The Detroit Beach Community Garage Sale will take place June 7-10.

Link:

http://www.detroitbeach.org/

 

I’ve been waiting for a good day to string together the sights on Country Club Road in Adrian.  The issue is that Country Club is a popular east-west route across Adrian for car-based trail users:)  So, the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend was a pretty good morning to walk this route.

My walk begins at the little roadside park on the corner of Tipton and Country Club Road.  The park includes a public parking area, picnic benches and nice views of a River Raisin tributary.

From this park, I followed the wide shoulder on each side of Country Club Road west to Wolf Creek Highway.  On the north side of Country Club is - surprise - the Lenawee Country Club.  The trees are nice to look at.

Wolf Creek Highway is problematic in terms of walking.  It is quite busy and has a curved hill that makes pedestrian traffic a bit dangerous.  Still, there is a neat little set of rapids, a pedestrian-friendly bridge and lots of nice wooded areas.

A walker can proceed south on Wolf Creek, up the hill to the Christian Family Center trails and Lenawee Hills Memorial Park for additional length.

The hiker should return down the hill to Country Club Road.  On the south side of Country Club is a little utility right-of-way that leads to Wolf Creek.  It is a neat little hollow.

On this side of Country Club, the walker will also find several nice subdivisions, Stone Ridge and Scott Ridge.  The subdivision roads can be walked for additional mileage.  Also, the Scott Ridge subdivision leads to Scott Rd. and the Adrian city sidewalk system.

This isn’t the greatest walk because it is shared with traffic.  But it is the kind of route that is possible to find in almost every city.  And it is really quite pleasant.

Here is my route on virtual earth:

http://maps.live.com/?v=2&cid=628A87FDBE3AF2A!227&encType=1

Here is a link to my previous blog post about the Christian Family Center:

http://www.blogsmonroe.com/expatriate/?p=143

Lake Hudson State Recreation Area is a strange kind of place.  It is fairly large, at 2,700+ acres, but it offers no designated hiking trails.  It has a large and beautiful lake, but only attracts about 90,000 visitors per year.

Several activities attract users to the park.  The first is fishing.  Lake Hudson has muskie and many other types of fish.  The water also attracts kayakers and canoeists.  Paddlers find a large lake, but few users, a rarity in southern Michigan.  Hunters use the park in the various seasons.  Campers use the rustic-but-electric campsites.  Day-users have several picnic areas and a beach.

During the handful of visits that I have made to the park, I have rarely seen more than one or two cars.  Today, Kathy and I walked the park roads.  This makes for about a five mile hike.  We saw a handful of people, even though it is Memorial Day weekend.

The park is a bit frustrating to the hiker.  Again, there are no designated trails.  That said, the park roads are at least as appealing as most rail-trails.  Traffic is mostly non-existent.  And the recreation area is quite far from even small towns.

This remote quality has helped to make Lake Hudson a state-designated dark-sky preserve.  The lack of city lights make it a great place to see the stars and planets.

For the adventurous hiker, there are some bushwack possibilities.  Since Lake Hudson is a relatively new manmade lake, it retains some of the previous roadways as two-tracks that lead toward the shore.  Some of the surrounding state land was once farmland.  This gives some sections of the park a wide-open quality that makes cross-country hiking a possibility.

I have explored some of these two-tracks in the past.  I have not yet been able to piece together a satisfying long hike here.  But I am not giving up hope yet.  For the most part, though, Lake Hudson is more potential than current reality for most hikers.

Here’s the official park website:

http://www.michigandnr.com/parksandtrails/ParksandTrailsInfo.aspx?id=464

Here’s the official park map:

http://tinyurl.com/2lvzo2 

Here’s my rough map with the road hiking route and park boundaries:

http://maps.live.com/?v=2&cid=628A87FDBE3AF2A!224&encType=1

Cool, but strange, astronomical web site for Lake Hudson:

http://cleardarksky.com/c/LkHdsnRAMIkey.html?1

DNR Lake Map:

http://tinyurl.com/3yyv4q

Additional DNR lake map:

http://extremesouthmichigan.blogspot.com/2007/05/lake-hudson-sra-lake-contour-map.html

Topo Map:

http://tinyurl.com/2n3sgq

Click below to read several hike reports that I originally posted on the Great Lakes Hikes Yahoo Group:

http://extremesouthmichigan.blogspot.com/2007/09/lake-hudson-sra-hike-reports.html

Monroe is right in the center of a number of very interesting battlefields and forts.  Here are a few…

…The Fallen Timbers Battlefield is a National Park Service site near Toledo that preserves the history of a 1794 battle that defeated the local Native Americans and opened the region to white settlement.

http://www.fallentimbersbattlefield.com/

…Fort Meigs, in Perrysburg, OH is a War of 1812 Battlefield with a cool reconstructed Fort.

http://www.fortmeigs.org/

…The Perry’s Victory International Peace Memorial commemorates the Battle of Lake Erie fought between the U.S. and Britain during the War of 1812.

http://www.nps.gov/pevi/

…The River Raisin Battlefield and Visitor’s Center was the location of one of the major battles of the War of 1812.

http://www.co.monroe.mi.us/monroe/default.aspx?PageId=107

…Historic Fort Wayne in Detroit never saw a real battle, but it was on the U.S./Canada frontier and served as an induction point for generations of Michigan soldiers.

http://www.historicfortwaynecoalition.com/

…Fort Malden in Amherstburg, ONT was a British fort used during the War of 1812.

http://www.pc.gc.ca/lhn-nhs/on/malden/index_E.asp

Memorial Day is a great time to visit these places, but they could also make for a great theme weekend.  Visit them all.

UPDATE: Civil War Buffs should be aware that there is a Civil War Cemetary on Johnson’s Island near Sandusky.  It is connected by causeway to the mainland.   There was an interesting escape attempt on and around the island in 1864.  Sites:

http://johnsonsislandmemorial.homestead.com/Index.html

http://www.nps.gov/archive/pevi/HTML/johnson.html

I posted a week or two ago about the new visitor’s center at the Ottawa NWR east of Toledo.  The Blade published an article about the center at that time.  Here it is…

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070513/NEWS17/705130341

It’s kind of rainy out and I’m really enjoying the couch surfing on this Saturday of Memorial Day.  So, what does a hiker do while not out hiking?  Well, I like to watch TV shows about hiking and outdoor pursuits, of course.

One of the better regional shows is called Great Getaways TV.  The show focuses on areas of the Upper Midwest and Ontario with a particular focus on the towns and wildlands of Michigan.

This weekend, the show is highlighting the sights in the Oscoda, MI area, including the Huron National Forest and Lumberman’s Monument.  Past shows have visited the Pictured Rocks, Bruce Peninsula and Manistique.

Here’s the show website:

http://www.northernexperience.com/

And here’s the TV station and time listing:

http://www.northernexperience.com/stations.html

 

According to the Toledo Blade, the Veterans’ Glass City Skyway will open for traffic across the Maumee River on June 24th.  There will be a June 23rd dedication ceremony.  The Blade also includes this line - “Schedule details for a parade, a race/walk, and any other dedicatory events have not been finalized.”

So, I am still expecting to walk across the bridge, probably on June 23rd.  It should be something to see.

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070525/NEWS11/70525002

The Detroit Free Press published a nice article about the Macomb Orchard Trail in today’s edition.  Click below to see the article:

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007705250375

Mlive has an interesting article on the Polar-Equator trail that roughly follows the 45th parallel through northern lower Michigan.  Here it is…

http://tinyurl.com/2doz63

Howard Meyerson of the Grand Rapids Press has a nice recent article about the Kal-Haven rail trail on the west side of the state.  You can read it here:

http://www.mlive.com/outdoors/grpress/index.ssf?/base/sports-0/1179496533274000.xml&coll=6