Our trip to the Cedar Creek Trail in White Cloud, MI was in the fall of 2006 and was planned as a color tour. It really turned into more of a puddle hopping outing as you'll see from our photos. The previous week, it rained just about every day and even snowed on one day. We were hoping that the leaves would still be there to see and fortunately, it turned out to be beautiful.

Before getting into the details of our trip, I'd like to provide some information about where the Cedar Creek Trail system is and how we entered it. The trail can be found just north of White Cloud, MI. From route 20, you can go north on eithert Ferris Ave or Bingham Rd. Both of these routes start out as gravel roads and each turns into a two-track within a mile. If you take the Ferris Ave route north you'll get to climb a fairly significant hill, so make sure your 4x4 is working before you go.

Here's a couple maps to help find your way.

The first map shows where White Cloud is in relation to Michigan. The second map shows the key entry/exit points of the trail that we found. In the map, I've added the numbers 1 through 4 to indicate these points.

• (1) - this marks the parking lot for the CCC trail entry. Jeeps can't access the trail here.
• (2) - this marks one entry point. As you travel along Bingham Ave, the road will take a slight bend to the left, if you go straight you'll follow a two-track
• (3) - this is another entry point into the trail, if you take this route you'll get to climb a fairly steep hill
• (4) - this is where we exited the trail system. I preferred the trails that are to the south side of 3 Mile Rd, but you can always start here and make your way south.

Now that the details are out of the way, here's how our trip went. I hope you enjoy. Please email if you have any questions.

Breakfast at Sally's

The trip started out with a stop for breakfast in a little place called Sally's which on route 37 just north of White Cloud.

Sally's has the biggest Cinnamon rolls I think I"ve ever seen. All seven of us split one and had still had some left over! Sally's also has a breakfast buffet or you can order from the menu. From our experience, order from the menu; the buffet can get a little cold.

Since this was our first trip, we weren't really sure what to expect. Our waitress turned out to also work at the State Forestry Service and we asked her several questions about the area and the rules for 4x4'ing. As it turns out, you don't need an ORV sticker if you are two-tracking in Michigan with a Jeep! I had already purchased one so this wasn't really an issue, but still, nice to know.

After breakfast we headed up route 37 and went west on route 20 to the CCC trail head entrance. According to the map, the entrace to the two-track trail system was right around the CCC trail parking area, but we couldn't find a way in. The trails leaving from the parking area are meant for motorcyles and quads.

Finally, the Trail!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sign Posts Mark The Trail

One of the things to watch for while you're on the trail is the red sign posts which mark the snowmobile path. These serve as a pretty good indication that you're going in the right direction.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Puddle Hopping

Once we got into the trail system the mud puddles started to show up.

At first, they were small and easily traversed. But, as we got deeper into the trails, so did the puddles. In this picture, we found a particularly fun puddle that we just had to take photos of. Neither Jeep had any troubles getting through the mud holes which was great since neither of us had tow-hooks.

We had a strap which we figured we'd hook to something if the situation required it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After Jeep'ing for the morning, we turned our attention to geocaching. If you haven't tried it, well, you'd have to try it. We still haven't found one yet, but we did a lot of looking.

This is a shot of all of us wandering around the woods lookiug for something that we don't know what it looks like.

 

 

 

 

On this day, we were looking for a cache called "Mena Creek Campsite" which is supposedly at North 43 degrees 37.874 and West 85 degrees 51.388. But, I don't believe. Those coordinates are actually for a top secret government project that is cloaked to never show up on a GPS. At one point, we thought we had a bead on the thing. Jim and I took off like we knew what we were doing, but it didn't take long to figure out, we didn't. Julia and Shannon decided that this is what happened when you got a technogeek and a technophobe together. So, this mysterious geocache is still waiting to be found by somebody.

 

 

 

Done for the Day

By the end of the day, we had spent about 5 hours on the trail system. Had a great time, didn't find a geocache, but got the Jeeps really muddy. If you're looking for a day trip to the woods, this is a good place to go.

From left to right we have Jordan, Dale, Julia, Jim, Jessie, Shannon and Tyler.

Email us if you have any questions. There are a ton more trails to explore in the Cedar Creek Trail System. I feel like we've barely touched them.