6-mile trail on Belle Isle planned; public input encouraged

If you’ve biked around Belle Isle, you know it’s a series of sharing the road with cars and figuring out the old trails within the island. Soon, we’ll have a more complete bike path, and you can have a say in shaping it.

The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is meeting Wednesday, August 24 from 6:30 to 8:30 to discuss the idea as they develop it into a master plan. The meeting is at Flynn Pavilion on Belle Isle.

The plan seeks to develop,

"... a 6-mile paved multi-use trail loop around the perimeter of Belle Isle Park in order to connect to existing park facilities and provide safe non-motorized recreation to all visitors on the island as well as siting of the southern trailhead for the Iron Belle Trail. The park currently includes bicycle lanes located on the park’s main perimeter road and two miles of hiking trails located in natural areas of the park. The master plan will develop a trail system through the 200 acre unique wet-mesic flatwoods on the East end of the island and identify gaps in the Belle Isle State Park’s existing trail system and locate a trailhead for the southern terminus of Michigan’s Iron Belle Trail."

The Iron Belle Trail will eventually go all the way from Belle Isle to Ironwood, Michigan on the Wisconsin border.

Public meeting to help plan Belle Isle Trails System [Detroit Greenways]

Iron Belle Trail