Reclaimed Methodist Property Trails

Last week Shirley at bell choir told me that a bunch of people cleaned up the trails on the church property. So today before practice I went to check them out.

I started my tracker at the parking lot and walked past the Community Garden which the church also hosts.

Then I walked past the pavilion and campfire circle which the church uses for various outdoor events. Just beyond there, the trail system begins. I have walked all of these in the past, but that was prior to having electronic tracking, and at that time there were also no markings. I just wandered around until I came back to the church. Today, I recorded a track.

Not only are the trails cleaned up, but there are some simple colored arrows so you can actually tell where to go. There is a total maze of side trails because people who own homes nearby have made trails to get to the loops.

There are several loops, interconnected. I'll try to get the map and info on my Get Off the Couch website in a few days. Anyone can come walk there. Long ago, a couple of bridges were put in to cross the small creek, so you don't have to get wet feet. A little topography on the yellow loop, but most of the paths are quite tame.

You can loop back to the pavilion or cut to another trail which leads you to the church Prayer Garden. I don't know for sure that's what it's called, but it's a beautiful space where you could pray or visit with a friend.

Best plant find of the day was some of the Rabbit Tobacco, Pseudognaphalium obtusifolium, I showed you a couple of weeks ago that is in its second year, so it is mature.

Here is a reminder of what it looks like in the first year.

I walked all the loops, which meant I had to do some overlapping, and counted the distance from the parking lot to the start of the trails. Got in 2.5 miles before bells. It's an easy place to get a short walk- anything from less than a mile to as long as you want to wander.

Edited, brought in the plants from the rock garden that can't freeze.

Miles hiked in 2025: 389.2.

See Methodist Trails

Urban Forest Trails

  Today, Cathy and I walked through two urban forest areas in Ludington. It would have been a good choice for a different day (or to have had snowshoes), but we sure got a good workout. Took a couple of streets to reach the Ludington School Forest. This has a nice loop with various cutoffs. It gets a lot of use, so I figured the dog walkers would have packed it down well Sunday and yesterday, since the snow had pretty much stopped Saturday night. Nope. Really unbroken snow except for occasional ski tracks. Even though it's not groomed, we tried to stay out of them.

Maybe the lack of walkers is because of the temperatures. The high today was 14 degrees, but be were bundled up and it was no problem. My new boots are keeping my feet warm and dry.

Then we crossed the road and entered Methodist Church property. Someone had skied there too. I just liked the tracks.

I've showed you some of these trails before. But today we went out farther, where I've never hiked before.

We weren't sure we were even on church property, but we finally picked up some snowshoe tracks and were following those. Before long, we came to one of the many wooden crosses in the woods that I think they use at Easter time for some sort of meditation walk. So we knew we hadn't strayed too far.

And then, when we were almost at the end of our time... the sun came out for a little bit. It sure was nice to see bright light shining on the pine needles!

The sky never really cleared, but there were blue patches, and it was a gorgeous shade of blue!

We only managed to walk 3.5 miles, but our knees know we did something. Nice time.

In other news: I did some volunteer stuff in the morning. Then Doug (Cathy's husband) came and plowed out the driveway, and tried to get the snowblower running. He couldn't get it to go either, so I feel better. Then I did errands, walked with Cathy, and then had bell choir practice. After that I bought groceries, and then finally I got to come home and eat. Full day!

See Methodist Trails