A Nice Day For a Walk

This is another project I've been meaning to do for a while and it was a nice enough day today that I decided to do it today.  I had the EMU basketball game today at noon, so rather than park at the Convocation Center, I decided to park near the trail that heads from Cornell Street to Hewitt Street.  Of course you may ask why and I will explain.

 This trail is part of the Border To Border Trail project for Washtenaw County.  The idea is that you could walk or bike from end of Washtenaw County to the other.  I think it is one of those quality of life issues and is actually a pretty cool idea.  Currently, they are taking existing trails, like this one and trying to link them together.  I think you can almost get from one side of Ypsilanti to the other side of Ann Arbor without leaving a trail.  The plan was put together in 2006 or so.

 You still may wonder what caught my interest in this particular section?  Well, when I was a freshman at Eastern, we took this trail from Eastern's campus to Rynearson Stadium for the first college football game I ever attended in person.  Eastern Michigan played Youngstown State and beat them 35-20.  They would win a few more games that season and go to the California Bowl on the basis of their winning the MAC Championship.  They won the California Bowl by beating San Jose State.  Sadly, that season was more or less an anamoly.

 Okay, it was my first college football game.  So what?  Did you notice how straight the trail is in the above picture?  Well it turns out that this was part of the Detroit, Hillsdale and Indiana railroad.  This was the first rail line to tie the farmland of Saline to the markets of Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti.  It was built in 1870.  The name changed over the years, first to the Detroit, Hillsdale and Southwestern and finally the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern.

 The line was nicknamed the Huckleberry Line by the passengers because there were places where they could pick huckleberrys.  Somehow I imagine the line looking pretty close to the way it looks today...with tracks instead.  With the advent of the passenger car, the line became obsolete.  Passenger service discontinued in the 30's and the freight line ceased in 1961.  There is however a tribute to the line in the form of the Huckleberry Party Store on Washtenaw.

 At one point, you can see the Convocation Center through the trees.  I'd imagine this would be a little more difficult in the spring or summer.

 The trail coming to an end.  It is actually a nice little line.

 You can almost see the Eastern Michigan Presidential Compound from the line.  I'm tempted to take more pictures of this some day.

 And of course, you can see Rynearson Stadium from the Convocation Center.

 On the way back, I managed to catch a picture of this squirrel.  Sadly, I didn't have the right lens to capture a cardinal that was taunting me both ways.

 The trees along the way were pretty cool.

 I kind of like this insect eaten tree.

 This one reminds me of fractals.

I didn't see any huckleberrys but I did see some wintergreen.

So there you have, another little chunk of Ypsilanti history.