Trail Rides

Monday the 18th

Another beautiful day dawns with a promise of temperatures in the 70’s. We decided to do some more bike riding and take in some wildlife areas. After reviewing our tourist info for the area we decided to drive up to Marblehead with the bikes and catch the ferry to Kelly Island. The whole island is a park with birding areas, marshes and other opportunities for wildlife viewing. Since it also has a small town in the center of the island we could stop for lunch.

After doing our morning chores we loaded up the bikes and headed out. Marblehead is only about five miles from the park so ten minutes later we pull off the street and find a parking spot, unload the bikes and mount up.

We ride down to the dock and up to the ticket office. As soon as we got to the ticket booth and started figuring up the fees for the five mile crossing, Tina looked at me and said, “Are you sure we want to spend $50 bucks for a ferry ride?” Even though this is a round trip fare on a privately owned ferry service, it felt pretty exorbitant. So we decided to bag that idea and try something else.

We rode back to the car and stopped at a little store where we could ask about bike riding in the area. The lady behind the counter recommended “Meadowbrook Marsh” and gave us directions on how to get there.

So we loaded up the bikes and following her directions drove across the isthmus and turned back towards Toledo. Five miles later we saw a sign announcing the Meadowbrook Marsh Preserve. We doubled back and pulled off the road onto a small narrow driveway of chipped bark and wood. It looked more like a private driveway but we pulled into a clearing and parked. I got out and checked to see that there really was a trail going somewhere – there was. So once again we unloaded the bikes and mounted up.

The trail was more like a jeep track covered with the same tree chips without the jeep ruts. The trail led down to a large pond and marsh area with a grassy verge that has recently been mowed. We rode one of the trails along the marsh and out into the back woods. The trails were all fairly wide and either mowed grass or chips but only ran for a mile or two. After winding around through the woods we looped back to the marsh and back to the car. At this point we decided to give up and head back to the coach.

By now it’s about 1:00 PM so we had a nice lunch then I decided to go out and ride some of the trails here in the park. Some run to the lake some across swampy areas on boardwalks, some have bird viewing stands and some are very, very muddy.

All of the trails are about eight feet wide and mown grass is the trail surface. I covered about five miles of trails before I came to a sign that said, “Trails Closed To Snowmobiles”.

Now I knew why the trails were shaped the way they are – in winter they are opened to cross country skiing and snowmobiles. I got back to the rig and washed the mud off my feet, put the bikes away and called it a day.

To see all of today’s photos click on the following link:

http://picasaweb.google.com/mjdolanski