Winter arrived in a hurry after Thanksgiving, and Leelanau County is covered in fluffy snow. Here’s the downhill and cross-country skiing, sledding, hiking and tubing report, as of Wednesday, Dec. 4. Drive safe, stay warm, and enjoy!
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TART Trails has unveiled a new art installation at the Fouch Trailhead on the Leelanau Trail called “Wiigwaasi-jiimaan: A Mural for the Fouch Trailhead” by local artist Nik Burkhart. “Wiigwaasi-jiimaan,” the Anishinaabemowin word for birchbark canoe, honors the relationship between water and land, likening it to an embrace that connects communities through nature and history. Burkhart’s mural draws on Anishinaabe canoe craftsmanship, illustrating the remarkable birch, cedar, spruce roots, and pine pitch that historically fashioned these boats and enabled the Anishinaabe people to navigate Northern Michigan’s waterways.
Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is putting the brakes on its planned 4.5-mile extension of the Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail, which was to run near Little Traverse Lake and conclude at Good Harbor Trail. National Lakeshore superintendent Scott Tucker announced the news today during a press conference at Park headquarters in Empire. (Click here to watch a livestream of the news conference.) The National Lakeshore is pausing the design of Segment 9 following months of conversations with the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, which opposes the route of the extension and which sent a letter of concern on Aug. 26 to Secretary of the Interior Debra Haaland and U.S. Senators Gary Peters and Debbie Stabenow.
The Friends of Sleeping Bear Dunes has hired Laura Ann Johnson as its first executive director. Johnson, a long-time board member and volunteer with the Friends, will be responsible for leading the organization into a new era of growth while continuing its mission of protecting resources and heightening visitor experiences in partnership with Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. In addition, longtime Friends of Sleeping Bear volunteer Kerry Kelly was honored by TART Trails with the Jim Mudgett Trail Pioneer Award.
A simmering feud between Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and TART Trails, and residents of Little Traverse Lake who oppose the northeast expansion of the Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail is once again heating up. The popular, multi-use bicycle trail, which stretches 22 miles from Empire through the National Lakeshore to Bohemian Road, is set to expand by 4.25 miles northeast to Good Harbor Trail. Tree clearing and construction are slated to begin this fall, and the extension will open in late 2025 or 2026. But early this month the Little Traverse Lake Association released an environmental impact study the group had commissioned from Borealis Consulting, which found that Segment 9 of the Heritage Trail would require the removal of nearly 7,300 trees and trespass through sensitive wilderness, wetlands and dunes. Of the nearly 7,300 trees identified in the Borealis study, 82% are saplings or small trees with diameters of 10 inches or less. The Park has directed trail designers with the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) to “meander around the largest trees.” The Lake Association unsuccessfully sued the federal government in 2015 over the adequacy of the National Park’s 2009 environmental assessment.
TART Trails and Friends of Sleeping Bear Dunes will host two summer open houses at the intersection of the Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail and Glen Haven Road —on Thursday, July 27, from 11 am-1 pm, and Thursday, August 10, from 11 am-1 pm. Community members, visitors, trail users and those interested in learning more about the trail and its Pathway to Good Harbor extension are invited to stop by to talk trails.
Bikers and runners on the Leelanau Trail, which stretches 18 miles between Traverse City and Suttons Bay, encountered an extra thrill in the days after June 22. TART Trails—whose network includes the Leelanau Trail—and Michigan Writers teamed up to chalk poems by five writers: Lois Beardslee, Ari Mokdad, Jen Steinorth, Yvonne Stephens and Mae Stier. Created with stainless steel stencil sheets and marked on the trail with chalk dust, the poems left every few miles were expected to last two to four weeks, depending on the weather, and they may be reinstalled in August. Heavy rains on June 25 may have washed some of the chalk away and “gave some poems an ephemeral quality,” said Caitlin Early, TART’s campaign and development officer who also manages the “Art on the TART” initiative.
Traverse Area Recreation and Transportation (TART) Trails, Inc. is a proud partner of the eighth annual Dune Dash, a 4-mile run/walk along the Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail (SBHT) on Saturday, August 17, at 9 am at the Sleeping Bear Dune Climb. The course highlights the trail within the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Registration is open at www.DuneDash.com and ranges from $25-$35 per person based on age. Prices will increase on August 15.
Two popular area trails—the Leelanau Trail and the Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail—were among this year’s inaugural picks for the Pure Michigan Trail and Trail Town designation program.
TART Trails is thrilled to host the 18th annual Tour de TART bicycle tour on Friday July 20, from 4-6 p.m. More than 600 people of all ages will hit the TART and Leelanau Trails for an evening ride that begins in Traverse City at Darrow Park and ends at Village Marina and Park in Suttons Bay.