Montague get away.

we are celebrating our 41 st anniversary a few weeks early.  Our church has Vacation Bible School the week of our anniversary.  Tracey and the kids always come up that week, so Tony decided we would have a little get away early.  There is a 22 mile paved trail about 2 hours from our house that we have been wanting to ride.  It is called  the Hart Montague trail.  It starts in Montague and ends in Hart.  Tony made 2 night reservations for us at the Montgomery Inn, a small family run motel, that is about 300 ft from the trail.  They also accept pets, so Button, got to go along.

We arrived around 1 PM, checked in, unloaded the trike and got ready to ride.  Button was eager to go.  We headed  south from Monatgue towards Whitehall.  The trail we were on was the White Lake Trailway, which will eventually connect to the Musketawa Trail that goes from Muskegon to Marne MI.  They hope to have the connection  between the 2 trails done in a few weeks.  We rode the partailly done portion,   as far as we could go.  The Musetawa Trail ends about 4 miles from Grand Rapids, there may be a connector to the Old Kent Trail, but I don't have my rails to trails book along, to look it up right now.    Once the  connecting section , between Whitehall and the Musketawa trail are done,   there will be at least 2 or 3 days of trail riding that is connected.  We are so fortunate to have such a great rails o trails system in MI, and more fortunate  yet, to have such a large potion of the trails paved.  Our neighbors here at the Montgomery Inn are from MA, and told us that they can't seem to get a good Rails to Trails system going in their state.

We had  lunch, at a drive inn, root beer stand.  Thought it was a little over priced, but it was close to the trail.  First we rode past it, then stopped and asked someone at the visitors center, how to get to it. They told us to turn by the campground, after some riding around, we finally found it.  By then it was 3 PM, so we were more than ready for lunch.  Button hung out under our outdoor table while we ate.

Whitehall has a nice sail boat weather vane that is near White Lake.

Whitehall, located in northern Muskegon County about five miles from the Lake Michigan coastline, is named for its location at the end of beautiful White Lake, actually the mouth of the White River at Lake Michigan. Although much of its economy is tourist-related, especially its extended marina on the lake, it also contains some small businesses and manufacturing facilities. It is a commuter town to the greater Muskegon area just 10 miles to the south. 

Whitehall’s recorded history began around 1859 when Charles Mears, a noted lumber baron to the area platted the village along with Giles B. Slocum, naming it Mears. In 1862, it was renamed Whitehall. It grew because of its strategic location for floating and distributing lumber, incorporating as a village in 1867. It later was incorporated as a city in 1942.

We saw a cool flower sculpture along the trail.  The flowers were so beautifully painted, that first we thought they were glass, but when we rode past them on our return trip to the motel, we took a closer look and found they were metal.  The flowers were quite tall, as you can see in the picture.

Further down the trail we saw some beautiful flowers that were landscaped and and maintained by the local garden club.  A nice addition to the trail.

There was a very nice VFW post, never saw on that was so fancy, complete with a neon VFW sign.  It did my heart good to see such a nice post, in such a small community.  A good indicator, of the  community respect the men and women who have served their country, in foreign wars, get, in this area.  

 After stopping at a local grocery store to get something to warm up for supper, we got back to the Montgomery Inn about 5PM.  We rode 20 miles.