This summer is one of close-to-home adventures, which means I’ve been biking more than ever before. Relearning how to ride a bike a few years ago simultaneously felt like a return to the best parts of childhood and a guide to being free as a car-less adult. Biking has changed how I engage where I live by connecting me with more green spaces: hidden trails, nestled-away parks, and scenic outlooks. Even though I love exploring, I’ve never done “formal” outdoors activities like kayaking, so each time I’m on my bike, I’m genuinely astonished—“This has been around me this whole time?!”
It feels good to have a growing sense of where I live. So I’ve set out this summer to bike to and within as many parks as possible. I know how inaccessible the outdoors can feel at times, so I share a beginner’s guide to some of my favorite spots, with the hope that it will spark your next adventure.
Riverside Park, photo by On the Grid
Map of park
Full Length: 4.6 miles
Level for Beginners: ★☆☆☆☆ (1 star: easy, 5 stars: strenuous)
This park hugs the banks of the Grand River and feels “lived-in” in the best of ways. It’s the place to people-watch while biking; on any given day, you’ll see intergenerational families grilling at their reunions, kids dashing around picnic tables, and patient fisherpeople angling for a catch. Riverside’s combination of weeping willows and tall, hovering trees shade wide expanses, perfect for napping, picnicking, or reading in a hammock. And with its extra wide paved paths, the park is also a great site for rollerskating—but look out, because this is also Goose Central Station!
Pitstop/slightly lost on my way to White Pine Trail, photo by author
Map of trail Map with distances
Full Length: 93.5 miles
Level for Beginners: ★★★☆☆ (depending on distance)
If you continue north from Riverside Park, you’ll enter the White Pine Trial, a sprawling, mostly paved trail that transports you through forests, prairies, and several towns, all the way to Cadillac, Michigan (full disclosure: I have not biked this whole trail yet).
The first few hundred feet run parallel (but completely apart) from a major highway, but afterwards you’ll find yourself surrounded on both sides by greenery and dappled sunlight. I felt peaceful solitude as I passed through historic trestle bridges and over streams. If you’re a beginner like me, keep in mind the round trip you’ll have to make to get home (thankfully there are mile markers and bathrooms). Around the 4th mile marker, there’s a trailside ice cream shop with shakes and sundaes, which sounds like the perfect motivation to set out in the first place.
Millennium Park, photos by author
Map of trails in park
Full Length: 10 trails you can bike on, ranging from 0.3 to 4.1 miles
Level for Beginners: ★★☆☆☆
Stretching over 1,400 acres, Millennium Park is a testament to transformation. The wetland belies the park’s former life as the site of mines, landfills, and gravel pits. That’s why, as you bike through, you might pass by pumps extracting petroleum. With ten trails and abundant flora and fauna, I’ve had a different experience each time I’ve visited.
When I biked in from the west, I marveled at both the wildflowers dotting the shoreline trails. In between tangerine orange butterfly weed and yellow sweet clover, I rode through nature’s fashion walkway. Even if you tire of biking, you will find an array of summer fun at this end of the park (from a pay-to-enter beach to paddle boats to free jazz concerts).
The second time I visited, I came in through the north entrance, which guides you through wooded trails and wetlands to outlooks. This part of the park makes for a more secluded biking experience. Just ensure you go while there’s still daylight left—as a first time visitor, it took me a few tries to find the entrance.
Johnson Park, photo by author
Map of park
Full Length: unsure (~3 miles, I believe)
Level for Beginners: ★★★★★
If you ride all the way to the southern tip of Millennium Park (or simply drive to Walker, Michigan), you will reach a park with appeal in all four seasons. Right now, its rolling hills and winding turns set you up for a fast-paced ride and a cooling breeze. Johnson Park is also one of my favorite public spaces to explore in autumn, when it becomes a Narnia of such perfectly golden leaves you might get struck with the fancy to sing a moody ballad to the trees. Return in the winter for some daredevil descents down its steep sledding hill.
Regardless of where you live, I invite you to check out this site for some ideas on biking tours in your area.
Comfort Sampong’s heart is sparked by fried plantains, tropical foliage and the stories of women thriving and creating a way out of no way. She graduated in 2018 with majors in economics and international development. Now she lives in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, where she works on English communications for the Association for a More Just Society, a Honduran non-profit fighting for justice and peace.
I’ve enjoyed these parks too, either biking—still gaining confidence there—or walking. But after walking the Johnson Park hills once, I don’t think I feel like working that hard to bike it! 🙂
Ah yes. The joys of having no car and having to find other ways to get around. Cool to see you’ve taken it to a more fun-filled level. Exercise and exploration are a couple of interesting (if not necessary) facets of life.
Thank you always for your connections. Whether that be to heritage, culture, wisdom, points in writing, or even something as “mundane” as biking, you have always shown the beauty and strength of bonds and how applicable they are to existence. Keep weaving those strands in all you do and share them with those fortunate enough to spin into you.