JAMS Club

MacCready is a wonderful place to to run trails.  It’s located in the southern part of Jackson County, Michigan.  X-ski is good, too.

There are three loops of trails that total 5.5 miles.  The loops have from a little to quite a bit of hills.  There is a parking lot, nice restroom, and water.

They have a brochure with the trails at the site.  The trails are marked very well.

It is owned and maintained by Michigan State University. MSU will be use the property for demonstration purposes by the Department of Forestry, the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, MSU Extension, and University Outreach.

This link tells how it came to be open to the public.

MacCready Reserve is located at 9243 Skiff Lake Rd, Jackson MI.  Microsoft Map below, and here’s a Google Map link

Some of us went out to run there on Sunday 02/15.  We had some 4″ of snow on Saturday and a dusting on Sunday morning so it was a bit slick on the plowed paved roads, but half of the roads were not plowed.  The trails had some 4-6″ of snow, some being left from before.  No one else was out there at 8:00, but a few others came to walk later.

Hidden Lake Gardens Feb '09

The pictures don’t look very bright, but the sun was out most of the time.   We got 3 hours of running in.

The site is very nice for running.  Several loops totalling six miles of roads.  Some flat areas, and some hills, both long and steep.  And several loops of trails totalling 5.5 miles, with the longest at 3 miles.  We ran the long one – a bit technical in the snow – and no tracks to follow.

Some folks come out to x-ski and there are trails marked for that, but they don’t groom any.

The fee is $3 per person, but it looks like they put the money to good use.  One woman was suprised we were there and remarked that usually there are none so early any day even in the spring.

Did I mention there are restrooms!

Hidden Lake Gardens Feb '09

I could not find a map of the place online so I scanned the map they gave me and have links here.

Hidden Lake Gardens brochure

Hidden Lake Gardens map

You can see the streets on the map sites and can do routes on those once you know the layout.

Hidden Lake Gardens website