Posted on November 23rd, 2024Editor’s Note:Sleeping Bear Dunes Superintendent Scott Tucker put a pause last week on the continuation of Segment 9 of the Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail, the last section of the 27-mile pathway to be built. Jim DuFresne writes that this is nothing more than a battle between a small group of co… read more
Posted on September 25th, 2024Editor’s Note: This summer, Jim DuFresne visited Isle Royale to celebrate the 40th anniversary of his guidebook. He was there only four days, but it was one of his best trips ever. Interested in an autographed copy of Isle Royale National Park: Foot Trails and Water Routes? They are available … read more
Posted on June 30th, 2023
There is a movement to preserve easement rights to Michigan’s highest point, Mount Arvon. The proposed 73,000-acre Michigamme Highlands would also include 37 miles of rivers, 220 miles of perennial streams, 96 lakes and ponds, more than 13,600 acres of wetlands, and habitat for fed… read more
Posted on April 8th, 2022
Isle Royale National Park officially opens up next week after setting an attendance record last year. Now the Lake Superior wilderness is struggling with how to solve the problem of overcrowded campsites in its backcountry. Jim DuFresne, author of Isle Royale National Park: Foot Trails & Wat… read more
Posted on April 22nd, 2021
As part of its Project Rustic this summer, the Michigan DNR is promoting its system of small rustic campgrounds with Paige Lackey visiting 77 of Michigan’s 145 state forest campgrounds. She’s going to pull up in a 33-foot-long Class C motorhome that features two slideouts, sleeps up to sev… read more
Posted on March 31st, 2021
Isle Royale, the only national park that officially closes during the winter, will open for the season on April 15. In the middle of this pandemic summer, backpackers, paddlers and boaters will be in the backcountry looking for a Covid escape. Will they find it? In his latest Trail Talk blog for Michi… read more
Posted on February 27th, 2021
It’s Lent so our main Trail Talk blogger has a hankering for muskrat. People eat that swamp rodent you ask? Jim DuFresne says they do and they relish it.
The new second edition of our bestseller, The Trails of M-22, has finally arrived from the printers. It covers 48 trails along that beautiful h… read more
Posted on November 27th, 2020
November has been nice to us with a surplus of mild days to continue enjoying hikes in the woods and bike rides on paved paths. In this pandemic era of COVID-19 that has been a welcomed gift.
Whatever else you say about this year, the popularity of trails has been undisputable. In the latest Trail Talk bl… read more
Posted on September 24th, 2020
Sure it might rain next weekend but we’re still going hiking or camping or maybe a canoe float down the AuSable. Thanks to Bob Gore, inclement weather rarely slows us down. In the latest Trail Talk for MichiganTrailMaps.com, Jim DuFresne writes about Gore’s amazing discovery that mad… read more
Posted on July 20th, 2020
And so our coronavirus summer continues. In the latest Trail Talk blog from MichiganTrailMaps.com, Jim DuFresne writes about the Manitou Islands being open but for most people no place they can visit. For the first time in more than a century, there is no ferry service from Leland this summer.
It’… read more