07 Apr Important Notice Regarding Northern Michigan Trails

A historic, Northern Michigan ice storm decimated foliage and infrastructure recently, leaving tens of thousands without power while pummeling our trail network with fallen limbs and broken trees.

We are currently discouraging volunteers from helping clean up until trail safety assessments are made. There are many high hanging branches and other problems, we don’t want to jeopardize anyone’s safety. Anyone who does venture our for trail clean up should exercise extreme caution.

The Michigan DNR has a website detailing a number of park and trail closures. We encourage you to read this, particularly if you are planning a trip or vacation up north.

Our beloved Packy Offield Trail Center escaped major damage, but we will incur significant costs to have our once-beautiful-now-destroyed birch tree removed, along with numerous dead branches and hanging limbs. Other than that, the structure itself was undamaged and the rest is basically just a mess.

We know many of you are itching to get on the trails. But, we implore you to be patient until the danger passes. Please keep checking the Trails Council’s Facebook and Instagram accounts, as well as our webpage for updates on this developing situation.

The trails suffered extensive damage, and by all accounts it will take some time to clear them. Our government partners are assessing the trails, and we will let you know as soon as possible when volunteers are needed.