Ten new trails. That is one of my 2010 goals, and I wanted to start the year off right, so that first new (to me) trail was Lincoln Brick Park in Grand Ledge.
About twenty minutes from my mid-Michigan home, Lincoln Brick is the closest of the parks on my “not visited” list. There was an honest to goodness brick factory on the land that is now an Eaton County park, and a few of the crumbling buildings remain. If, for some reason, the manufacturing history of Eaton County isn’t your thing, there are also a playground, beach, and interpretive center, in addition to a few miles of trails.
I started out in the “plains” area behind the interpretive center, the trail forming a loop around the snowy grasslands before plunging into the tree line near the Grand River. That wasn’t an easy portion of the trail. A recent snow-melting warming followed by a ice-forming cooling meant a slippery trail. I’m going to show you what I mean mathematically:
Ice + trail near steep drop off + river = bad news.
But, I managed to stay dry and enjoy a bit of solitude, as no one else was there during my visit. Just me and the ducks, and they seems aggravated that I was bothering them by being in their park.
The area that is now the beach was once a quarry, and both are overlooked by the Tallman Trail. For whatever reason, no one enjoying the empty beach on the gray, twenty-something temperature day. Wimps.
Lincoln Brick was one of the shorter trail systems I’ve walked, to short for my tastes. But it kicked off my “10 trails in ’10 campaign” and I’m all about variety, so it was a Monday morning well spent.