The Saginaw Valley Rail Trail offers a year-round rural retreat from the urban confines of Saginaw. Rolling through a continuous woodsy border past farms, fields, and game areas for 11 miles, the paved trail connects the manufacturing center of Saginaw with the former coal-mining town of St. Charles.
The trail follows a rail bed first used by the Jackson, Lansing and Saginaw Railroad in the late 1860s. By 1881, it extended north all the way to Mackinaw City and was under the control of the Michigan Central Railroad, a subsidiary of the New York Central Railroad. Ownership changes put the line under the Penn Central in 1968, Conrail in 1976, and the Tuscola and Saginaw Bay Railway in 1982.
Advocates pressed for a trail after the railway became inactive. Work began on the Saginaw Valley Rail Trail in 1999, and it was completed in 2009. The trail’s builders preserved much of the tree canopy to provide shade in the summer and color in the fall. Bird-watchers use viewing platforms and the trail’s seven bridges to spot a share of the 100 species documented through the year. An equestrian trail parallels the paved trail for 8 miles.
To receive the final coords for this cache you must complete the Adventure Lab.