We were happily invited to stay at a friend's cottage in Port Huron. I never take invitations for granted. I take supplies to make my nachos (well-regarded in my house), and I bring my bike, the latter having nothing to do with the former. The purpose of the bike is to ride the Wadhams to Avoca trail. The twelve-mile trail started life in 1881 as the Port Huron and Northwestern Railroad. Skipping 100 years or so into the future, the last owner of the tracks, CSX, closed the section of track from Avoca in 1988. The sad track sat dormant until was purchased in 1999 and turned into a bike pathway.
Is that the end of the history lesson? No!
Wadhams Road is named after Ralph Wadhams, a pioneer, lumberman and member of the Michigan House of Representatives in the 1830s. Avoca was named after Avoca, Ireland.
Now the history lesson has ended.
I started towards Avoca on a warm July morning. The trail begins paved and, if you were to go the opposite direction (the trail continues across Wadhams Road), it is also paved.
While happily minding my own business, the trail had the nerve to change to dirt:
2/3 of the trail was dirt. Well, 2/3-ish - I didn't measure. With a road bike like mine, dirt / gravel can mean a dicey ride, but the trail was hard-packed dirt and was no problem despite my skinny tires. Being an ex-railroad, it was quite straight most of the ways. Through forests and fields it went, a peaceful mid-week ride almost completely devoid of other people. You never get that on my usual bike ride on the Leelanau Trail.
As the trail nears its end at Avoca, it reaches the world-famous trestle bridge over Mill Creek. World-famous may be a stretch, but apparently some people know about it. According to the St. Clair County website, at 640 feet long, it is the longest trestle bridge in Michigan. According to Wikipedia, a trestle bridge is "a bridge composed of a number of short spans supported by closely spaced frames usually carrying a railroad line."
Riders and walkers visiting the Port Huron area should definitely make a stop at the Wadhams to Avoca. It's well worth the detour.