Summer is simply flying by, and there’s no place to enjoy like in the woods! If you made a trip to the Pathway recently, you’ve no doubt noticed a number of fresh updates to make our trail system more accessible and more amenable to your summer fun!
First off, how about that Pavillion? The concrete floors were poured early this spring, and the new fireplace is finished up as well! We really believe this is going to serve as a place for our mountain bikers, hikers, trail runners, fat bikers, and skiers to connect and come together all year long. The project was made possible with some incredible support from Cadillac Leadership and donations from our local fall classic, the Bear Claw Epic Mountain Bike Race.
We also received a new outhouse from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources! It’s a nice update on our previous offering, and we’re pretty sure you’ll be relieved to have a clean, quick spot to stop.
But there’s even more to come. Thanks to a donation from the DALMAC Fund, we’ll be adding a customized Fix-It Station to the Pathway Trailhead as well. We’re working with up.bike, a Traverse City-based cycling storage company, to design a station that’s always available so that riders can make quick repairs to the bike before or after the ride. We’re also designing a bike rack that can convert to hold skis once the snow flies!
The community effort continues with our new picnic tables, too. Local Eagle Scout hopeful, Cole Martenson, has taken on the construction of six new tables. He’s really taken the project by the reins, handling fundraising, managing materials, and even putting these together once everything arrives. We can’t think of a more interesting and cool story to tell about how those tables came together for years to come!
And you’ll definitely be hanging out at the Pavillion once our eleven miles of new trail is ready! Our ambitions trail expansion is kicking off soon, with a number of fundraising meetings completed and a tentative schedule in place to start building trail. We can thank a lot of folks for their support on this one, but the Cadillac’s Visitor’s Bureau and Missaukee County have really stepped up to make sure we are able to keep the momentum going on this one.
There’s a lot of fun to be had out there this summer, and every mile you put in gets you ready for what’s become our biggest event and our biggest fundraiser of the year. Don’t miss the chance to support projects like these by racing the Bear Claw Epic on September 28.