Ninety-two miles, no cars: the White Pine Trail towns

The old Grand Rapids & Indiana railroad gave up its right-of-way. Michigan turned it into one of the longest rail-trails in the state: the Fred Meijer White Pine Trail State Park. It runs 92 miles, from Comstock Park on Grand Rapids’ edge all the way north to Cadillac. The route is a necklace of small towns — Rockford, Cedar Springs, Sand Lake, Howard City, Morley, Big Rapids, Paris, Reed City, LeRoy, Tustin. Each one is a trailhead, a water stop, and usually an ice cream option.

For the towns and townships along it, the trail works like a linear state park delivered to the doorstep. Morning runs and after-dinner rides happen without a car in sight. Snowmobiles hum north in winter. All summer, long-haul cyclists pump bottle-refill money into every village diner on the line. Reed City sweetens the deal where the east-west Pere Marquette Trail crosses. That makes it the rail-trail junction of the north. House-hunting anywhere along the corridor? Ask the realtor how far the trail is. Odds are it’s closer than you think, and you’ll use it more than you expect.