Best Hiking/bike trails in MI?

[YPSIFLY]

For years I have enjoyed hiking and biking the Potowatami Trail near Pinckney. Awesome place.

I have also hiked the trail along the Taquamhenon River. The stretch between the waterfalls is a must for any U.P. trips.

What are your favorites?

Anyone hike around Pictured Rocks?

[Swamp Monster]

I have hiked in the Pictured Rocks area once and it was very nice. Hiked mainly to find the many waterfalls in the area. Some were just easy little walks, others were pretty good hikes, though not at all difficult. Plan to hike and camp up there again at some point. there is lots of information available with trail maps and camping info available from the ranger stations and tourist info spots through out the U.P. I can't remember who we called, but we had a bunch of excellent info sent to us beforehand. Its just an all around great area!

[Steve]

North Country trail.

[Ruler]

For hiking, there's a trail in the Porcupine Mountains that goes down to a lake called Lake of the Clouds. (I *think* that's the park it's in.) Very strenous, but gorgeous. There's also a trail that runs along a ridge above the lake for several miles. Wild blueberries grow alongside this trail. :p

As for biking, I haven't done much off-road, but the rail-trail in Bay City is a nice bike trail. It's blacktopped, so it's smooth riding. As an added bonus, many scantily clad women use it in the hotter months. The riverwalk is part of it and goes by Midland Street (the bars), so there are drunk scantily clad women around there. :D

[Ron L]

Steve, you're right about the North Country Trail. I've both biked and hiked it. It's great.

My wife and I have kinda adopted Munising and the surrounding area, Picture Rocks, Shiawasee National Forest and the falls as some of our favorite hiking spots in Michigan.

As for biking, I love the Potto trail. When I'm in shape, Highland rocks, it's a blast. Normally, close to home, I ride Island Lake and Mayberry. I've also ridden Bald Mountain and Pontiac Lake. I've done a couple of Rails to Trails as well. When the NORBA Nationals were up in Bellaire, we'd go for the race and ride the course. That was a blast too.

[YPSIFLY]

Ruler,

Lake in the Clouds is an awesome place! Gotta watch for the bears though.

I like the rails to trails concept. There is one that goes past Gregory that I would like to try.

[Ruler]

YpsiFly, there ain't no bears up there! :) Granted, I've been all over the US and canada; bears are much more common, so I'm probably used to a greater probability of an encounter than most. ;)

When I was in Yosemite, we were told the campground was full and that we'd have to go to an overflow campground. It was about 10 miles back in the woods and was basically a circular 2-track with people set up alongside it. There was a small river going through it, which was the only source of water. Naturally, I went fishing. Got a small rainbow, which I cleaned and threw in the cooler. I wasn't able to wash my hands, as we had no water, so I just wiped them on a towel and crawled into the tent. About an hour and a half later, the idiots across from us stopped drinking and went to bed. About 1/2 hour after that, I heard this banging, then scraping sound coming from their campsite. Sounded like somebody was throwing firewood into the bed of a pickup and it was sliding. I figured they were having a fight and getting ready to leave, but poked my head out to be sure. There was a bear that, on all 4s, was almost as tall as I was. (At the time, I was 6'4".) It was swiping at the cooler and rolling it around, trying to get inside. The bang was the impact of it's paw and the scaping was the claws digging into the aluminum side. :eek: Man, did I get outta the tent in a hurry! Didn't want to be there in case the bear decided he wanted a fish dinner!

I walked around the next morning and learned that bears are no big deal; they come through every night. :eek: Needless to say, we went to the standard campground the next day! :)