10 Dec Started in 2019, New NEST Trailhead at Onaway Coming to Life

A field report issued late last month reveals progress on the new trailhead on the North Eastern State Trail at Onaway.

In 2024, the Council of Michigan Foundations and the Michigan DNR announced another round of Spark Grant recipients. The City of Onaway, which applied for and received a $749,100 Spark Grant, is using the funds to build the new facility.

The Community Foundation for Northeast Michigan served as the regional collaborative lead.

The Trails Council contributed $5,000 to this project in 2019. Those funds were applied to architectural fees.

Retired TOMTC board member Jim Conboy was board president in 2019. He said the new Onaway trailhead is strategically located between Aloha State Park’s facilities (19 miles north), and the Millersburg trailhead (nine miles south) on the North Eastern State Trail.

“This should increase bicycle and pedestrian traffic on the trail,” Jim said.

Major funding comes from a Council of Michigan Foundations/DNR partnership aimed at expanding access to healthy indoor and outdoor recreation opportunities and advancing transformative change for many of Michigan’s historically under-resourced and underrepresented communities.

The City of Onaway also applied for and received a $54,000 USDA grant and a $50,000 award from Awakon Federal Credit Union to help finance the $900,000 project.

Located at the intersection of M 211 and the North Eastern State Trail, the new trailhead will feature a pavilion with a shelter, family restrooms, picnic tables, bike loops, a bike repair station, water fountain, and trash receptacles.

An expanded parking area, part of which has already been paved, will accommodate more trail users.

This facility will be a year-round rest stop for trail users, including those on the associated snowmobile trail network during the winter. It will also serve as the location for the Onaway Farmers Market.