TRAVERSE CITY — Mountain bikers and others who access trails in the Grand Traverse Commons Natural Area from Copper Ridge could soon have a new trailhead.
Garfield Township Planner John Sych said the plans are the first stage of many to make improvements to trails that crisscross the hilly and wooded parkland. Once complete, the Copper Ridge trailhead would serve as a secondary access point.
Proposed improvements on Red Drive would be the main gateway, including to a universally accessible trail planned in the near future, Sych said.
“That’s going to be really the kick-off to what’s going to be probably a multiphase effort to improve that whole park,” he said.
First, owners of the cluster of medical offices off Silver Lake Road asked the township to move the current, informal trail entrance from its current spot northeast of 4290 Copper Ridge Drive, Sych said — known as Building F, and home of West Front Primary Care and other offices, online listings show.
Copper Ridge’s development plans originally called for a trailhead at the north end of Park Forest Drive, so plans are to repave a handful of parking spots there and add a staging area alongside a retaining wall, Sych said. Contractors will also grade a new bike path and reroute a hiking path from the informal trailhead, which will remain open to hikers but not bikers.
Sych called the plans “modest,” but said he believes they’ll be an improvement over existing conditions, and easier to find.
Cost estimates put the project at $116,243, of which the single largest item would be $21,000 for the retaining wall, and would include a $9,299 contingency for cost overruns, documents show.
Hikers created numerous paths by hiking over the years on what was once state land behind the former Traverse City State Hospital, Sych said.
Township Supervisor Chuck Korn said users of the unsanctioned trailhead created what’s sometimes known as a “goat path.” Korn noted that Sych and other township officials are working closely with a group of mountain bikers who frequent the trails near Copper Ridge.
Contrast that to a few years ago, when Garfield Township officials were considering ways to deter mountain bikers from riding on 100 acres of the 185-acre property where it wasn’t allowed.
Korn said that’s because the state deeded the property to the township for hiking and cross-country skiing only. Township officials worked in tandem with state lawmakers to remove that restriction in 2021.
“So once we got that handled, then we started working on a process to develop a mountain biking trail that would be safe and compatible with other uses,” he said. “And when I say it’s a process, it’s a long process.”
The Red Drive trailhead would improve on what Korn said is currently an “awkward” spot that’s too small and lacks parking.
Sych said that trailhead would include improved parking, picnic tables and bathrooms.
It’ll be the access point for a 1.25-mile universally accessible trail through the natural area’s lower-lying areas, Sych said. Michigan Department of Natural Resources’ Natural Resources Trust Fund recommended granting $300,000, with the township to kick in about $370,000.
Work is planned for 2025 on both the trailhead and pathway, Sych said. He expects an engineering firm designing the project to wrap by October, at which point he’ll have cost estimates for the trailhead portion.
“I feel like the universal access trail is really going to be a key piece as part of the kickoff to make improvements to part of the Commons Natural Area, because it’s going to provide some access to people who may not have been out on that property before,” he said.