My son started my Mothers’ Day off right. He somehow always manages to get flowers delivered to me on Sunday from wherever he is! He’s always made being a mom so easy.
It was a cool, crisp, and sunny day. The sky was crystal blue. Since it was “my” day I told Randy I wanted to go to some parks where we could do some real hiking. If you don’t know us or haven’t figured this out yet, Randy is the map man. I travel based on instinct – which is probably why I don’t know the quickest way to get anywhere but I still enjoy the journey.
Though the Leslie Science Center looked closed we headed across the parking lot to the newest-looking building. We met Brendan, a recent U-M graduate who was out running some nearby trails and unwittingly found himself in a parking lot. After orienting him we found out how small the world is. He’s an aerospace engineer who’s moving to Los Angeles to work for an aerospace company and he knows our son’s good friend, Kiko – who was his GSI! He seemed happy and amazed not only that we knew Kiko but that we also lived in Santa Monica a number of years ago so we filled his head with as much unsolicited advice as we could as he continued to cool down from his run.
Inside we found a friendly guy with a wallaby in his man-made cloth pouch! He had just finished hosting a birthday party. Fun fact of the day: there are three farms that breed and raise kangaroos and wallabies somewhere between Ann Arbor and Detroit Metro airport. But we never found out why they breed and raise them or what people do with them..... He directed us to the trails in adjacent Black Pond Park and suggested that we return when it’s dark in the next couple of weeks to hear the deafening sound of the frogs and peepers.
Off we headed to Black Pond, through the apple orchard and along the sensory trail. The trail wound around with some elevation changes along with a variety of outlets to different neighborhoods and a view of the 12th hole of the golf course recently chosen by Golf Digest as the “Number One Muny Course in the Nation” – Leslie Park Golf Course.
Back at the Leslie Science Center buildings we found the birds of prey. WOW! A bald eagle, a vulture, and a variety of owls. They looked at us as if we were interrupting them.
It was a beautiful blue sky as we headed to the other parks on our list.
We made a quick stop at Leslie Park Golf Course and took in the scenery from the recently renovated patio area. Pretty awesome to have one of the best municipal golf courses in the country right in our home town.
Down the dirt road just a bit we came to Traver Creek Park. There was no official park entrance, so to speak – just a large city sign and a path. Off we went, I with a wee bit more enthusiasm than Randy. We assumed, given the name, that a creek was likely in our future – especially so as we started hiking through mud. Randy tried to redirect me several times as we headed into greater amounts of muck and mire. Finally we approached the babbling creek and then a railroad track – at which point Randy finally convinced me to turn around. I was convinced we were on a loop trail and Randy felt certain we were not. (When we got home I looked at the map on the city parks web site. Turns out he was right. Please don’t tell him.)
Back to the car, with mud-covered shoes, we drove a short distance to Tuebinger Park. Tuebinger is a lovely neighborhood park. Stapp Park offered many more trails and Leslie Woods has even more. Take Upland north until it dead-ends and do not be deterred by the fact that it looks as if there is nothing there. Get out of the car and look for the trailhead. It’s there. And you’ll be glad you found it.
A wonderful journey I encourage you to take.
Here are the seven parks Randy crossed off his list:
Leslie Science Center
Black Pond
Leslie Park Golf Course
Traver Creek
Tuebinger
Stapp
Leslie Woods
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