Mackenzie Pathway

 I made my trip to Cadillac this afternoon and took time to stop and hike more of the Mackenzie Pathway. I was there for about 20 fast minutes in 2015, and before that I think it was the late 1990s when I was previously there.

There are multiple ski loops, and I didn't have time (or probably energy) to do all of them today. I did one path up the center to the outer loop and then followed the outer loop back to the beginning. The trails are for hiking, mountain biking and skiing, so most are wide and level (side to side- there are hills). In the winter there is a X-Country ski trail connection to Caberfae Peaks.

If there are any good views, I didn't find them. I'm thinking probably not, because even though there were a number of ups and downs, there as only 85 feet of elevation difference between my low and high points today.

There is a bluff along Johnson Creek with hemlocks in the gully, but the creek is very small at the bottom.

Best space was this bit of wetland along the bluff.

But, lookee, lookee! Finally some wildflowers. There were a lot of hepatica in bloom, and some had leaves showing (usually you don't find leaves at the same time as the flowers), so I can definitely say these are sharp-lobed hepatica.

And lots and lots of ramps (leeks).

This is a richer bit of woods than some other places in the Manistee National Forest. There were baby leaves for trout lily and dutchman's breeches. This could be a nice place for a wildflower walk in a month.

Very good day. I edited and did other things in the morning, then took this hike and did my Cadillac errand in the afternoon.

Miles hiked in 2025: 132.8

Mackenzie Pathway, Wexford Co., MI. various loops, 5.8 miles

See Sunday Hikes

Sunday Hikes

 
Sorry for missing a couple of days. I got lots of extra work hours Thursday and Friday night, and was just zonked out afterwards. Today I recovered and went exploring several trails in the Cadillac area. You'll be seeing more of my discoveries as the week goes on, I think. Today... just a sense of the trails I sampled.

At Mitchell State Park, there is a nature loop that is almost all through wetlands. There's a spur trail with observation platform that extends into the open center (filling with emergent plants). This was a different ecosystem than any of the other trails and had lots of diversity of plant life.



Next, I checked out two paved trails very near downtown Cadillac. The Keith McKellop Walkway is paved, and does not even allow bicycles. So walkers can stroll for a little more than a mile without needing to watch out for faster users. It's right beside Lake Cadillac. I just liked the gulls coming in for a landing. The day was really lovely. Just a little hazy, but it sort of gave the picture texture.



Heading north from that is another paved trail called the Clam River Greenway. This trail was a community effort to reclaim some nasty real estate where the river had become little more than a drainage ditch. It's not a large river, and not hugely attractive, but walking beside water from downtown out to the area sports complex was pleasant.



After these hikes I was seriously hungry, so I treated myself to a burger. Yum. Next I headed east from town to hike part of the Cadillac Pathway trail system. This is for hiking, cycling, and skiing in the winter. All natural surfaces. I hiked almost five miles of it. There's lots more. The ecoystem was our common dry, upland mixed hardwoods. Very pleasant, but mostly bracken, blueberry, wintergreen and partridge berry on the ground.



The day was winding down, but I really wanted to sample the MacKenzie Pathway, west of town. This is also a series of loops for hiking, cycling and skiing. This one is in the Manistee National Forest, while the previous one is part of the Pere Marquette State Forest. Interestingly enough this area was quite a bit wetter and richer than the Cadillac Pathway. This could be a good place to find wildflowers in the spring. I had just enough light left to do a quick mile in and then back out.



Total miles hiked for the day, about eleven. Not bad at all. All these trails are in Wexford County.

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