Stinchfield Woods: Hike Reports

02/11/01:

And, while I'm at it, has anyone ever hiked east out of Pinckney SRA on the Losee Lake trail through Stinchfield Woods (U of M property) and into Hudson Mills Metropark? I think it's all contiguous public land. I just ask, because they're planning to get rid of the dam in Dexter and build a trail on the old river bottom. It could add an extra day of hiking to the Waterloo-Pinckney trail.

02/14/01:

I was asking because you can start at Portage Lake in Waterloo Rec. Area. The start of the Losee Lake Trail is next to the end of the Waterloo-Pinckney Trail. If you hike straight through the Losee Lake Trail and bushwack a little, you get to U of M's Stinchfield Woods. On the other side of the Stinchfield Woods is an undeveloped section of Hudson Mills Metropark - more bushwacking on a river. They are planning a new trail to Dexter from there. With the right route, you would probably end up with 40+ miles - enough for a long hike.

05/19/01

Before I started a hike at Pinckney Rec. Area today, I dropped by the headquarters and asked if there was a volunteer hiking trail crew. The ranger told me that the bikers do lots of trail work, but the hikers do nothing. Is this correct? Or is there a local trail crewthat I could link up with? Any help would be appreciated.

BTW, I have a second question: Where is everyone? I hiked the Losee Lake trail. It's short (3.5 miles), but not a bad little hike when combined with some of the other trails. Well, I saw no one. Today was absolutely gorgeous and there are like 5 million people within an hours drive. Did everyone just decide to stay home? Or are there just not that many hikers out there. BTW, this is not an unusual event. I almost always find Metro area trails uncrowded - even on weekends and holidays.

Finally, some advice: Don't go off-trail hiking in a swamp unless you really know what you are doing. I was trying to find a connector from the Losee Lake trail to Stinchfield Woods and ended up ankle high in mud surrounded by thorn bushes with bees dive-bombing me. I just started laughing and asked myself, "What were you thinking?" Anyway, I haven't given up. I'll find that connector yet.

01/26/03

Hi guys!

All the trip reports got me in the mood to type this one.

Our party of three - two human, one dog - set off for some hiking fun on Saturday at Stinchfield Woods. We weren't disappointed.

Stinchfield Woods is a piece of property in the 900 acre range that is owned by the University of Michigan for forestry study and astronomy. It is located just east of the Silver Lake area of Pinckney SRA. If you want to find it on a map, just look at the square bordered by Toma Rd, Stinchfield Woods Rd., Dexter-PinckneyRd. and North Territorial. Aside from a few houses, the land is all open to hiking and skiing between 6AM and 6PM. I don't know about bikes, although I know that during heavy summer bike weekends, you can hike there with little distraction.

Anyway, there are several possible parking spots around the square, but we chose the best one - a small renegade lot on the West side of Toma on state land. We crossed the road, passed through a break in the fence and started hiking.

It's hard to get lost in this place, considering the relatively small area. There are many singletrack trails, but there are also larger two-tracks that the university uses to manage the forest and get its scientists up to the telescopes. There are two older, traditional looking scopes that no longer have lenses near the caretaker's house.

There is also a giant radio telescope that we took a look at. It kind of reminded me of the movie "Contact." Also, we made a midwinter assault on Peach Mountain. Peach Mountain is the location of the radio antenna for WUOM, Michigan Public Radio. I am an avid listener and always love looking way up to the top of the tower and marveling that my favorite radio station is located in such a beautiful place.

Generally, the best way to hike Stinchfield is to just start hiking, get lost and try to find yourself again. I do have some maps, but they are out of print. If it is icy, an assault of Peach Mountain can be dangerous. Ice forms on the tower and falls off. This would be bad, bad. This area has trails that are much steeper than the nearby Waterloo-Pinckney Trail, so ski poles are recommended.

We hiked for 2.5 hours and probably covered 6 to 7 miles. I'll bet that there are 15 to 20 miles of paths in this place, so you can keep returning for different hikes. It kind of reminds me of the Kellogg Forest near Battle Creek.

Oh, yeah, it was cold and we had snow on the ground. But that won't change soon.

06/10/02:

Finally, last night I did a perimeter hike at Stinchfield Woods, land to the east of and contiguous with Pinckney SRA. I parked on Thoma Rd. (small, obscure parking area) and did probably 7 or 8 miles. This place is great, great, great. Lots of steep hills and beautiful forest. The highlights: Laying in the sun at the top of Peach Mountain. They keep is mowed, so it's kind of like an Appalachian bald. You get just enough of a view in an opening to the east to know that in winter this would be one of the best views in SE Michigan. I'm told by the only other hikers I saw that you have to be careful of ice chunks that fall from the WUOM transmitter on top of Peach Mountain. But still, it's kind of neat to know where my NPR comes from. Another highlight was the radio telescope on the west side of the 800+ acre area. Ever seen Contact? Yup. This telescope looks just like the ones in that movie. Big and exotic. Finally, Uof M allows hikers and skiers from 6AM to 6PM.