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After another week of cold weather and continued snow, I shouldn’t have been surprised that this 5 mile trek was sitting on a sheet of 1.5 inch ice. About 12 steps in, I hit the ground and got to test out my microspikes for the duration of the journey. What did I learn? Shoe spikes save lives.
The trail was extremely populated from trail runners to weekend strollers and the camaraderie as we all struggled with the terrain was nice to experience. I still have no idea how anyone got through this hike without spikes on their shoes, but there were plenty that I came across. At one point, I actually stopped just to watch 3 teenage boys literally just slide down a hill. I didn’t stick around to figure out how they made it back up the other side, but I did notice not a single one of them had decent soles on their shoes for what they were doing.
About 3 miles into the trail from where I started at the Brighton Recreation Area, there is a portion of the trail that runs along the road of a neighborhood. While it is marked to indicate the direction you should head to find the next trailhead, some of it did get confusing and, to me, my map indicated a much shorter distance along the road than you actually are. I’d be curious to see if it’s better marked when there are more visible landmarks in the area, and less snow.
Shortly after this minor inconvenience, I did have to stop for some microspike maintenance, but it was quickly remedied and I was on my way. It wasn’t that they were even causing me trouble, just that the front and back had come undone on one foot so I sounded like the grim reaper rattling his chains through the woods. The 50 Hikes in Michigan book suggests doing this trail during peak fall colors, and, even with my experience in the dead of winter, I can definitely understand the suggestion (p. 43).
Raven K 