We love to ride the White Pine State Park, a 90 mile long railtrail, here in Western Michigan. We prefer to ride the paved portions. The section that runs from Grand Rapids, Michigan to north of Rockford is nice but is heavily used. Weekends are an interesting event with the "skinny wheelers" (racing DF riders who seem always flying by practicing for their next race), families with a bunch of kids who look at you and steer toward you at the same time and the sight of a "cool bike" (our BikeE ATs), roller bladers who use the whole 12' wide path, and the walkers. We found a quieter pave section about 60 miles north of Grand Rapids that starts in Big Rapids (the home of Ferris State University and its excellent hockey team). The path runs north from an old railroad station and you soon pass out of town. You then ride along the Muskegon River for a ways until you reach a high bridge over the river. We stop there and watch the canoes coming down the river. A little way north of the bridge you reach Paris where the Department of Natural Resources has a fish hatchery with ponds full of large rainbow trout. There is a restroom, water, and a soda (which some of the locals call pop) machine at the hatchery. There is even a miniature Eiffel tower in the park overlooking the fish ponds. Then you begin al long climb (about 4% or so) for about 4 miles and then a shorter downhill to Reed City where the White Pine crosses the Pere Marquette Railtrail that runs from Baldwin to Midland and it is paved from Reed City to Evart. Where the paths cross they left the # in place and placed Dutch pavers (street bricks) around the rails. At this point we have come about 10 miles and simply returning to the car at Big Rapids is a 20 mile ride. We often ride to Evart, which is another 13 miles, through the countryside. On the path toward Evart we saw one of the nicest white-tail bucks I have ever seen (at least 10 points), but we have seen wild turkeys, other deer, and all kinds of birds along this trail. What we rarely see on this trail is more than 10 other riders on an average day. Riding this trail is a wonderful break from the hustle and bustle of the paths nearer to the metropolitan centers, like Grand Rapids.

Now here I sit after having just cleaned my drive of last night's snow, 10 inches, knowing that the average high temperature here should be in the upper 30s and low 40s, with a 60+ day mixed in. Today they told us that Lake Superior is frozen over and our dreams of getting out on the White Pine from Big Rapids to Reed City will have to remain a dream for a few weeks longer. But the memory of the rides last year seem to make the time go faster and makes the coming of spring seem sooner.

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Great Trip on a Quiet Railpath