By using the Ohio Turnpike and Indiana Tollway, the city of South Bend, IN is only about 2 hours from Adrian and 2.5 hours from Monroe.  I’m not sure that South Bend would rank highly in terms of great hiking spots, but it does boast a pretty nice system of trail in Potato Creek State Park.

The park is 3,840 acres and sits on rolling former farmland.  The centerpiece of the park is the man-made, 327-acre Worster Lake.  Visitors can rent boats and canoes at the park and it is not uncommon to see fishermen passing the hours lazily trolling the docile lake waters.

Potato Creek State Park also boasts picnic areas, a campground and several rentable cabins.  It is even possible to drive past an osprey nesting box.

There are many trails to explore in Potato Creek State Park.  The southwester quarter of the park has a 3.3 mile paved bicycle trail that passes through various park environments.  It is possible to rent bicycles at the park, but I’d recommend bringing your own.

The park has just about ten miles of hiking-only trails.  These are mostly found in the northeast quarter of the park.  The trails are easy.  Some are old, wide two-tracks.  Others are single-track routes across rolling hills and around marsh areas.

A new mountain biking trail now shares the hiking section of the park.  This new, 6.7 mile trail uses the same terrain as the hiking trails and intersects at various points.  I’d recommend picking up a mountain bike trail at the park office.  The mountain bike trail is open to hikers, so it can make for some additional hike routes and lengths.  And the mountain bike maps will help to ease the uncertainty at some distant trail intersection.

The southeast sections of the park boast almost seven and a half miles of horse trails.  In Michigan, these trails would be open to hikers.  And the park brochure does not explicitly ban hikers from these trails.  However, I was told by the park office that the bridle trails are not open to hiking.  If anyone has been told differently, please send me an email.

Hikers should also be aware that since the area is converted farmland, there are some old roadbeds that can make for interesting exploration.  And, of course, the park roads can help to connect disparate trails together for longer mileage.

So, unless my math fails me, Potato Creek has 25 to 30 miles of trail.  It’s not wilderness, by any means.  The park can be on the busy side at times.  But it is a pleasant park and worth the drive for a day or weekend away.

I scanned in a copy of the new mountain bike trail map:

http://extremesouthmichigan.blogspot.com/2007/08/potato-creek-state-park-in-mountain.html

Here’s the official park map:

http://www.in.gov/dnr/parklake/properties/maps/2007/potato_trail.pdf

This is the official park website:

http://www.in.gov/dnr/parklake/properties/park_potatocreek.html

Here’s a satellite view of the park.  If you zoom in, you can see all of the old roadways:

http://maps.live.com/?v=2&cid=628A87FDBE3AF2A!312&encType=1

I posted a couple of my older hiker reports on my secondary blog.  You can read them here:

http://extremesouthmichigan.blogspot.com/2007/09/potato-creek-state-park-hike-report.html

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