://www.startribune.com/drought-and-dead-wood-stacked-the-deck-for-the-boundary-waters-wildfires/601870740?utm_source=gift

Interesting story about the 2026 BWCAW fires.

Dead trees created a tinderbox, but heat, drought and wind made everything worse.

08/08/2026

Today we met at the Ely Regional Trail Center to clear trail and remove garbage along the nature trail that we are building. The weather was perfect and we had a lot of fun. Thanks to everyone who came to help!!! 🙌