While the song predates me by a decade, and my daughter by a half-century, we’ve been cranking Fleetwood Mac’s “Don’t Stop” around the house a lot lately. Besides being an absolute banger, it’s timely for outdoor folks across northern Michigan. The City of Traverse City, several counties in the region, and some of the area’s most impactful outdoor-focused nonprofits are taking on large, impactful projects and events.
Trails don’t build themselves, and whether it’s an in-town bike route or a mountain bike trail, the process of expanding trail systems is certainly a long-term investment. Trail review processes take years, construction often just as long, and building the maintenance infrastructure adds time and effort.
That’s why Trailblazing Tomorrow, a joint effort from Northern Michigan Mountain Bike Association and Traverse Area Recreational Trails is so important. The initiative aims to enhance the Vasa Pathway’s Bartlett Road trailhead, making the new Vasa Bike Park and the world-class 25km pathway more accessible for residents and visitors alike. Crucially, it also includes the construction of a maintenance facility located at Timber Ridge Resort — the creatively named “TimBarn” — which will significantly improve TART and NMMBA’s trail maintenance efforts.
If you’re old enough to have picked up Rumors on vinyl, you’ve seen just how much Traverse City’s trail network has grown and changed. In my lifetime, the Vasa Singletrack trailhead at Supply Road has gone from a largely underutilized turnaround into one of the nicest places to start a bike ride in the state. It now boasts changing rooms, a water pump, excellent signage and a beautiful pavilion. That effort has been the result of decades of persistence, largely from volunteers and groups like NMMBA, TART, Cherry Capital Cycling Club, and coordination with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.
And it worked — Supply Road is packed almost every day from spring, summer, and fall, and with NMMBA’s winter grooming, there are more than a few hearty riders there once the snow flies, too.
These efforts, plus the support for enhanced in-town trails and bike lanes, position Traverse City as a premier cycling destination in the Midwest.
More importantly, it makes it a better place to live, work, and play, and that’s a positive for everyone. If you haven’t had the chance to experience our cycling community, see it for yourself. Check out the NMMBA’s biggest fundraiser of the year, the Traverse City Trails Festival, on Sept. 27. You don’t have to race; there’s a non-competitive tour option, or just swing by Timber Ridge to see what it’s all about.
I’ve never been more excited about the future of outdoor recreation than I am right now, and that’s entirely thanks to forward-thinking groups that tomorrow will soon be here.