I picked up the trail at Nirvana. The weeds were 12 to 30 inches tall. There are no "tracks". The trail is rough. I had to ride in 4th of 9 gears to keep up any momentum. From Nirvana to Chase there is really no justification to call this a trail. At Chase a "two track" was worn in. That made is easier to ride. From Reed City to Everet the pavement is wonderful. Beyond Everet it's back to a "two track". It's better than the Chase to Reed City leg, although there are several soft parts which might be seriously muddy in the spring. Just west of Lake, the trail was closed due to an improvement project. the trail is graded but hasn't been paved. I found this interim state to be no worse than the "two track" so I rode around the barriers and stayed on the trail. Pavement picks up west of Farwell and continues almost all the way to Clare, where the trail ends again due to a bridge that has no deck.

On September 4, 2009 I found the current east trailhead of the Pere Marquette State Forest Trail to be about 2 miles west of Clare on the south side of Business US-10/M115 with trail parking but no rest rooms. Look for the Moose Lodge sign as the trail lot shares a drive with the Lodge. From here about 5 miles of trail has been freshly paved with asphalt to about 1.5 miles west of Farwell. From that point the trail changes to graded, firm gravel for about 4 miles, then to grass-covered gravel/dirt (with occasional loose sand stirred up by horses) which continues to Partridge Avenue where I turned around at about 14 miles west of the current east trailhead. It proved to be a pretty easy ride on a comfort mountain bike.

This is a great section of trail with varying landscapes that include dense forest, wetlands, lakes, streams, and farmland. Restaurants and snacks are available in the small towns of Farwell and Lake. Farwell is the larger of the two with more stores and has a small park with picnic tables and playground within sight of the trail. Also, there is trail parking in Farwell where the trail crosses Vandecar Road. Some of the trail is quite close to US10 so it can be noisy at times but that is more than offset by a fantastic 3 mile stretch through isolated state forest lands where civilization is neither seen nor heard. The trail seems to be underused as I saw less than 10 trail-users the whole time and all but one were on the paved portion. Similar to a previous post about Reed City to Partridge Avenue on the same trail, this was also a most enjoyable ride and I would recommend it also.

By the way, a similarly named trail, the Pere Marquette Rail-Trail of Mid-Michigan, has its western terminus on the opposite side of Clare, about a mile east at a tunnel under the US-127 expressway. That is where I started my trip that day and found a relatively simple way to make the connection for anyone riding both trails in one trip. Thanks to the City of Clare there is a newly constructed paved trail that took me into town. That trail pretty much ends at Fourth Street where I turned left and continued 3 blocks west, took a ninety degree curve to the right/north and then to the stop sign at Fifth Street (a.k.a. BusinessUS10/M115). I turned left and proceeded about 1.5 miles west to the current east trailhead of the PM State Forest Trail on the left. US10 has a paved “bike shoulder” but I chose to stay on the gravel farther to the right since the speed limit increases to 55 as you leave town.

On August 23, 2008 I rode Reed City to Partridge Avenue (just west of the village of Lake) and back on my Giant Sedona ‘comfort’ mountain bike. Round trip was about 46 miles.

The trail is presently paved about 15 miles from the west city limits of Reed City to the east side of Evart, passing by Hersey and Sears on the way. I found the asphalt to be in good shape. Although there is obvious wear from snowmobiles down the center, riding near the sides kept things smooth. A short detour was required just east of Evart where a bridge over the Muskegon River is closed for refurbishing. From there the trail was primarily gravely dirt (some packed, some loose) or grassy dirt. A section runs about 15 feet below the surrounding land and there are some wet spots that want to suck your tires to halt. Since we hadn’t received much rain prior, I suspect they are always there. There is a family campground east of Sears that has horses so the trail is quite loose and rough near there.

Outside of the towns the scenery consists of flat to gently rolling farmland, wetlands, and woods. There is a nice overlook of the Muskegon River between Hersey and Evart. I would recommend the side loop (hard packed gravel) on the west side of Evart that takes you down to a couple of picnic areas right along the banks of the Muskegon. There is a map of it along the main trail.

After passing a group of about 30 bikers coming into Reed City as I was leaving, I never saw another human on the trail. Too bad because it is a nice trail. A doe and two fawns crossed the trail about 30 yards in front of me and another deer stood right in the middle staring at me before running. Although the unpaved section can be a little demanding at times, all in all it was an enjoyable ride and I would highly recommend it.