Saginaw Valley Rail Trail - St Charles to Saginaw, MI

Saginaw Valley Rail Trail Trailhead in St Charles

Wednesday, July 26 Chris and I were on day 3 of a three day biking extravaganza.  The goal was to ride 3 new trails in 3 days.  The Saginaw Valley Rail Trail was the third and final new trail for us to tackle while visiting the eastern side of Michigan.  This rail trail was completed in 2009 and is very flat, nice and wide, asphalt surface, and well maintained.
We drove to the trailhead at St. Charles located in Lumberjack Park.  There is plenty of great parking here, water, and "rustic" restrooms.  When we began our ride around 8:15 am it was 62 degrees.

On the left is a restored rail bridge over the Bad River.  The next 2 pics are of the Bad River.  There are a total of 7 restored rail bridges on this trail.

We passed through many tall trees forming a canopy over the trail.  So pretty!

The trail passes through the Shiawassee River State Game Area and the Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge.  We saw several squirrel, chipmunks, and rabbits along the way.

There was even a round about!  Now that was unusual, but very fun!

This carving on the left was on the round about.  It is a squirrel, and on the bottom is carved "exercise nut".

For a Wednesday morning we thought the trail was pretty busy.  Many bikers were out taking advantage of the cool temps.

We passed by several beautiful farms.

Corn stalks not quite ready for harvest

There are a total of 3 trailheads on this trail.  The middle one is the Van Wormer Road Trailhead.  That trailhead is very nice.  We rode to the trailhead at Saginaw, the Strobel Road Trailhead.  There is a huge parking area there, but that is about all.  The trail continues from the trailhead another 1/2 mile on what appeared to be a much smaller trail or sidewalk.  We turned around and started back, but not before stopping to visit with other bikers.  A group of about 15 bikers were gathering to have a morning ride.  What fun!

Tracks near the Stroebel Rd Trailhead

When we finished our 20 mile ride, Chris loaded the bikes and we started researching restaurants on our GPS.  Two or three options popped up on our phones so we decided to go take a look to make a decision as to where to go.  Within a couple of blocks of Lumberjack Park we spotted this group of parked bikes at the Rustic Steakhouse and Saloon.  Figured it must be a good place to stop if this many bikers were here.  The food was good and we got to visit with some of the other bikers.
This was a fun three days of exploring and riding new bike trails.