During the height of the 20th Century automotive boom, Edsel Ford purchased a farm named Haven Hill in southwest Oakland County.  The location had everything that a nature lover could want.  There were lakes, hills, marshy areas and some very deep woods.  The farm had large stables for horses and several nice structures in which to live and work.

In time, the State of Michigan gained ownership of the property and turned it into a section of what might just be southeast Michigan’s best hiking park.  The Highland State Recreation Area is over 7,000 acres in size and contains 40 to 45 miles of trail.  Some cater to mountain bikers.  Other sections of trail are meant for horse riders.  All of the trails are open to hikers.

One of the beautiful aspects of hiking in the park is the fact that only a very few roadways cross the large tract.  And even the largest road - Duck Lake Road - has an underground walkway that makes a road crossing unnecessary.  The trails in the eastern sections of the park tend to be flatter, straighter and more scenic than those in the western sections of the park.  However, the trails in the western sections are a real joy to hike or bike.  They constantly twist and turn and flow up and down hills.  This is the kind of hiking that is difficult to find in southeast Michigan.  Several hills that top out at almost 1,200 feet, including Mount Omich, give the feel of mountain hiking - again, a rare experience in this part of the state.

The trail system even makes a short backpacking weekend possible.  There is a small, rustic-style campground in the Haven Hill area in the east side of the park.  It is adjacent to a very nice group campground.  If a hiker started from the west side of the park, he or she could stop for the night at the campground and hike back out the next day.  It would be a nice, near-in adventure.

I have written several hike reports about Highland over the years.  You can read them below:

07/17/01
I was just out hiking today at Highland Rec. Area. I did ten miles combining horse, x-country ski and mountain bike trails. It was way cool. And they have 45 miles of designated trail - and some renegade trails, I think. Anyway, there are a lot of hills and the only road crossing was a tunnel underneath a road.

Oh, and there is a rustic campground. So, if you start at one end, you could do a sizeable overnight. They also have an organization camp that is meant for groups that are 70% kids. They look a lot better than the real campground. I think the key might be to wait around for a weak moment at the park office and try to camp there.

The park facilities, BTW, look terrible. But it looks like few people use it. All the better…

02/06/03

I headed out of school right after the bell tonight and got to Highland SRA by 4PM. I was able to get about 2.5 hours of hiking in - probably 5 or 6 miles.

This is really a great place. The park is about 7,000 acres and it has some of the largest hills in SE Michigan. The hills tend to box the interior regions, so that nearby sprawl can seem very far away.  There are also a bunch of lakes and swamps in the park, so this is very interesting park with several nice vistas. There are probably over 40 miles of trails in the park. Terrain is hilly.

Currently, the trails are icy, but snow-covered. Trekking poles are recommended.

Highlights of the evening: Looking at the hills that boxed me into a kettle-swamp area, Watching the sun set between two hills and seeing the glow of the sky as it turned pink, Feeling night fall in the forest, Passing through the tunnel underneath Duck Lake Rd.

09/01/03

Hike Report: Highland SRA

On Saturday, Kathy and I met a priest friend of ours for lunch near Flint. On the way back, we decided to go for a hike. The original plan was to hit Pinckney. However, I drove down I-75 by mistake and found myself in the unusual position of having to improvise my route back to US-23 through the northern suburbs. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve felt directionally discombobulated (sp?) in the last year and this was one of them.

Anyway, we were close to Highland and so I decided that this was the spot for us. We parked at the mountain bike trailhead and caught the main spur trail into the forest. After a bit, we followed a section of the horse/hike trail to the beginnings of loop D. Then we hiked up and down, up and down, up and down and around and around until we finished the 3.8 mile loop. Then we hiked out. It was probably about 7 miles or so all told.

I always love hiking in Highland. The terrain is excellent. Lots of hills and some nice steep ravine views. There are also some nice steady ascents that you don’t find in many other SE hike spots.  Trail conditions were definitely hikeable. However, it seemed as if recent use/maintenance of the D loop wasn’t as strong as in the past. There were a few trees down and vegetation did tend to creep in at spots.

We saw a runner, a biker and a horseman at the trailhead, but only one person on the actual trail. This happened at about mile 3.5 of the 3.8 mile loop. We had been lulled into the emptiness. We were in the late hike exertion malaise when - BOOM - mountain bike! Around the turn came a biker with his head down. We were surprised. He was surprised. When everyone woke up we were able to avoid incident and passed on our merry ways.

Highland probably has 30 or 40 miles of trail, so people tend to get spread out. Use of this park is surprisingly light considering its location. The terrain tends to keep bike numbers down. We had fun.

07/20/04
I’ve also wondered about the group sites at Highland SRA. It is a really neat little area and much nicer than the developed campground. I suppose if you got a group of, say, NCT hikers you might be able to backpack into that place.

Park Map:

http://tinyurl.com/2q5zqp 

Mountain Bike Trail System:

http://tinyurl.com/2nhy5m

MMBA Trail Guide:

http://www.mmba.org/trails.php?trail=6

Bridle Trail Map:

http://www.geocities.com/highlandtrailriders/highcolormap.pdf

Highland Map from the Michigan Trail Atlas:

http://www.jacksbikes.com/contents/media/highlandrec.gif

Area Topographical Map:

http://tinyurl.com/ytzbbx

Burchfield County Park in Ingham County - just south of Lansing - is a unique trail system in the mid-Michigan/southeast Michigan area.  It is unique in that its trail system has been segregated to include sections of biker-only trail and other sections of trail meant for hikers. 

This is a different philosophy than almost every other trail system in the state.  Many trails espouse a multi-use ethic in which bikers and hikers share the trail.  Other trails simply ban bikes.  In 99.9% of Michigan’s trail systems, hikers are allowed on everything.  So, this park is unique.

The park is also unique in that it has allowed the local mountain bike community to construct many cutting edge routes, bridges and terrain features that make a ride more challenging.  So, there are often two parallel trails in sections of the park.  One trail is easy.  The other trail might have rocks or logs placed to maximize technical difficulty.

As a hiker, of course, I don’t really like the fact that there are trails here that I can’t hike.  And naturalists might take issue with the idea of ”improving” the terrain of a natural area.  However, I can’t argue with the idea that there should be trail systems that are biker-only.  There should probably be a few out there for the hard-core riders.

Luckily, I hiked the trail system on several occasions prior to the current pattern of segregated use.  My hike reports are below:

06/02/02
Tonight I went out to Burchfield County Park (Ingham County) and did a 6 or 7 mile loop around the perimeter of the park. Really nice trail. It is maintained by mountain bikers, so if you don’t like ‘em, stay away. I saw a handful from 5:30 to 7:30PM on a Sunday night. The trail follows the shore of the Grand River for about half of the loop I took. The far shore has a few houses but is mostly really natural. There are actually two paths that parallel the river. The one closest to the water is a technical mountain bike trail that comes the closest to approximating the “foot feel” of the Bruce Trail near Tobermory of any trail in southern Michigan. That’s because they’ve thrown a bunch of fieldstone down on the trail. Not everyone’s cup of tea, but I liked it. I also loved the old, old forest near the northern trailheads. There are also some rolling old field areas with a trail so tight that it barely fit one of my feet.  This place is just west of 127 near Mason, MI.

04/29/03

Burchfield County Park/Riverbend Natural Area (Delorme Atlas, P.39)

The trail system in this area is very fun, although I imagine it might be a turn off to those seeking a wilderness-type experience.  There are 10 to 15 miles of trail in the park, but some of this length is devoted to bypass trails built to create challenging routes for mountain bikers. The terrain is not bad. There are some hills and the views of the Grand River are very nice. Some small lakes also exist in the park. As mentioned previously, mountain bikers seem to love this place. In one section, they have dropped stone onto the trail to create a cobblestone hike/bike experience.  In other places, they have used avante-garde bridges and drop-offs to intensify biking excitement. Sure, these things can be annoying, but it sure makes this hike more interesting than many in the area. After all the dirt and sand I hike through, it’s kind of nice to hike over stones and have to jump a little bit. Trail marking is not always great, but it’s a bit difficult to get too lost. All in all, it’s not a bad place for a walk.

Park Map:

http://www.ingham.org/PK/Maps/BUR%20BW%20Hiking%20Trail%20Map.pdf

Park Website:

http://www.ingham.org/PK/BUR/burmain.htm

MMBA Trail Page:

http://www.mmba.org/trails.php?trail=16

The Monroe Evening News is reporting the DTE Monroe coal-burner as the source of strange powder that coated cars and homes in the Bolles Harbor area.  Read the story below:

http://www.monroenews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070731/NEWS01/107310047

The University of Michigan added early season warm up games against a small Catholic college in Indiana.  The games against the obscure university, named Notre Dame, will provide a good test prior to rivalry matchups with Eastern Michigan and Miami of Ohio.

The games continue Michigan’s attempts to instruct the northern Indiana school, affiliated with St. Mary’s College, in the ins and outs of one of America’s great games.  To quote the Toledo Blade, “The rivalry dates back to 1877, when some Michigan students taught the game to Notre Dame students.”  It is hoped that one day the Indiana school will be competitive enough to play a conference schedule with other Big Ten universities.  That day, however, seems quite far away.

It’s nice to see Michigan continue its educational mission by helping out the area’s smaller schools.

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070731/SPORTS04/70731018

There is an interesting thread in the monroetalks forums.  A poster named AngryBMXer6 has posted a comment about the city skate parks.  Apparently, BMXers are not allowed to ride in the parks.  I am no expert, but I really think that this is a good question.  Why aren’t BMXers allowed in?  Is it really that much more dangerous than skateboarders or inline skaters?

Here’s the thread:

http://www.monroetalks.com/forum/index.php?topic=285.0

 

One of the cool things about visiting Ann Arbor from southwest of town is that the drive takes a person past the Ann Arbor Municipal Airport at the corner of State Street and Ellsworth.

The airport is interesting for several reasons.  The first is that the approach to the runway cuts right over State Street.  On several occasions, I have driven right underneath a landing airplane. 

Another very cool aspect of the airport is that it is an official blimp landing pad.  Over the years, I have seen the Goodyear blimp 5 or 10 times and a variety of other blimps.  While researching this blog post, I tried to see if Goodyear ever published a flight schedule for the blimp.  And I couldn’t find one.  I’d bet that they keep that pretty secret for security reasons.

But I’d bet that during the weekend of an important football game in Ann Arbor, it would be a good time to drive by on the Friday night to see if the blimp is “sleeping” at the airport.

BTW, I took the above picture of the Outback Steakhouse blimp this past Friday evening on my way home from Ann Arbor.

Here’s a cool link to a story about blimp rivalry that took place at the Ann Arbor blimp port.

http://delldeaton.com/photos-blimps.htm

Here’s a blog from a guy who actually rode in the blimp.  I’ve got to come up with some kind of scam to get on one:)

http://ericnuzum.typepad.com/eric_nuzum_dot_com/i-rode-the-goodyear-blimp.html

Ypsilanti used to be a center for undergarment production.  During the late 1800s and early 1900s, many people across the USA would think of underwear when they encountered the city’s name.  So, several enterprising individuals have created a line of hot pink panties with the name “Ypsipanty” printed on them.

Personally, I think that this is a great idea.  And I think that it is everyone’s southeastern Michigan civic duty to purchase a pair.  Are you wearing your “Ypsipanty?”

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/MI_ODD_YPSILANTI_PANTY_MIOL-?SITE=MIDTN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Charles Slat has a neat article/editorial in today’s Evening News.  He writes about his recent vacation to northern and western lower Michigan.  And he has some thoughts about Monroe’s possible role in Michigan’s tourism industry.  Check it out:

http://www.monroenews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070729/BUSINESS/107290020

We are deep in the heart of family reunion season.  Just take a drive past Munson or Veterans’ Parks on a weekend afternoon and you’ll see all the families with the homemade signs and territory-claiming coolers set up all around the park shelters.

So, yesterday, I took my turn with this wonderful family tradition.  I attended the Hoffman/Jondro reunion at Munson Park.  Technically, the reunion was for the descendents of Carl Hoffman and Lizzie Jondro - longtime residents of Monroe.  I am not technically a descendent, but Carl was my great uncle and I remember riding my bike past his big, hungry-looking dogs on Bates Lane when I was a kid. 

And the reunion kind of ended up being a wide variety of Hoffmans and Jondros from several family lines.  It was very cool.  The family is quite widespread these days.  Members came from Alaska, Alabama, Hawaii, New York and Montana.  The ringleader was CeeLee Wiley of Swan Lake, Montana.  She lives about 150 miles from Glacier National Park and always sends Christmas cards with the current snow depths.  I will visit her one of these days.

The event had bean bag tosses, photo sessions and, of course, lots of food.  Unbelievably, it had been ten years since the last reunion of this portion of my family.  It was a great time.

Note: I did gather an email contact list and I have some reunion pictures.  So, if you are a family member, please email me at eriehiker@yahoo.com .  I would be glad to add you to the list and show you the pics.

The Detroit News has an interesting article about Lake Superior.  It is one foot lower than last year and is on its way to its lowest recorded level later this year.  Check out the article below:

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070729/METRO/707290345&theme=Metro-GreatLakes&imw=Y