My day started with high hopes. Adam, whom Andrea and I talked to over beer, nachos and cheesy bread at Short’s in Bellaire the night before, had suggested the Jordan Valley Pathway about 30 minutes north of Bellaire. Andrea was going to be at her medical conference all day, and his suggestion sounded better than the one I had planned. I considered this a fortuitous conversation.
I do recommend Short’s if you are looking for some good food and excellent beer around Bellaire. The nachos were good (not as good as mine, if I do say so myself, and I do) and the cheesy bread was excellent. The highlight of the evening was the Cone Thugz stout, an outstanding dark beer made with, among other things, waffle cones. This is right up there El Mexigander at Loco Boys as my favorite beer of the moment. The enjoyment was not derailed by the fact that we were sitting next to the door which opened and closed all night, a night where the temperature dropped to -7.
Back to hiking. Things went off the rails before I reached the trail. Turning off US-131 onto Deadman’s Hill Road, all went well until I reached the intersection of Edward’s Road a quarter mile before the parking area. At this point, a sign on Deadman’s Hill Road said that beyond that point, there would be no more plowing. Well, I thought, I have an all-wheel drive SUV, and the snow looked flat ahead. No problem.
Problem.
The road looked as solid as the part I had just driven over, but was actually 9″ of partially hardened snow that my tires easily sunk in to. So in less than 100 feet, my SUV stopped dead. After several minutes of back and forth, I was able to rock my way out and back onto the plowed section of road. Had I remembered to pack my snowshoes, I could have just parked on the side and walked the rest of the way. Regrets, I’ve had a few…
My morning plans shattered, I headed up to East Jordan to regroup. My options were a bit narrow because of said lack of snowshoes – the area had gotten around 18″ of snow over the past week. Snowshoes are now on my “Bellaire in the winter” packing list.
I settled on Brown’s Creek Pathway. I had hiked part of this trail before and hadn’t been terribly impressed, but I gave it another shot, treading on a new-to-me section of the trail. Luckily, someone had snowshoed earlier and made my walk a bit easier. The Red trail is actually a mountain biking trail which wove here and there, up and down, taking a long way to get not very far. And as I was halfway through the trail, my snowshoe hero had decided to stop and go back. I did the same. With so much snow, having never hiked this trail, I would have easily lost it.
I had expected to spend quite a while on the Jordan Valley Pathway, so I looked for another trail nearby over a Quarter Pounder meal and found the Rogers Family Homestead Nature Preserve. This was an out-and-back trail paralleled the Jordan River. It was not broken down as much as the day’s previous hike and the going was a bit harder. If you look closely at the image below, you’ll spot the deer that crossed in front of me.
I had enough gas in my tank for one more hike. Needing to return to Bellaire to get Andrea from her conference, I stopped at Glacier Hills. I should have skipped Rogers and gone right here. This is primarily a mountain / fat tire bike course, and the trails were packed down nicely. It made for the day’s easiest walk, so if you are looking for winter hiking around Bellaire and lack snowshoes, I definitely suggest Glacier Hills.
After picking Andrea up from her conference, we headed to Elk Rapids where we had drinks at Ethanology, one of those fancy-drink places. They distill their own spirits and we each did a tasting followed by an adult beverage. It had an interesting steampunk vibe inside – I didn’t expect that in Elk Rapids.
Just down the road in Pearl’s, the only Cajun restaurant in the area, and well worth the trip from TC. My first experience at Pearl’s didn’t go well – I was quickly sick after having a catfish po’boy. But that was in 2002 or so, and I have been a few times since and all has been well. Tonight’s meal was the corn fried catfish, which was excellent, as were the hush puppies and drinks. Service was spot-on and how can you not enjoy the hundreds of hot sauces lining the walls?
So just another dining, drink and hiking extravaganza weekend here Up North.
