BIKING IN THE CATHEDRAL OF THE GREAT OUTDOORS
Since early childhood, I’ve been an admirer and lover of Nature. From the time I was 3 years old, I was outside most of the day. (Looking back, maybe Mom did that out of self defense?)
Sunday morning, Charlie and I met, then drove to the minute town of Sydney. Which introduces another realm additional to the Great Outdoors - Midwest Small Town Americana. Small towns are all different, and all the same. They represent abbreviated examples of full sized cities, in more compact packages. Sydney is too small to have a McDonald’s. Instead, the Meijer Heartland Trail runs through the town, bringing in people, business, cultures, etc.
These bike trails are on abandoned railroad (RR) rights of way (ROW). In the 1800s, when the RRs obtained the land, some of it was actually done legally and honestly. But, not a lot of it. The anger lived on in those farming families right up to the present. Originally, the RRs ran along a string of settlements and lumber camps. Trains hauled the finished lumber to markets, mostly to Chicago and Detroit.
Much of Michigan was originally forested with white pine. That was a profitable lumber tree. After those forests had been stripped off the land, setllers moved in and started thousands of small farms. My great-grand parents on both sides of my family were some of those farmers. So, the RRs eexpanded ro service the small towns, hauling farm produce out, and city produce back in.
Unhappily, RRs were owned and managed by men who were pretty much arrogant, bull headed, and ambitious. They dictated what was going to happen. They were able to get away with that up til into the middle of the twentieth century. Then trucking grew to the capacity where they could challenge the railroad industry. But, in most cases, blind arrogance prevented RR management from recognizing the changing business culture until they ran themselves right out of business.
The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) took over the land being abandoned by bankrupt RRs.. Someone had the idea of “Rail to Trails”, and over 10,000 miles later, Michigan has many, many scenic trails. Fredric Meijer, a businessman who started a chain of grocery-department stores in Michigan, donated many thousands of dollars to develop some of those trails.
The Meijer Heartland Trail runs from the refinery/college town of Alma, W’ly about 45 miles to the little burg of Edmore. There, it turns SW’ly, and runs about 50 miles to the town of Greenville. It’s hard surfaced full length, and almost all of its 98 mile length is in farmland.
Most of the trail Has trees along both sides. .The standard RR ROW was 100’ wide. They could run the roadbed anywhere within those borders. The roadbed has to be rock solid stable soil, of high load-bearing capacity. To get that, the soil has to be dry - fully, totally dry. So, when they had to cut through flat land, they dug a ditch along both sides for drainage, and used that soil as fill dirt to raise the actual roadbed. These systems of raised roadbed with flanking ditches are typically 40’-50’ wide, typically leaving the remainder as was. Those remainders are usually wooded. Within every 3-4 miles is an area that is physically suitable for camping, some better than others.
So, I am in three realms that are Lifetime favorites.. (1) The Cathedral of The Great Outdoors being the largest. It contains (2) Midwest Small Town Americana. And that realm contains (3) the Northwoods. I grew up in these realms, learning to love and appreciate them, but being a kid, I took them for granted. Having started out to tell of a 2 day bike trip, I’ve gone all around Jack Robinson’s barn to describe where we were, and still haven‘t told about the ride.
We arrived in Sydney. Having driven 80 miles to get there, locals had beaten us there. We see many older couple on the trails. Also younger families with kids. (They’re my favorites.) Another group is speed nuts who ride at 20-25mph. Walkers populate the trails in and near towns. By the time you’re one or two miles out of a town, walkers are non-existent. Almost everyone waves and smiles. The speed nuts just nod or grunt. As you pass through a town, and by houses along the trail, there are little, mown paths connecting to the trail. PEOPLE USE THESE TRAILS. Young parents with strollers walking and talking with friends are another portion of the users.
Anyway, from Sydney, we rode about 10 miles SW’ly to Greenville. There, we walked the bikes through a McD’s drive through, and enjoyed hot fudge sundae for lunch. (They are proof.that God loves us.). On the ride back up to Sydney, we took a rest. I stretched out on a roadside lawn, under a big, old white oak tree. This olde man needed that break.
Arriving back at the vehicles, we unlimbered the camp gear and loaded up. I was packed in 4 saddlebags. Charlie had along Dewey, his Australian sheep dog, so his 5 saddlebags were supplemented with a small trailer for Dewey. We rode a bit over 4 miles to a spot we had previously scouted, walked the bikes through and around brush, and onto a beautifully wooded bench of land.. Charcoaled steak for supper. On the trail or on the river, we cap off the day with a shot of scotch, and a seegar.
Weather was cool, and the down bag felt good. Along about 02:00, we were awakened by coyotes. They had evidently made a kill, and were howling to celebrate. What bothered me was the number of howlers. It had to take 20-30 individual coyotes to have all of that howling and yipping going on all at once. Concerning. A rough estimate would be 1/2 to 1 mile away. About 05:00, was a repeat performance, but closer! I judged about 1/4 mile away. It elevated from concerning to worrisome. Though coyotes aren’t noted for attacking humans, we had along a dog. And nylon tents and hammocks are no defense to that many coyotes.
They didn’t bother us any more. We woke up about 07:15, packed up and rode back to the vehicles. Biking in Michigan is fantastic. It is in other locales too.
