Belle Isle Wintry Hike

Sunday morning, I wake up and look out the window. Ummmmm... I thought the snow would be here next week.  Oh well, slowly woke up and talked with Jacki. Where are we going to hike today? We settled on Belle Isle there are some places over there I haven't checked out.  We didn't think we would see anyone out there with it being early afternoon and cold and snowy and all that good stuff.  We were wrong-- lots of cars were parked looking at the ice bumps in the Detroit River. Few people ice fishing on the interior ponds as well as some cross country skiing going on, and people walking their dogs and family. It wasn't packed like summer but there were more people than I expected.

We get to the place where I want to hike and the road is closed, forcing us to go right by where we are hiking (perfect I won't pass my turn). The snow is plowed and you can see the ground. Parking spots were not plowed, so I think I parked in a spot... who knows. We get out and add our final layer on before we start. First-time hike for both of us, so I didn't bring any measuring devices or anything. Just wanted to enjoy the trail!

Part of it is paved I think, couldn't tell with the snow, but the ice under the snow wasn't a joke-- it was slippery. There was a butt print left in the snow at some point but everyone is okay!!!  We take it a bit slower and hope to get off what we think was the paved part. A bridge and two kayak launches on this little creek. How cool, might have to check that out once it warms up. We noticed avski trail from someone cross country skiing. Sorry, I did walk on the tracks and I know you're not supposed to as it can make it more difficult for them to move across.

We stuck to the right instead of going over the bridge and taking the other way. Figured it would be a loop and that's the way we will head back.  I was so hoping to break this trail and we didn't. Footsteps and ski marks were proof this was going to be a hard task to get done.  We should have gotten an earlier start if I'll get this task done!! For those who don't know breaking the trail means you're the first to walk on it after a snow. It has been my desire to do this for the past few years. Some trails are hard to break, more so when you don't know what way they go and the open ground forest/woods can easily take you off-trail.




We walk on this slippery path, loving the Vitamin D and stating how beautiful it is out here today. It really wasn't that bad. However lately I have been over dressing and sweating on trail. So instead of getting to hot I just don't wear that heavy coat. For once in my life, I can't say this winter has been too bad on my skin. It is still early, though.  We walked into a cross country skier dude who was having a good time. He noted how wonderful the day was wished us well as we returned the wishes.

Not too much farther, we seen the ruins of the old zoo that was on Belle Isle. Fenced off but you can tell others have gotten in with all the colorful spray painting on the older walls. On this trail, you can walk right up to the fence and see everything, sort of cool but we didn't do that. Just viewed it from the trail.

When the trail sort of curves to the left I knew we would be getting to the half way point. And yeah there is another bridge you can see the snow fall in-between the slats of the wooden floor on this bridge. It was really sort of creeky, you could hear the cold snapping as you walked on it.  The creek below it was frozen and the bridge has a nice little curve to it. Please don't fall, please don't fall, on repeat in our heads.

I think this will be our only bridge minus the one at the start. Never being on this trail before I was hoping I was wrong.  We took a left at the bridge and walked towards the way back.  I noticed we are by some field for basketball about 10 ft from the trail, thinking man we are almost done. And this part of the trail is super slick. I bent down to see how deep the ice was and why was there ice. Is this a flood zone?  After brushing the snow aside it looked like a solid 2-4 inches of ice. so I don't know if we were walking the trail or the creek (it was the trail) but man that trail must flood in the spring if it's this icy. We kept sliding our way down the trail thinking man, this is a huge work out. I wish we were on the other trail.


I think I see another bridge this one isn't curved and it looks as if there is a trail on it. NO FOOT STEPS past the bridge.. Wow, I get to break a trail! Smaller trail, but lets try it out... it beats the slick trail we were on.

So we did it, we started walking and the trail was nice. We are breaking it and not even sure if it's a trail, but there is a bridge so at one point it was a trail.  We were met with tree blocking point. We went around it. I'm feeling if it were spring time it would have been flooded. No struggles, a little bit of bushwacking, not bad tho. Was this where the trail ended? Naw, it still kept going. See below for what the trail looks like after our tree block.

We followed this side path back to the other trail we walked. Umm not too crazy, I wonder how many more there are like this though. As we walked back, we took note and tried a few other possible side trails. I'm sure they were game trails anyway. But we made it back to one area and had to turn around where we saw a dog off leash. So we just stayed there, the dog owners were a little bit behind them on trail with a child on their shoulders.  I didn't want to scare the dog. I'm sure it was friendly just can't be too sure.  We shared our hellos and went on our way.

After walking this trail in one direction coming back was fun. I started to hear this drumming. It was loud. I thought either large wood pecker higher up in the trees or a smaller one close by. We stopped on trail looking high and low, and this little guy popped out around the tree just pecking away. He didn't even fly away and at less than 6 ft away I was very very pleased. He did turn around so he wasn't posing for me very well. but I snuck a goodie in there anyway.

We ended up back to the car after seeing even more cross country skiers, and we started to drive.  Most people know that the drive on Belle Isle is one way. So with the snow, I'm all over the road, going slow and looking at people and things in the snow. I see head lights... well might as well get to the right becuase these people have NO CLUE what they are doing. Hope they didn't get a ticket. I do hope they figured out they were going the wrong way on a one way street.

So this was a new trail for me. I really can't wait to go back and get the rest of it and see how bad the flooding is in the spring time. So much more to explore not enought day light and non-working times.