March 28, 2024

Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail Blazes New Paths

June 12, 2015

This summer, cyclists, rollerbladers and walkers will flock to a new segment of the Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail that extends from Glen Arbor to Port Oneida.

Since the late 1970s, dreams of a multi-use trail in the park have been alive in the community and, for nearly 10 years, the trail has been an actual work in progress. While not universally accepted, the popular trail has done more for Leelanau County than simply offering another recreational option; it’s challenged two villages to rethink how cyclists and motorists can best share the road.

BIKE LANES IN GLEN ARBOR

The Heritage Trail’s first segment opened in 2012, running between the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore dune climb and Glen Arbor. In 2014, the segment between the dune climb and Empire debuted. This year’s addition extending to Port Oneida means the village of Glen Arbor has gone from a terminus to a through point on the route.

When the trail first arrived in Glen Arbor, the township routed it away from the center of town to avoid congestion, a move that frustrated some riders.

"People are getting lost in Glen Arbor because of the route they chose," said Ross McAninch, a Friends of Sleeping Bear Dunes trail ambassador.

Debate over how to accommodate cyclists prompted officials to form a citizens’ group to determine how best to route riders through town. The group met throughout the winter, said Glen Arbor Township Supervisor John Soderholm.

"We now have bike lanes on M-22 and M-109 that have been installed, and improved crosswalks," he said.

The township also plans to install more bike parking and signs to mark the bike route through the village. Soderholm said the route might change as officials learn more about how bike traffic actually moves through town.

Matt Wiesen, owner of Crystal River Outfitters and The Cyclery bike shop in Glen Arbor, said the Heritage Trail will funnel many inexperienced riders onto the village’s streets.

"You’re dealing with tourists who are on vacation and who are not familiar with the area," Wiesen said. "They only ride bikes two or three times a year; they are not used to being on the road. There’s an obligation on our part to educate them."

PREPARATIONS IN EMPIRE

To the south, the trail ends just north of Empire. Empire village officials completed a transportation plan in March, which outlines ways the village could become more bicycle friendly.

However, village officials opted against widening a road to add bike lanes. Over the winter, officials debated whether to widen Lacore Street, the road that connects the village to the trail.

Phil Deering, village planning commission member and Empire Township trustee, said the street was not widened because it would have required cutting down trees and encroaching on sidewalks.

Instead, the street was marked with "sharrows" to indicate cyclists and motorists must share the road, and the village plans to add caution signs.

Kerry Kelly, chairman of the Friends of the Sleeping Bear Dunes, which maintains the trail and oversees a group of 75 volunteers, believes the uncertainty around trail plans comes from concern about what will happen if bike traffic explodes in places already crowded with cars.

"They’ve never been confronted with something like the trail, so they don’t know how to respond to it yet," Kelly said. "I think there’s a concern for safety – to make sure everyone is safe."

MORE BIKES, FEWER CARS

There’s no question the trail has proven popular, and the new segment – featuring a long boardwalk through a wetland and a crushed limestone pathway through pastoral Port Oneida – looks like a hit.

"People are loving it. It opened just before Memorial Day weekend and we’ve had great reports from users," said Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore Deputy Superintendent Tom Ulrich.

Electronic trail counters have been installed at Empire, the dune climb and Glen Arbor, notching 8,300 user clicks in May. Additionally, the trail might reduce car traffic while increasing business in the area.

"People love the idea that campers are going down to the dune climb and not taking their cars, or going into Glen Arbor and having lunch and not driving there," Kelly said.

Ulrich agrees the trail will mean fewer cars. Many campers at D.H. Day Campground now get around by bicycle.

"What we see now is people who come to D.H. Day, they’ve got adult bikes on the back of their cars," Ulrich said. "A lot of times they’d come before with just the kids’ bikes and the kids would ride bikes in loops around the campground endlessly."

OPPOSITION REMAINS

Not everyone is a fan. A Facebook group called Sleeping Bear Naturally was formed to oppose the trail. A recent check showed it had 68 likes. A typical post reads: "GONE FOR- EVER...the Lower Bayview Trail as it once was, before being turned into a bike superhighway by the agency that was supposed to protect it."

California resident Marilyn Miller spends summers in Glen Arbor and said she is deeply upset about the trail. She explained she is not opposed to bike trails in general. She just doesn’t like this one because it encroaches on beloved parkland.

"I mean, they built a road through the woods," Miller said. "To me, the area is ruined."

At the trail’s north end, some residents around Little Traverse Lake are opposed to a segment to be built on, or next to, Little Traverse Lake Road. A neighborhood group wants the trail to end at Bohemian Road, before it reaches their doorsteps.

Ulrich said plans for the final segment will include the stretch along Little Traverse Lake because it is the best, and least intrusive, way to get to the popular destination of Good Harbor Beach.

That segment of trail has not yet been funded, so construction is still years away.

A DECADE OR MORE IN THE MAKING

Ulrich said the trail received broad public support throughout the planning process and a lot of care was taken to ensure the trail avoided natural areas.

"Often, there are folks who, for whatever reason, have apprehension about a trail being constructed," he said. "What we have found, and what other trail builders have found, is a lot of those concerns, people realize after the fact that, "˜Oh, it’s not as bad as I had feared.’" The trail was first imagined in 1979, he said. The concept returned in 2006 when the park held a series of public meetings to revise its management plan.

When details of the actual plans for a trail were released for public comment in 2009, some objections were raised.

"There was some feedback from folks in a couple of locations who said, "˜We’d prefer this trail not go near us,’" Ulrich said.

HEADED FURTHER NORTH OR SOUTH?

Could the Heritage Trail one day link with other trail systems like the Leelanau Trail and the Betsie Valley Trail?

"There are dreams for those connections to be made," said Julie Clark, executive director of TART Trails, Inc. "There is nothing trail-wise on the books today, but there is a U.S. Bike Route that currently makes those connections, U.S. Bike Route 35."

Not long ago, she said, the Heritage Trail itself seemed like a dream.

"You know what? "˜Someday’ can come soon if we all put our minds to it," she said.

Nancy Krupiarz, executive director of Michigan Trails and Greenways Alliance in Lansing, said she knows of no plans to connect the Heritage Trail with other bike trails.

"It would be great to get it up to Northport, but we don’t have much money and there’s a lot of other areas of the state that need those dollars," Krupiarz said.

Kelly said that, once the current trail is completed, he would like to see it extend south to the Platte River campground so the trail would span Sleeping Bear from one end to another.

ROADBLOCK IN BENZIE COUNTY

Benzie County, however, lacks a funding option that made the trail possible in Leelanau County.

In 2002, a group of citizens and local government representatives established the Leelanau Scenic Heritage Route on M-22, M-109 and M-204.

The scenic route designation, which was enacted through the state legislature, enabled trail organizers to apply for state and federal grants for trail construction.

Eighty percent of the projected $12 million cost of the trail will come from grants. The rest comes from private fundraising spearheaded by TART, Ulrich said.

The lack of a scenic route designation in Benzie County means the Heritage Trail will not head south to the Platte River any time soon.

"Although the beauty of M-22 doesn’t stop at the county line, Benzie has not engaged the state legislature in the same way," Ulrich said. "They’re well aware of it, but they have not mobilized like in Leelanau. It was a grassroots effort. It wasn’t top down."

ACCESS FOR EVERYONE

Each new segment of trail has come with its own character. The segment from the dune climb to Glen Arbor is fairly flat and features numerous dune vistas; the Empire segment is wooded and hilly; and the Glen Arbor to Port Oneida em enters an agricultural historic district.

McAninch said being a trail ambassador has been extremely satisfying.

"We started riding it and just went head over heels, and now I spend more time working for the trail than I did when I was working full time," McAninch said.

Another segment heading east to Bohemian Road, four miles from Port Oneida, is expected to be completed next year.

The trail gives access to the park to people who didn’t have it before, McAninch said.

"There are people out there on the trail, three generations, walking and pushing wheelchairs. These people would have never gotten past the parking lot without the trail," McAninch said.

TAKE A VIRTUAL TRAILTOUR

To say Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail volunteers are enthusiastic about the trail is a bit of an understatement.

Ross McAninch has spent much of the past year helping develop an interactive map of the trail so people can see pictures along the path on their computers or they can track their progress as they ride with their smartphones.

The map will eventually be loaded with four seasons-worth of photos geo-marked along the trail route.

For users who are on the trail, the map will point them to what’s around them. On a remote stretch, that might mean a nearby beach. Near Empire or Glen Arbor, that might mean a list of places to get a snack.

AMBASSADORS WANTED

If you would like to become a trail ambassador, contact Kerry Kelly, Friends of Sleeping Bear Dunes, at info@friendsofsleepingbear. org or call 231-631-4244

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