North Bank Trail - dead end in Spring Lake

This is the current east end of the North Bank Trail in Spring Lake, MI. Apparently, there are grants and easements for the trail to extend a few miles farther east, but nothing is getting done. Perhaps the Friends of the North Bank Trail meeting on Tuesday at 5:30 can shed some light on this.

Time to sign up for Colorburst 2010

It is time to sign up for Colorburst 2010! This year's ride is on Saturday, October 9. Check in is from 8 am to 9:30 am in Fallasburg County Park, 2.5 miles north of Lowell, MI. There are 17, 30, 62 and 100 mile route options to choose from. I did 30 last year, but will may do 17 this year if people from work show up and ride. The breakfast is great and they usually have a good lunch afterwards also. Follow this link for more information.

Ride from Grand Haven to Holland

Saturday morning was our scheduled company wellness group Road Ride for August. There are only a couple other road cyclists where I work besides me. However, only Jan showed up for the ride. I rode down from Grand Haven and met her at Kirk Park, on Lakeshore Ave. between Grand Haven and Holland. The two of us cycled south to Tunnel Park, on the north edge of Holland, then turned around and headed back. The top photo above shows the "tunnel" between the parking lot and the beach. It goes through the sand dunes instead of over or around. The bottom photo shows a cute painted pig that someone had next to the road for their property address sign. I ended up with about 39 miles and Jan, about 21 miles.

Friends of the North Bank Trail - No Show

The "Friends of the North Bank Trail" in Spring Lake, MI are supposed to have a monthly meeting at the Crockery Township Hall on the 4th Tuesday of every month. I showed up promptly at 5:20 pm, about 10 minutes before the scheduled meeting time. There were 2 people there, a lady and a guy who was doing some repair work inside one of the Hall's meeting rooms. There were signs posted for this meeting, and the room was open. However, after chatting with the repair guy for about 20 minutes, no one else showed up. I never saw the lady again after entering the building. Hopefully, this was a rare summer thing, as I will try to attend again next month in September.

North Bank Trail expansion map

Here is the map of the proposed trail expansion. It looks great to me!

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.