A Grand Bike Trail--Little Traverse Wheelway

Lake Superior beach at Grand Marais

Got a leftover photo from Sable Falls visit back in Grand Marais...thought the stones on the Lake Superior beach were beautiful and very different from the stones of other Great Lakes. I loved this piece of driftwood. My sister makes candles with only Lake Superior stones all around the outside of the candle, they are gorgeous! In my humble opinion, everything about this area of northern Michigan is grand!

Wheelway mini park

portion of the bike trail

another portion of the bike trail

It's a chilly October fall day in Petoskey, MI...low 50's....it's a little too cold for Eldy's liking to hit the bike trail, but not for me, so off I went today to explore this marvelous bike trail in Petoskey. This bike trail runs right through the grounds of Mangus City Park where we are staying. I saw a sign that said Grand Traverse Wheelway, but I guess this bike trail is officially known as "Little Traverse Wheelway"...This paved, wheelchair accessible, wide trail runs from Charlevoix to Petoskey and on to Harbor Springs..over 25 miles of trail. Talk about a grand, front row seat (bike seat) of Little Traverse Bay, this is GORGEOUS! There is a 1.4 mile segment known as "Resort Bluffs" between East Park in Bay Harbor and Magnus Park, our current location. This part of the trail is its own "mini park" with overlooks, picnic areas, and steps down to the lakeshore...the plantings of ornamental grasses, shrubs and protective mulch is just beautifully landscaped and makes for an exceptionally enjoyable ride. It's fairly level much of the way, but there are some "ups" and "downs" to it. The trail is rated "easy to moderate", whatever that means! The scenery changes from a lakeshore view to riding in the forest, to riding alongside developed condos on the lake, and highway 31 south off to your left. I managed to ride 14 miles round trip without even thinking about how much distance I was covering, it was so pretty!