Can we still call it 4x4'ing if you never put the Jeep into 4-Wheel Drive? That's the question that has plaqued me after our trip to the Missaukee Trails. We still enjoyed ourselves, but maybe we'll need to start referring to our 4x4 excusions as Sunday drives.
On this trip, we went exploring with Jim and Shannon (and kids) in the red Jeep, Brian and Jodi (and kids) in the bluish (maybe purple?) Jeep, and us (Dale and Julia and kids), in the black Jeep.
The picture shown below is a good representation of what you can expect to find. The trails are hardpacked so they are very easy to drive on. The area is very nice and would probably make a good fall color tour. Maybe even a two-wheel drive car could enjoy these trails.
Where Are The Trails
The Missaukee Trails are located just north of Cadillac, MI. The DNR maps are downloadable here. We entered the trail from the following:
- Route 55 East out of Cadillac to Route 66
- North on Route 66 through Lake City
- Just north of Rhoby Rd., Route 66 will split to the east. Continue north on Morey Rd.
- After about 2 miles start looking for the trail to cross the road. There are several two-tracks that lead from the road, but you're looking for the one that actually crosses the road.
- At the trail intersection, we took the trail East and then followed for about 40 miles to a road that crosses the trail just north of Moorestown.
Trees, dirt, grass, a few rocks, and some big animal tracks that we had no idea what they belonged to, but hoped it was long gone.
The group's opinion is that it definitely was not a tyrannosaurus rex.
But, after careful consideration, we are thinking that it is something that is not extinct. Perhaps, it could be a cougar or a really big bobcat.
After looking through Wikipedia for animal tracks (when was the last time you did that?) I'm leaning towards the bobcat (at least over the T-Rex). The image below is of a bobcat track from Wikipedia. If you compare the tracks we found with this one they look very similiar. Did you notice how I put our tracks at least a page up from this photo so you couldn't actually compare them side-by-side? I could've said it was a rhinocerous and it would've been difficult to prove otherwise.
I'll bet you're wondering if there was anything else to see.
Well, besides big animal tracks, we saw signs. That's something you don't see on the trail everyday.
We also enjoyed the outdoors. This next picture is where I asked everyone to stop so I could take their picture. All I can say is that they put up with me.
Here we are stopped at a crossroads trying to figure out which way to go.
This is a good picture of what the trail typically looks like. The trail was really designed for snowmobile use.
Lunch Time
So, this was by no means a challenging trip, but was a nice day spent with family and friends in the woods.