Berry Junction - Hart-Montague Trail - Muskegon to Shelby (MI)

Fred Meijer Berry Junction Trail

We have been summer residents of Duck Creek RV Resort in Muskegon, MI since summer of 2012. It is by far the best designed and well maintained park in which we stay over the course of a year from Texas to Oklahoma to Michigan and then back; a course repeated annually.  Roger and Casey work 24/7 to see that the park is 5 Star and this year the campers at the park found the addition of a newly laid trail extending from the park entrance to the Fred Meijer Berry Junction Trail.  This will give bikers and walkers of all ages the security of getting on the trail without needing to share the road with motorists.  Big shout out to Casey and Roger for making the dream of this trail connector come to fruition!  Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

We are no strangers to this particular trail as we ride some portion of it almost weekly.  Not only can we ride out of our campground on our bike to access the Berry Junction Trail, but it then connects to the Hart-Montague Trail about 10 miles north of us in Montague.  We have eagerly anticipated biking this year because of the "face lift" given to the trail over the past year.  Brand new asphalt!  AND, all but one of the detours have vanished!  This, my friends, is so sweet!

It is 68 degrees at 8:35 am on Tuesday, June 21, 2016.  With Schooner in good hands at the nearby Dog Star Ranch, Chris and I set out on a day trip of biking our favorite trail.

One of the prettiest areas on the Berry Junction Trail is a heavily wooded area with three wood bridges (above pic) and a giant carved wooden eagle and its nest (left).

There are many pieces of art along the trail including this giant butterfly (right) found in a small park in south Whitehall.

Upon entering the resort community of Whitehall and across from the marina you will see the colorful sails pictured on the left.
Pic on the right is of the White River where it feeds into White Lake (which feeds into Lake Michigan).

The adjoining town to the north of Whitehall is Montague and where we begin the Hart-Montague Trail.

Along the trail is this gazebo, located behind Montague Foods.  There is also a campground, very nice restrooms, ample parking, and a nearby ice cream shop.  Every cyclist's dream trailhead!

One of my favorite things about this trail (and there are many), is the way the trail is lined with tall beautiful trees.  Many times we ride under a canopy of shade formed by the lush branches.






In Rothbury we must take a detour as the last bit of construction on this trail has yet to be completed.  The detour is well marked and easy to follow.  Before long we are back on the trail.
We plan to have lunch in New Era, but it is only 10:30am and we keep riding north past New Era and then past the Country Dairy. We always enjoy a stop at the dairy which serves up spectacular hamburgers, cheese curds, and the very best ice cream!  Now I'm going to start getting hungry!!!  Must...keep...pedaling!!!

These two pics of the trail are the reason we just keep on pedaling. The beauty here is magnificent!

The next town we ride through is Shelby.  There are several places in town to dine, but my favorite stop is the Shelby Gem Factory. One time we took the tour and were shown how the gems were grown.  After the gems are grown they are sent to gem cutters to create the final product.  Warning:  this can be one of the more expensive stops along the trail, but oh so fun!  Must...keep...pedaling!!!

Around Shelby there are multiple workout stations along the bike path.  At one of those stations we stopped for a quick stretch and water break.  Having ridden 25 miles from our campground we decided to turn around and head back south to New Era.

Trailside Restaurant in New Era

The Trailside Restaurant in New Era is the "dangling carrot" for me.  Knowing that we were making a stop for lunch at this cozy trailside eatery made the trip even more fun!
Monday through Friday turkey and dressing is the lunch special.  For the bargain price of $8.95 you also get fresh asparagus, potatoes, cranberry sauce, and a roll.  When Kathy greeted us today there was no doubt as to what we were going to have for lunch.  No menu required!

Fuel for the ride home

Dessert Menu

Shortcake with REAL whipped cream!

The only unknown was which of their fresh homemade desserts we were going to split.  We decided on the strawberry shortcake which is made using a sweet biscuit rather than cake.  Once again, Kathy took good care of us.  She even split the dessert for us!  The one below was all mine.  Let me tell you, it was so good!



Upon checking out, a young employee comments that she cannot read Kathy's writing on the check then heads back to work.  Kathy commented that she was known to have nice handwriting and Chris had no trouble reading it upside down.  Chris and Kathy decided the problem was that the ticket was written in "cursive" which is no longer taught in the schools and that being able to read cursive was going to disappear with this generation.  Chris said that along with cursive writing Kathy's strawberry shortcake was going to disappear with our generation.  The young employee comes back and asks what is disappearing.
Chris repeats "The strawberry shortcake will disappear with our generation."  The girl says "Oh no, the strawberry shortcake will still be here even if Kathy retires."
Chris asks "Okay, when Kathy retires are you going to make the strawberry shortcake?"
Girl, "Well no, not the biscuit."
Kathy responded, "It's going away with our generation."
Get it while you can, folks.  It's worth the trip, either biking or by car.

Between the lunch in New Era, the sunshine, and the newly paved bike trail we completed our 51 mile day trip at 2:35pm in 76 degree temps and had a little energy to spare.  Very little!

Little Traverse Wheelway - Charlevoix to Petoskey (MI)

Charlevoix, Michigan

We arrived in Charlevoix, MI on Tuesday, September 15 around 11:15 am and just in time for a quick lunch before beginning our ride.  It was 73 degrees with clear and sunny skies promising ideal weather for our 25 mile exploration of the Little Traverse Wheelway Trail.  Charlevoix is located in the northwest of the lower peninsula of Michigan with Lake Michigan on the west and Lake Charlevoix on the east.  It is off season now which makes it easier to get a good price on a hotel.  We stayed at the Weathervane Inn where we had a view of Lake Michigan.  The picture above gives a glimpse of the main thoroughfare of town and of the Villager Pub where we had a salad for lunch.  

Our trail in the Michigan Trails Magazine

The Little Traverse Wheelway begins in Charlevoix and parallels Little Traverse Bay of Lake Michigan.  The 26 mile route ends in Harbor Springs.  If we used the trailhead at Shanahan Park we would have to ride on the street for a few blocks.  We decided to drive to the next trailhead listed on our trail guide which was Nine Mile Point Park.  

Roadside Park near Burgess road

While driving to Nine Mile Point Park we came across a rest area which made an excellent place to begin our ride to Petoskey and back. 

The trail is 8-10 ft wide, well maintained and asphalt.  To the left is Little Traverse Bay of Lake Michigan.  The water is clear and deep blue.  On the right is a pic of construction barricades warning of work being done near the trail, not on the trail.

 In the late 1800s locals used the trail for walking and for bicycling.  Later the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad as well as the Chicago and West Michigan Railway laid tracks along the route.  In the picture on the left you can see the steep hill we have in front of us.  The hill rose to the level of the old train track which we could see at the top of the hill.  It was in the 1990s when the Wheelway was used as a walking and bicycling path again.

 The trail presents a variety of scenes for us to enjoy.  Trees, water, canopy, and even a tunnel near Bay Shore.

One of several resorts on Bay Shore

Pics on the left and right show the view of Little Traverse Bay from the trail.

We have reached Petoskey now.  It is 78 degrees and sunny.  Our trail wraps around the St. Francis Solanus mission and offers a beautiful view of the lake. 

St. Francis Solanus Indian Mission

Behind the Mission

This trail was very well marked and we easily found our way when it became necessary to take to the street for a block or two to rejoin our trail.  

On the left is the former train station.  It is now a museum and for $3 each we took a quick tour to pick up some of the local history.  The museum highlights Ernest Hemingway's life and time spent in the Petoskey area.

Marina in Petoskey

The picture on the right is our first view of the marina.  Near the fire station and this marina we look for Mineral Well Park and the Bear River Trail.  It is denoted by the #13 marker on the Trail Guide map.

We left the Wheelway Trail and proceeded south on the Bear River Trail to check out the rapids.  On the left is the Bear River as seen from town.  It flows into Little Traverse Bay of Lake Michigan.

 






We admired the construction of the bridge pictured here as we biked along the Bear River.

On the left is a picture of our bike parked along the Bear River Trail.  
On the right is a pic of the steps Chris walked down to get a picture of the rapids on Bear River.

We did not ride all the way to the Sheridan Street Trailhead.  Instead, we turned around here and rode back to the Petoskey Bayfront Park and took more pictures there.

The day was unseasonably warm and incredibly beautiful.  When we returned to the roadside park in Charlevoix the temp had reached 81 degrees and we had ridden 25 miles.  This is definitely a trail we would ride again.

Holland (Metro Area Trails) to Saugatuck (MI)

 The Holland metro area claims to have an extensive network of paved trails.  This may be true if you were to count streets with cars on them and no marked bike lane.  Wednesday, August 12 we decided to ride from Holland to Saugatuck using our Michigan Trails Magazine as a guide and relying on our GPS and trail markers when in doubt.  The good news was that all the roads we traveled were paved.  Markers were nonexistent, which made for a very interesting ride.

We first planned to begin our ride from the Dunton Park Trailhead in Holland which was a 55 minute drive from our campground in Muskegon.  When we arrived in Holland we discovered that beginning at Dunton Park meant riding either street or sidewalk to get to the Unity Bridge pictured on the left.  We would need to cross that bridge so we decided to park at the CVS instead.  This change of location meant easy access to the biking/walking path across Lake Macatawa.

On the left is Lake Macatawa from the Unity Bridge.  On the right is our "bike path".  It was horrible navigating these barriers every few feet.  We probably weaved through 10 or 12 of these.  We could have ridden the street but I don't like riding with cars.

 There was a lot of industry in the northern part of Holland.  One thing I did enjoy seeing was quite a bit of art formed from steel.  It was very similar to some of the art we have seen in Grand Rapids at Art Prize.  On the left is a pic of one of the displays.
Along this path we saw a farmer's market in progress.  Somewhere just past the market we lost our trail.  We made a turn and found ourselves in the old part of downtown Holland.  We consulted our trail map and our phone GPS.  After awhile we found ourselves in front of a bicycle shop.  Eureka! As soon as we got off our bike a lady came out who worked at the shop and was eager to give directions to Saugatuck, MI.  She and others make the ride frequently and knew the route we were seeking.
It was about 35 minutes after parking at the CVS, biking through town and through housing editions, that we found our trail.  Absolutely no signs whatsoever to help us.  But that was okay.  We were in no hurry and people were very kind to give assistance and to not run over us on the streets.  They seem to be quite used to bikers riding all over town.

Trail runs parallel to road

Forested section of trail

Finally, we acquired our trail. The Beeline Trail south of Holland passed through beautiful residential areas and parallels Beeline Ave. 

 The above photo shows a crop of grapes.  We also traveled alongside fields of wild flowers and fields of corn.

 By 11:15 am we had traveled nearly 12 miles and had reached the northern area of Saugatuck.  It was now 71 degrees and a bright sunny day.  We could have traveled further south into the town of Saugatuck, but thought it best to start back to Holland.  This time we felt sure we could find the unmarked trail and avoid the old downtown area.

Such beautiful fields and wildflowers

A unique structure which I will call a "barn" caught our eye on the way south.  We decided on the way back north we would get a picture.  I had envisioned a structure similar to this many times in the past thinking that someday we might want to park our rig in a permanent structure - one that we might be able to live in as well.  When we got to the barn we noticed the owner was outside the house watering her garden.  We peddled into her driveway and complimented her on the unique building beside her home.  To our surprise she invited us to take a tour of the barn.

Oh my goodness!  It was amazing inside.  Bathroom and shower.  A climbing wall for the grands.  A loft.  Plenty of room for an RV, boat, and cars.  Her husband had designed and built this grand garage and we had been trusted with a viewing.  WOW!  This could very well have been my favorite part of the ride.  The lady told us how they love Michigan and this area in particular.  Even during the winter they could always go into town.  Her husband has the equipment to clear their driveways.  After a snowfall the roads are continually cleared.  She also told us that Holland has heated roads and sidewalks.  I looked it up and they do!  Warm water circulates through underground tubing in the downtown area keeping the area free of snow (which they get a great deal of)!
We took pictures inside and out for future reference, said thank you one more time, and took off down the trail again.

 This is the Kollen Park entrance in Holland and would be an excellent trailhead for the next ride to Saugatuck.  Located on Lake Macatawa this park offers plenty of parking, tons of space for bringing out the lawn chairs and soaking up the afternoon sun.  We saw a gentleman enjoying his day by fishing from the path.  We think this was part of the Holland Shoreline Trail, but, once again, there are no signs.

Panoramic view of Lake Macatawa and the bicycle/walking area

The grouping of pics below all show the area surrounding the lake.  The restaurant pictured on the right is the Boatwerks Restaurant and Lounge.  It appeared to be a popular dining destination on the lake.

Below is the Farmer's Market we had so hurriedly cycled past earlier in our ride.  This time we made a stop.  Unfortunately, many of the booths were packing up and heading home.  We were able to check out 3 or 4 booths who were hoping for last-minute customers.  One in particular that I liked had granola for sale.  They also had samples so we could check it out before buying.  I always like samples.  Thankfully, there was room in our bike bag for a sack of locally-made granola.

Eighth Street Market Place

 The return trip was turning out to be so nice.  We seemed to locate our streets/paths without any difficulty.  I had accepted that our route would include street and sidewalk travel along with dedicated bike paths.  In changing my expectations I was able to enjoy more of the ride.
When we chose our trailhead it was so that we could ride over the lake.  Here we are again, preparing to cross over the lake.

Kayakers on the lake

 This is where our bike path took an interesting turn.  We could continue on the current path, cross over the lake and then cross over to our CVS parking lot at a major intersection about a half mile ahead or we could use the bike path shown below to make the crossing over and miss the busy intersection.  I'm all about missing out on traffic.  In the pic on the left our current bike path is on the right and we are heading for the path that is sloping downward on the left of the pic.  The path is going under the bridge.

 The picture on the right is taken from the bike path just before going under the bridge.  You can see we are much lower now.  And the picture below is a shot from under the bridge where we are water level.  Water is on our path from where a boat came through and splashed.

 The bike path goes under the bridge then climbs to the path we had taken earlier in the day to cross the lake.  Now that was cool!  Loved this finale to the ride!