Month: July 2016

White Pine Trail – Part II

This post is a continuation of the 2016 White Pine Trail bike trip, which I did with 4 other people.

Day 3: July 4 – Cadillac to Morley  (~60 miles)

Some people don’t like doing out and back rides, but I don’t mind them.  I feel like reversing our trip the next day and riding from Cadillac to Morley allowed me to see things I didn’t see the first time around.  Plus, if you go uphill one day, it’s nice to go downhill the next.

Ready for day 3

Ready for day 3

Cadillac south to Tustin is a beautiful ride, with a lot of nature and a lot of downhill riding.  Along the way, we stopped at a boggy area and saw snakes, turtles and frogs making various reptile noises.

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Once in Tustin, which seems to be a quite small town, we saw an old lumber and grain building.

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We then passed through Reed City again, including a covered bridge.  While there we also ate at a great jeep-themed diner called 7 Slots.

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Eventually, we made it back to Morley and Mecosta Pines, where we were spending another night.  We had great weather and it was overall a good day of riding.  Since it was July 4th, we also had to indulge in some sparkler action – although it turns out fireworks and sparklers are not allowed at Mecosta Pines (ooops!).

Rule-breaking

Rule-breaking

Day 4: July 5 – Morley – Grand Rapids (~35 miles)

We ended with a relatively swift day of riding. We rose early and managed to pack up camp and be on our bikes by about 8:15 am.  Impressive!  I think all of our butts were quite sore at this point, as can be expected.

While some trails might be more majestic (the rolling terrain of GAPCO) or impressive (the famous tunnels of Elroy-Sparta), what I appreciated about the White Pine Trail was that it seemed well-maintained and had a classic Midwestern feel to it – with farmland.

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Beautiful nature:

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And small towns:

Sand Lake, Michigan (2016)

Sand Lake, Michigan (2016)

(Oh, and did I mention berries?)

Stopping for a snack of raspberries!

Stopping for a snack of raspberries!

Once we reached Grand Rapids, we packed up our bikes and headed to a diner for lunch before heading home.  It was a great trip and we lucked out with having good weather – no rain and not too hot.

White Pine Trail – Part I

Well, it seems it has become a sort of July 4th tradition to go on a bike trip!

Most recently, we traveled to Grand Rapids, Michigan to ride the White Pine Trail (in 2014, we rode Great Allegheny Passage – C&O Towpath, and in 2015 rode Elroy-Sparta).  Here are the details of the White Pine Trail – in planning the trip, we primarily relied on the Friends of the White Pine Trail website:

  • Who: In addition to myself, other riders included Ellen, Yesica, and Autumn. Lauren came along as well, but was our wonderful SAG wagon driver (which also meant we didn’t have to carry panniers and gear on our bikes this time!);
  • What: The White Pine Trial is about a 94-long rail-trail that heads north from Grand Rapids to Cadillac, Michigan. It consists of both paved (very nice) and unpaved sections. As a heads up, the unpaved sections would be a bit rough for road bike skinny tires, but hybrid tires were fine.
  • When: July 2 – July 5

Our more detailed itinerary and photos are below:

Day 1: July 2 – Grand Rapids to Morley (~35 miles)

Once we arrived in Grand Rapids, we found what we thought was the trailhead pretty easily. Apparently, we were just a tad bit north of the actual trailhead, but we found a free carpool lot to leave a car at over the weekend, so we decided to just leave from there.  It was a gorgeous day for riding – here we are at the start:

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Mile 0

And, here’s our Support Crew:

Service with a smile!

Service with a smile!

This first day’s section of the trail was about 21 miles paved versus 14 miles unpaved, so overall it was pretty  smooth sailing.  We passed some small towns and made one stop to watch what we thought was a rodeo (exciting!), but actually turned out to be a greased-pig-catching contest in which a variety of little kids tried to catch (or something?) a pig that had been greased up.  I was rooting for the pig, to be quite honest.  Anyway, it seems many people from the town where in attendance, and the event had some standard carnival food like elephant ears and lemonades.  Delish.  We stayed about 15 minutes though and then it was back in the saddle.

Carnival Food

Carnival Food

The first night we had booked a tent site at Mecosta Pines, which is about half a mile or so off the trail.  It was a quite nice campground with clean showers and friendly people. True to its name, the entrance to the campground was a cool alleyway of tall pines:

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Once there, we had a good dinner at camp, built a campfire, and then went to bed somewhat early.

Day 2: July 3 – Morley – Cadillac (~60 miles)

After breakfast at camp, we hit the trail again around 9 am to get an early start for what would be a longer day of riding.  Overall, this day of riding would be pretty evenly split between paved and unpaved sections, and would consist of more uphill than downhill (although, of course all moderate hills since it’s a rail trail).

Along the trail, we sporadically saw old railroad milstones.   I always think it’s cool to see some of the old railroad relics on rail trails.

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And this old sign:

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Here’s a paved section of the trail, with some sort of old building next to it:

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Prior to Cadillac, Reed City has a very nice depot, with bathrooms and water, and the Pere Marquette Trail also intersects with Reed City if you’re looking for another route.

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All in all, this was a hard riding day. In addition to riding about 60 miles mostly uphill, it was also in the mid-80s and the trail had little shade on the unpaved portions.  The unpaved sections seem to get little use (we saw maybe 5 other riders the whole day on these sections) and are a combination of gravel, dirt, and grass.

Still not as rough as the C&O Towpath!

Still not as rough as the C&O Towpath!

Our destination in Cadillac was William Mitchell State Park campground, which is in a really cool location on the isthmus between Lake Cadillac and Lake Mitchell.  The campground was very crowded, primarily with RVs, but it’s hard to beat a location near the water. Yesica and I jumped in one of the lakes, happy to get out of the heat!

Relief

Relief

Autumn’s parents and sister met us at the campground for dinner – for brats, burgers, veggie burgers, portobellos, corn on the cob, and s’mores!

Continue reading Part II:  Days 3 and 4!