A TALE OF TWO TRAILS
Really, it's kind of more like three,…read morebut there's no catchy header to be had from that, is there? And the variations between the different areas of Oakland County this epic trail cuts through aren't as night and day as the difference between Oakland and Lapeer counties here.
The southern trailhead near Joslyn and Waldon is pretty inauspicious, easy to miss in fact. Good luck finding parking, too. We ended up parking in nearby condo or apartment complex. There are official Polly Ann Trail parking lots, just not anywhere near where the trail begins.
Google maps took me to near one of these lots, but maybe a quarter mile away, on my first trip to the Polly Ann, rolling solo that day. I had to do a bit of detective work, finding a dirt road that intersected the main drag I was on. That was between Oxford and Leonard, which is really the trail's sweet spot. Very chill, shaded and bucolic. Horse friendly, too, as I had a couple horses with riders go clopping past me. (No galloping allowed!) I saw a turtle on that stretch, too.
South of Oxford, the trail vacillates between being very suburban and non-scenic and the more natural setting you'll find past Oxford. There's even a very annoying gap in the trail in Oxford where you have to cycle a good long way through the city to find where it picks back up again. The day I went cycling with Jenna we got lost trying to reconvene with the trail proper, and had to get directions from a passer-by and double back to pick back up on the trail. Unless you're a completist itching for the day when they complete the connector that links the Polly Ann to the Paint Creek Trail I'd probably just start your journey in Oxford after that rude intermission or find that lot Google maps took a swing at and whiffed on.
The stretch from Leonard to the county line is lovely, but once you cross into Lapeer that's where things get really wild and wooly. The trail is actually managed by two different entities, one for Oakland County and one for the Lapeer and you can really tell the difference. In Oakland the trail is either pavement, crushed limestone or fairly manageable dirt. In Lapeer there's a short stretch - 1800 feet I believe I read - in Imlay City that's paved but beyond that the trail is either bumpy dirt with big stones and tree branches jutting out, or just grass. It's been mowed to a reasonable length both times I've biked out there, but it's still slow going. No way would I try this part of the trail without a mountain bike. It's almost better just for walking out here, or horseback riding though I didn't see any horseback riders on the Lapeer stretch.
I barely saw anyone else on the Lapeer leg of the Polly Ann either, apart from people on the more domesticated Imlay City span the day I hit the trail with Aaron.
So if you want real solitude and pretty backcountry the Lapeer stretch really delivers but you really gotta work for it. In addition to the speed-sucking, sweat inducing grass there were a couple places where felled trees necessitated disembarking from the bike and sliding it under or lifting it over. There was also one area where I could hear someone's shooting practice in the distance go on at length. It's Trump country out here so use caution!
But like I said, oh! the nature! Besides the aforementioned horses and turtle, I've seen plenty of rabbits, squirrels, butterflies, several deer, frogs and a blue Heron on this trail. You might come across some mosquitos, too, depending on the time of day and year, so I'd recommend packing bug spray.
I've now made 4 trips to the Polly Ann trail, and still haven't covered much of the Lapeer end, missing a span between the Peg's Place bridge and Imlay City and anything north of Bowers Road where Aaron and I turned around. It's 34.2 miles and the Macomb Orchard Trail is about 10 miles shorter but I did that whole trail in 3 trips. So yeah, there's a reason most people don't continue into Lapeer as the pace slows down to that of maybe a brisk jog. There's plenty of adventure to be had here, the question is how much do you want? With other trails around southeast Michigan I might just wait til improvements are made up in Lapeer County to try and finish off this monster.
