Montague, Michigan and Magnus Park, Petoskey, Michigan

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
5/4/2025	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	142 miles

Parking: 

• 901 West Lake Street, Petoskey, MI

Map:

• Welcome to City Of Petoskey, MI

Directions:

• n/a

After leaving Chelsea, our first stop was Montague, to sketch with Urban Sketchers West Michigan for 3 hours. I met up with Mary Jo Ernst, who has been an amazing mentor for me getting our Urban Sketchers Asheville chapter started. I sketched the world's largest weathervane :) I wanted to stay longer, but we had miles to make.

We had thought about spending a night in Petoskey but ended up choosing Mackinaw City. Well, we decided to take another detour and stop at Petoskey State Park anyways. It turns out this area had a really bad ice storm in late March which caused damage to 4,000 miles of trails! The state park was closed. We drove north for a while looking for a beach, but everything was private property. We drove back south and stopped at Magnus Park. This is a park with RV camping. Oh, I would love to have stayed in this tiny campground. Yes, it's right next to the road, but what a great place to hang out on the beach.

I let Krumm off leash and he ran into the lake. We spent a couple of hours looking for Petoskey stones while Krumm played in Lake Michigan. He really liked the lake because its shallow for quite a way. We only found one Petoskey stone, and not a particularly fancy one, but we did see many fossils in stones - mostly of shells. We enjoyed a beautiful sunset before continuing our drive to Mackinaw City.

Photos in reverse order.

 

We found lots of fossilized shells in rocks

Searching for Petoskey stones

Green Lake Loop, Waterloo Recreation Area, Chelsea, Michigan

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
5/3/2025	5.1 miles	1 hour 45 minutes	87'	3.0 mph	142 miles

Parking: 

• 17819 Stockbridge Chelsea Road, Chelsea, MI

Map:

• Green_Lk_Loop_Map_08_2020.pdf

Directions:

• Head to the kiosk in the parking lot. Follow the trail until you hit the loop. Turn left onto the loop. Hike the trail clockwise. When you reach the end of the loop, turn left to return to the parking lot.

A quick hike with Glen, Steve, and Krumm after visiting with Steve and Ramona for the day. This one was unpaved and was away from car noise. We mostly encountered mountain bikers (going fast!) on this trail. Hikers are supposed to hike in the opposite direction as mountain bikers. Some days they specify you should hike clockwise, some days you should hike counterclockwise. I've never seen that before, but I guess they want to give mountain bikers some variety. It's a single-track trail, so there is very little time to jump off the trail when mountain bikers approach. We passed by several lakes in the distance. We were in a rush to finish by sunset so no swimming for Krumm. This is an easy, well-marked trail. This is a good time to hike in this area. In the winter it's too frigid, and in the summer its very humid and buggy.

Border to Border Trail, Chelsea, MI

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
5/2/2025	3.8 miles	1 hour 4 minutes	15'	3.5 mph	136.9 miles

Parking: 

• North Territorial Road, Pinckney State Recreational Area, Chelsea, MI

Map:

• Chelsea-Stockbridge Corridor - Border to Border

Directions:

• Turn left on the trail from the parking lot. Walk 1.9 miles to the turnoff for the campground. Return the same way.

A quick hike with Glen, Steve, and Krumm after visiting with Steve and Ramona for the day. A paved urban hike, close to Steve & Chiquita's house. 

Lunch in Ann Arbor

Great Falls of Tinker Creek, Cuyahoga Valley National Park, OH

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
4/30/2025	0.5 miles	20 minutes	60'	1.8 mph	136.9 miles

Parking: 

• Viaduct Park, Willis Street, Bedford, OH

Map:

• Cleveland Metroparks Map

Directions:

• Turn left on the trail and walk along Viaduct Park Loop. Descend to the waterfall and then loop around to return back to the main trail and back to the parking lot.

Continuing to explore things listed on the park newspaper. I wanted to visit the Canal Exploration Center, but it doesn't open for the season until tomorrow. Then we stopped to visit a railway station mentioned in the newspaper - I figured I could at least sketch it, but it was being renovated so didn't look like much. You can take a 2-hour railway trip through the park. That might have been fun, but they don't allow dogs, so we skipped it. Great Falls was also on the list, so we decided to go and see if this might be a chance for Krumm to swim. Nope. It's a large powerful waterfall, with signs saying it's illegal to go in the water (multiple drownings have occurred here). We struck out today with dog swimming.

Bridal Veil Falls, Cuyahoga Valley National Park

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
4/30/2025	0.4 miles	16 minutes	44'	1.6 mph	136.4 miles

Parking: 

• Bridal Veil Falls, Gorge Parkway, Walton Hills, OH

Map:

• Cleveland Metroparks Map

Directions:

• Cross the street from the parking area and follow the sign to the falls. There is a wooden platform overlook. Return the same way.

We saw this waterfall listed on the newspaper given to us by the park rangers, so we decided to check it out. It's a very short walk to the falls. Part of the short hike is on the Buckeye Trail, a 1,444-mile-long distance trail in Ohio. We were hoping to let Krumm take a dip in the water here, but it wasn't an appropriate place to let him swim. Better luck next time Krumm.