I was looking for a new place to explore and read rave reviews online about this place. It’s in Highland, Michigan something like 45-60 minutes north of Detroit.
These great reviews mentioned it was challenging with lots of climbing and technical single track. They did not lie!!
To get to the trail head, you actually go past the highland recreation entrance and turn left/south into Duck lake road, then a right onto Livingston and parking lot is on your right.
The trails (at least part A and B) have lots of climbs with some short downhill mixed in. The climbs have rocks, roots and twist upwards. What makes it challenging is the short amount of time you have to recover between each climb. I had to stop a few times at the top of a hill and catch my breath.
Even though I think this is rated intermediate, the technical sections will probably challenge you. I wouldn’t even consider taking any of my beginner/intermediate friends out here.
A map of the trails, they are broken into 4 sections that can be done all at once or individually. I’d recommend trying part A and seeing how you feel, if it’s easy for you go onto B and so on!
You do have to cross the dirt road to get to the beginning of the trail, you’ll see a huge wooded map that starts it out, not the map below which is shown throughout the trail at key spots.
I’ll definitely go back, it was a rough first time out and a bit humbling so be prepared for some climbing and tech sections!