White Pine Trail - LeRoy to Cadillac (MI)

 It is another beautiful sun-filled day day as we leave Muskegon at 8:30am to drive the hour and a half to LeRoy, MI.  Schooner is safe and secure at the nearby Dog Star Ranch and we are confident of a great day of biking on another Michigan rail-trail.  Today's goal is to ride 17 miles of the 93-mile Fred Meijer White Pine Trail.  Including the return trip we have an ambitious 34 mile ride planned.
The White Pine trail lies on the former Penn Central Railroad from Grand Rapids to Cadillac, MI.

It is 10 am on Friday July 11 under clear sunny skies with a temperature of 70 degrees F when we arrive in LeRoy, MI.  Once the bike is unloaded we seek out the nearest facilities for a pit stop before beginning the 1.5 hr ride to Cadillac.  As a trailhead, LeRoy is not the best.  Parking is sparse.  Facilities limited.  The pic on the left are the "facilities" that we found.
Just as we were preparing to get underway we met an interesting man just cycling in from the south.  His name was Terry and he was from Dallas at one time.  He said in 2003 he was told he had one year to live, max.  He and his wife decided to move to Howard, Michigan where she had family, in an effort to defy the diagnosis given to him.  He daily pursues a healthy lifestyle.  Would like to have visited longer with Terry, but he was completing a ride and we were starting one.  We concluded our visit feeling very glad to have met this living miracle.

The trail is approximately 10 feet wide and is paved with asphalt.  This is one of the nicest trails we have ridden in Michigan or anywhere.  It is well maintained, clear of debris, and so very scenic!  From wildlife to wild flowers the trail is filled with wonders.

A few miles up the trail is the village of Tustin.  The trailhead here provides ample public parking.  There is a cafe and museum nearby.  Pic on the left is the trailhead at Tustin.  Pic on the right gives a glimpse of the town.

A beautiful forest 

Because we are riding on a rail trail there is never more than a 3-5% change in grade, thankfully!  We are surrounded by gently rolling hills covered with forests of various types of trees as well as lush farms with crops either just harvested or ready to harvest.  When on a hill we gazed across the valley and could see over the tops of pines growing on the hills around us.  It was breathtaking.

Dense forest with tall ground cover

A farm beside the trail

Lake with beaver dam

Canopy-covered trail

Tunnel just before Cadillac

The staging area just south of Cadillac includes a large parking area, a porta-john, and, well, that's pretty much all it includes.  We kept riding north.

Soon we enter the town of Cadillac.  Below are pics of Cadillac Lake.

We parked our bike and walked a couple of blocks to the Simply Delightful Cafe.  The special of the day was a Turkey Rueben for $5.95.  The Rueben was delicious but they also had Moomers Ice Cream.  We shared a bowl of Red, White, and Blue-berry Cheesecake ice cream.  OH MY!

This contained a serious amount of YUM!  No calories, just yum!

On the left is the town of Cadillac.  On the right is the After 26 Cafe occupying the old train depot.  

It is now 1:20 and time to head back to LeRoy.  

We are about 6 miles down the trail and we see the gentleman pictured below.  A man we will not soon forget.  We stopped to see if he had a story to share with us, and he did just that.  

This is Wil Reding an interpretive naturalist.  He left Grand Rapids, MI 5 days earlier and was walking his way to Cadillac where his wife was scheduled to pick him up around 6:30 pm tonight.  At 69 he is eager to take a break and share with us.  

         Wil showed us his tatoo and explained that in 2006 (when he was 60) he and his wife set out to retrace John Muir's 1000 mile walk to the Gulf.  They used Muir's journals, Civil War maps, and did countless hours of research to recreate the journey.  It took the Redings 53 days to walk 800 of the 1000 miles.   He currently has plans for a walk in Spain (and surrounding countries) for his 70th birthday next year.  Meeting Wil Reding was definitely a highlight on our ride.

One of many beautiful farms as we head home

It is 3:15 when we conclude our ride on the White Pine Trail.  We begin our drive southwest toward Muskegon.  What a day filled with fun, adventure, and beauty beyond words.  I love our trail rides.  I love spending time with my sweetheart as we share the wonder of God's creation--the waters, the animals, the lands, and especially the people.