Poto: Heritage Park

[moto367]

Not sure of SSGreg's definition of "over-grown" but the trail is in AWESOME condition. 24" wide is plenty open for darn good riding. The trail is dry and the 2 fella's that have been maintaining the trail have been hard at work. My hat's off to these 2 gents for their efforts. If you haven't ever ridden this trail, your missing some good fun.

[SS Gregg]

Yes, Mike and Jeff have been hard at work and we were able to get the city to pitch in. Glad to hear it is in better shape now.

[volt_son]

Does anyone know if hunting is allowed on any part of the trail?

[SS Gregg]

No, Heritage Park is a city park and hunting is not allowed. Feel free to ride without risk of being shot.

Another Son Volt fan? I am listenening to Trace right now. It is one of my favorite albums.

[knc]

The trail is in excellent condition, come out this Sat.@ 5:15 meet in the upper parking lot on the left and join us on our annual Holiday Heritage Night Ride. Lights and helmets are recommended. The city will be starting their light display as well. It's sure to be a excellent time as snow is in the forecast!!

[Steve_Balogh]

I ventured out to Adrian today hoping for something a little different than what I've been seeing locally. Surprised to see so many hiker's prints there too, however the first 1/2 mile or so that forms a loop back to the nature center was so packed down it was almost smooth. Outside of that my fat tires came in handy getting over the frozen footprints. The section between the roads entering and exiting the nature center I did a couple of laps there. The first was pretty tough, but I got through much quicker the second time around. Seemed I could smash a lot of the frozen tracks down. The worst section is the east end on the other side of the road. Fewer hikers there, creating some frozen shoe prints for a really bumpy ride. Most of the trail was bumpy, but not as bad as that section.

I got lost crossing the bridge at the bottom of the hill, ended up in the frisbee golf course. I made my way back around the farm and did another lap and rode sections I missed. I'm thinking I still missed some areas I remembered from last year's night ride. Lots of people cutting across loops as well as a few animal tracks going off on what looked like trail sections made me think a few times. Is the "swamp section" still there? I didn't see anything that looked like that, appears to be part of the golf course from what I can recall.

Beautiful day. Was a tough ride but I enjoyed it. Only walked a couple steep hills, everything else I could pretty much mash through and could climb many other decent sized hills.

One note: On the east section I spoke of, where there are some good size log hops, the large tree trunk that's part of the trail had a pedal trap. On the right side the chicken wire covering has a hole in it. Looks like someone snagged their pedal in it, and ripped an 8" hole in it. I got my right pedal caught in the hole. I tried to flatten that down the best I could, but it looks like it needs a trim. I was actually walking over the log, thankfully I didn't try riding it.

[SS Gregg]

Steve,

I rode the trail Saturday with pretty much the same report. Friday night, we went to see Robert Plant at Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor. Some people tailgate before concerts, jamming music. We watched the Race Across the Sky movie, documenting Lance's victory at the Leadville Trail 100 in 2009. Great, inspiring movie (in spite of all the ongoing "Lance was doping" controversy talk). So I took the ol' Bontrager SS MTB out Saturday to Heritage Park with Dale (my new puppy) for a trail ride. I found that there was a lot of the trail that ccould be ridden, primarily where they has been a lot of running/hiking activity (there is a running race out there in early February). Other areas were too hard to get my single speed through, due to the frozen footprints you mentioned. I did multiple laps on the stuff I could ride, and hit some of the roads in the park to give Dale a chance to open up. Great workout. Hope to see you out there some time.

[Steve_Balogh]

Steve,

I rode the trail Saturday with pretty much the same report. Friday night, we went to see Robert Plant at Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor. Some people tailgate before concerts, jamming music. We watched the Race Across the Sky movie, documenting Lance's victory at the Leadville Trail 100 in 2009. Great, inspiring movie (in spite of all the ongoing "Lance was doping" controversy talk). So I took the ol' Bontrager SS MTB out Saturday to Heritage Park with Dale (my new puppy) for a trail ride. I found that there was a lot of the trail that ccould be ridden, primarily where they has been a lot of running/hiking activity (there is a running race out there in early February). Other areas were too hard to get my single speed through, due to the frozen footprints you mentioned. I did multiple laps on the stuff I could ride, and hit some of the roads in the park to give Dale a chance to open up. Great workout. Hope to see you out there some time.

Really a nice trail in the winter. I'll have to try again some sunny winter day and get there earlier and take more pics. How was Plant? What genre is he playing? Last I heard he was playing bluegrass - going in opposite directions from John Paul Jones who was big in bluegrass & Mandolin "Society", now going to harder rock with the Crooked Vultures.

[Tom McMichael]

I'm wondering why we don't have a Southeastern Chapter?

[AllMountin']

Rode this Saturday evening. Wasn't sure how it would be, due to recent rain. The low grassy/wetland part with the boardwalk part was hit and miss, so I walked a lot of that, but everything else was excellent.

I want to give a shout out to those that maintain this trail. No issues with dead fall. I reaaaally enjoyed the rock garden, the arranged stump features with the chicken wire(nice, effective touch), and the elevated bridge with the drop at the end. Okay, I didn't really enjoy that last one so much as I enjoyed making it to the end w/out falling. I'll try that lone, large stump again with my other rig- didn't have enough chain ring clearance with the HT.

I'm gonna go throw up a positive review on Singletracks when I get a minute. There were a couple of clowns from Ohio that posted poor reviews on there. Sounds like they didn't even run the whole trail. Definitely a worthy ride if you're in the area.

-Steve

[moto367]

^...not me. Love this place. I didn't see any negatives on singletracks? Unfortunately I haven't been able to ride in a while. Was hoping to make it up on Monday. Did Adrian get hammered by the storm that blew through earlier this afternoon? Any trial update? Thanks and Happy trails.

[SS Gregg]

There are a couple of new dead falls, but between Jeff. Mike and Todd, I doubt they will be there long

[moto367]

My son and I were able to make it up today. Trail was superb and very fast. They must have not gotten the rain we did last night. You guys have been busy adding some new stuff. All is good. We couldn't ride the back section behind the soccer fields. It was all water. Hope to get back on a "normal" routine when school is out and make it out more often.

[ah77]

Is this trail still actively maintained? I am thinking about driving up and checking it out, but don't want to drive 45 miles to find the trail unmaintained. Thanks!

[deezler]

^ Bump for the same question - curious if a local could give us an update. Hows the signage and maintenance?