North Bank Trail status

June 14, 2010 update:
The Township has a purchase option from Forest Lake Estates for an easement for the North Bank Trail bike path extension project. Due to the timely nature of the grants received for the project, the purchase option needs to be acted on.

May 10, 2010 update:
Spring Lake Township has an option to acquire an easement through the Forest Lake Estates Mobile Home Park. The option was acquired as part of our efforts to develop our section of the North Bank Trail (from Fruitport Road to 144th Ave). Since the option agreement was signed, the Township has been successful in receiving grant funding to cover 60% of the cost of completing this section of the trail. More information needs to be received before the option is completed.

More info on this trail here: http://www.springlaketwp.org/Depts/NorthBankTrail.shtml

New Tri-city trail information

I have added a couple of new links under Western Michigan Trails on the right side of this blog. One is the Grand River Greenway and the other is the North Bank Trail in Spring Lake Township. Both are new trails in this area of Michigan, just entering the development stages. I hope to add news stories and additional links to these trails as the development progresses. The North Ottawa Weekly newspaper mentions both projects in the July 17-18 edition under the article about City Beach restroom improvements. The MNRTF (Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund) allocated $2.3 million in a grant to fund several projects in Ottawa County earlier this year.

Pier to Pier Ride

Seems like all I post is boat or lighthouse photos. Well, there are a lot of both of these up here in Michigan. This past weekend I went on a Pier to Pier bike ride, from my house to the end of the South Pier, then all the way around to the end of the North Pier, then back home. This amounts to about 18 miles, mostly because you have to cross the Grand River over the drawbridge next to US 31. On this ride, I also got to see the drawbridge go up and down, and got a video of it from a cyclists perspective.

Foggy Lakeshore ride

I went on my usual 8 mile ride to the North Pier and back again after work. It didn't seem foggy until I got right up next to Lake Michigan. The first photo shows the lighthouse on the South Pier across the Grand River channel. You can barely see other walkers on the pier. The bottom photo shows the North Pier almost back to shore. I had to cycle halfway back to shore along the pier to get this shot. From the end of the pier, the shoreline was invisible.

Grand Haven kite festival

It must be summer! Tourists invaded Grand Haven this weekend for the annual kite festival. The beach must have had several thousand college kids. It looked like Spring Break in Florida or Texas! Gayle and I drove past the beach after church on Sunday just to see a few of the kites. We snapped a few shots out the car window as we weren't going to find any parking within 10 blocks of the beach and boardwalk. Later Sunday afternoon I went for a bike ride to the North Pier and shot a few more photos toward the South Pier and beach.

Ride of Silence - Spring lake

After work yesterday, I cycled over to Spring Lake Central Park, where the local Ride of Silence was to begin at 7 pm. I met my colleague Jeremy and his fiance, Misti, at the park. Spring Lake's ride was one of 32 across the state of Michigan, and one of over 300 across the country. This was the 4th year in Spring Lake. They had a very nice turnout, with 87 registered cyclists, including a couple bike cops. We had police block the major intersections along the route, and everyone was very quiet during the entire 7.5 mile route.

Riding around Spring Lake

I went for a 15.5 mile ride this afternoon after Gayle and I did some shopping in Muskegon and Grand Haven. I wanted to inspect the Spring Lake Trail again before tomorrow's "Family Ride". Didn't see any problems. I went out to State Road and up 148th to Fruitport Road, then back down along Fruitport Road into Spring Lake again. The top photo is crossing over Pettys Bayou near the Spring Lake Country Club. The second and third photos are near the Village Cove Marina and Barrett Boat Works in Spring Lake. I was thinking of Photo-Shopping "Go Big Red" where it says "Go Blue" on the boat. The last photo shows where the trail cuts in through the Holiday Inn parking lot and the North Boardwalk under the Spring Lake bridge (where I took the photo). The trail actually squeezes past the round picnic table on the boardwalk near the bow of the large boat.