White Pine Trail- Big Rapids to Stanwood

 
Om and I managed to get it together enough to continue our section rides down the White Pine Trail. Today we rode 9.1 miles that count toward the goal, but of course 18.2 to get back to the car!

We started in Big Rapids where we left off last year, and rode south. Om had borrowed a mountain bike because this section is not paved. It was well-packed pea gravel, and wasn't difficult with the mountain bikes.



Not all of it was this appealing. This section is pretty much straight with a lot of road crossings. But it was mostly in the shade, so that helped make it more attractive and comfortable.

We did go past a lovely small wetland, and my favorite pictures of the day come from there.






The summer is winding down and goldenrod (pretty sure this is Canada goldenrod, but it could be tall goldenrod) is in full glory.



And the gray dogwood puts on one of its best looks when the berries show off.



We reached Stanwood in just over an hour. There isn't much there. Of course a rail trail is going to go past some of the ugliest buildings a town may have, but I liked the light and shadows. Try to imagine it as Cezanne would have painted it!



But there were those reminders that it's September already. An occasional red leaf intrudes messages of summer's end.

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Return to Paris on Two Wheels

 
Om and I managed to plan a bike ride today. We continued south from where we left off last June on the White Pine Trail.

We began at Reed City and rode to Big Rapids and back for a total of 25 miles. Interestingly enough, the midpoint was through the small town of Paris where I "took you" in January 2012.

There is more to Paris than met my eye on the highway. There's a large and family-friendly county park there. The trail goes right through it. It's also the site of a former state fish hatchery, and the old ponds have been incorporated into the design of the park.



This section of the trail was a lot prettier than the last one. There are quite a few pieces that are nicely wooded. All second growth, of course, since it's a former railroad line. The pieces with trees are very appealing, and the shade is really nice. I didn't tell Om to wear a red shirt, but it makes a good picture.



When we reached Big Rapids the trailhead is out of the main part of town. Big Rapids is a college town (Ferris State), and decent size, but you'd never know it from the trailhead. That's also because of it being a rail trail. They go where the railroad went- usually through the industrial sections. The old depot is still standing, but in need of serious work. However, damaged sections were carefully boarded up, as if someone is trying to keep the weather and vandals out, so maybe there are plans for it.

Omer contemplated the information on the kiosk for a while.



We were hoping to eat at Pere Marquette Catering Company in Reed City when we got back there, but they were closed. Instead we grabbed a sandwich at a sports bar. The food was good, but it was seriously noisy. A wedding party was celebrating, and the bartender actually finally told them to tone it down a notch. I was going to be good and eat light, but the patty melt sounded so good, I gave in. And it was served with homemade potato chips!

Another great bike ride! (And I'll be using these trips on the White Pine Trail for my monthly newspaper column this month, so it was a research trip too.)

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Another Ride on the White Pine Trail - LeRoy to Reed City

 
Om and I headed out for another bike ride on the White Pine Trail today. This section was from LeRoy to Reed City, and was not paved. We knew this ahead of time, so Om borrowed a mountain bike. His road bike wouldn't have been any fun on the gravel.

After a late lunch at Jackie's Place in Irons, here's where we started.



Contrary to my usual obsession with planning outings, we just sort of went and did this one. We didn't even know how far it was to get to Reed City. We just figured we'd ride some distance and then turn around. As it turned out, it was only a bit over 12 miles to ride the whole gravel section, so we did that (and back, of course). Here's the old train station made over into the Chamber of Commerce in Reed City.



We wandered around town a little bit, and had ice cream at Pere Marquette Caterers. It's a bistro style restaurant/caterer. When we continue south on our next outing, we'll definitely include a meal at this place. Nice decor, great menu, reasonable prices.

This is one of my favorite things. At Reed City the former Pere Marquette and Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroads crossed. Both of those lines have been partially converted to rail trails, and so the trails cross there now. However, someone with a sense of history preserved the actual crossing as a centerpiece for the trail junction! The Pere Marquette line is defunct too, but sections of the line survive, including the Marquette Rail that runs in back of my house and I feature from time to time.



Om liked it, but was most enthused about the fact that our next section will be paved again. The gravel was pretty challenging.



All in all, it wasn't a particularly interesting section. Quite a few miles parallel US 131, a freeway, and thus are noisy. Not many plants in bloom, and nothing unusual. This isn't really a complaint, just an explanation of the section. It was a great outing. The weather was Perfect (yes, with a capital P), Om and I found some things to talk about. I'm not even too sore, much to my surprise, since the longest ride I'd taken yet this year was six miles.

I did find one other artifact of the actual train line. This mile marker is still in place. But 305 miles to where? I think Cincinnati, Ohio. That was the southern terminus, and it's not nearly that far to Mackinaw City, the northern terminus. In its heyday, it was the longest North-South line in the country.



Links below to the sections from Cadillac to Tustin, and Tustin to LeRoy.

	See White Pine Trail- Tustin to LeRoy See White Pine Trail- Cadillac to Tustin
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White Pine Trail- Tustin to Leroy

I had a program tonight, at the Spirit of the Woods Chapter of the North Country Trail Association annual meeting. But since we had to head northeast for that anyway, Om and I decided to ride another piece of the White Pine Trail. The next segment was kind of short, but that turned out to be fine because we stopped to take pictures and would have run out of time if it had been longer.



The fall colors here are just about at their peak. I've been trying to avoid filling this blog with them, attempting to wait until they were excellent. But I think that you can expect to see a lot of this for the next few days, especially if we continue to have these nice Indian Summer days.



Blogging has made the world a smaller place, and due to a question in the comments a few days ago, let me explain that in the northern temperate climates, each fall the leaves of deciduous trees turn colors before they fall off the trees for the winter. Generally, one can predict the colors by the species of tree (although there are sometimes oddballs- I have one to show you another day). Actually, these are the "real" colors of the leaves. It's just that in summer the chlorophyll overwhelms it and makes them all look green.

Various factors of the weather will determine the brightness of the displays. Places with mixed forest, known for exceptional color displays are often tourist destinations. People can take relatively inexpensive mini-vacations driving around to see the trees, perhaps visit a farm market and have some fresh apple cider, buy a pumpkin for a jack-o-lantern, maybe let the kids wander through a corn maze.

Fall is a beautiful and fun time of year.

	See White Pine Trail- Cadillac to Tustin
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White Pine Trail- Cadillac to Tustin

Om and I decided to celebrate our anniversary (which was last week) with a bike ride, but we couldn't manage to schedule it till today.



Om wanted to ride some of the White Pine Trail south of Cadillac. The entire trail runs for 92 miles from Cadillac south to Grand Rapids. It's a rail-trail, on the former bed of the Grand Rapids & Indiana, which became Michigan Northern RR, which was under Penn Central. Of course, that means it's quite level and straight.



That said, it does climb gently to one high point, and there is almost a view from there.



We rode 11 miles to Tustin. There is a small museum there, the Pine River Area Museum, but it wasn't open. I'd like to go back when it is. Small-town museums can be fun, and the collections aren't so overwhelming. Then, we rode back, of course!



Then we went to Ruby Tuesday to eat. I'm not usually impressed with chain restaurants, but I have to say they had a really wonderful salad bar. They had real greens, not just iceberg lettuce, and a large selection of other veggies and toppings to add. There were a few other salads too- potato, macaroni, maybe something else.

We've been putting up with each other for 43 years. I guess we'll go for a few more.

Tomorrow, I'll show you some other things we saw.

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