Border-to-Border Trail

Time to resurrect this blog.

I find myself continually fascinated with biking in Ann Arbor and the surrounding region (possibly spending more time dreaming than I do in the saddle). This leads me to dig into all manner of non-motorized plans for Ann Arbor, the surrounding communities, Washtenaw County, and surrounding counties.

My latest obsession has been trying to figure out the current status of the Washtenaw County Border-to-Border Trail. I wrote up what I could find in the form of a wikipedia page, since no such page existed for this hike-bike trail, but many other trails have a corresponding page.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Border-to-Border_Trail

After a lot of reading, I would characterize my understanding as follows:

1) Very little, if any thought has been given about how to connect the Border-to-Border Trail to Livingston County (segments A & B). I'll do another post on what I've learned about the Lakelands Trail sometime (Hamburg Township to Stockton), but it would be very valuable to Ann Arbor bikers if the Border-to-Border Trail could eventually be extended up to Pinkney. It's hard to figure out, but it looks like the bulk of the route could go through land owned by Hudson Mills Metropark or University of Michigan-owned http://www.snre.umich.edu/facilities/properties

2) The Dexter area (North Territorial to Delhi Metropark) seems to be coming along nicely in the next 2 years. The section from North Territorial to the Hudson Mills golf course is done. That section should be linked to Dexter in the next year or so. Likewise, Dexter to Dexter-Huron Metropark is planned, and continuing on to Delhi Mills seems to also be feasible in the near future.

3) The west of Ann Arbor area (Delhi Mills to Bandemer Park) seems to be largely ignored for now. I suspect that there is some land assembly going on (Osborne Nature Preserve, Burns-Stokes Nature Preserve), but that a lot more needs to be done. Also, Ann Arbor has to finally make the funds available for the Bandemer tunnel under the train tracks to open up the path westward.

4) Within the city, there is a complete route in hand, but parts of it could be significantly improved. Specifically, it will be interesting to see if the city actually makes a paved path along the millrace, and whether it actually builds the Fuller Park area paths and bridges called for in the PROs plan. At least the Bandemer and Gallup Park areas are well done.

5) Ypsilanti is a mixed bag, with much of the route taking surface streets rather than the proposed riverfront route. The key issues seem to be developing a path along Railroad Street, building the bridge under Michigan Avenue, paving the Water Street area, and figuring out an alternate route across 94. (Can the new Visteon plant owners be convinced to give a rightaway through their property?)

6) Ypsilanti Township seems to be doing great, with the remaining pieces to the Wayne County border being completed this summer. The only disappointing news I saw was relying on bike lanes for the rest of Bridge Road, rather than a non-motorized path and bridge winding through North and South Hydro Parks.