Wadham to Avoca Trail

Today's highlight was a ten mile ride along the Wadham to Avoca Rail-Trail.  Since we were following the Adventure Cycling route, we had only planned to ride three miles of the trail.  But after looking at the map and talking to a couple of locals, we decided to attempt the entire trail.  The concern was that the first six miles was not paved.  We decided to risk it and divert from the A-C route to see if the trail was rideable from Avoca, Michigan.  If it was not passable for our road-bikes we had a paved "bail-out" route.  We were pleasantly surprised when we started onto the trail - it had the same fine grade crushed limestone surface that the North-Central Trail had and it was just fine for our skinny tires!  Here's Paul C. cruising along at 15mph.

We soon realized that an added advantage, like on the N-Central trail, was that
the trees and bushes on both sides of the path were blocking what otherwise was a pretty strong headwind!  The highlight of the ride was the high bridge over Mill Creek.  We met a couple of other cyclists there enjoying the warm sunny day like us.

 The trail surface is fine for equestrians and we saw lots of evidence of their use.

However, the last five miles of the trail in the vicinity of Wadhams is paved.   The rail line originally went all the way to Saginaw (about 75 miles NNW of Detroit) and was owned by Port Huron and Northwestern RR company, eventually becoming C&O, then B&O, then Chessie System and finally CSX.  The line was converted from rail use to a trail in 1999 and is now being enjoyed by cyclists, walkers, horse riders, skate boarders, and roller bladers.

We didn't have such a good experience on the Bridge to Bay Trail in and around St. Clair, MI.  In some places it was OK, but much of the trail was bumpy, broken down, or poorly routed.  With all the curb crossings, gravel, potholes, and disjointed routing, we finally gave up on it and rode on the adjacent road shoulders.