The Michigan Air Line Trail was a working title for a non-motorized pathway running across the southern portion of Michigan's Lower Peninsula from Port Huron (Lake Huron) to South Haven (Lake Michigan). The trail is now known as the Great Lake to Lake Trail, Route #1. This trail is made up of roughly of existing trails with of temporary routing. It is part of a system of cross-state trails proposed by the Michigan Trails and Greenways Alliance back in 2007. The Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Michigan Department of Transportation, Michigan Trails and Greenways Alliance and approximately 30 local jurisdictions have made the Great Lake to Lake Trail, Route #1 a reality. The inaugural ride to celebrate the contiguous connection of the route was held in September 2019. Currently trail planners are determining the final route to eliminate the need for temporary connections. The crossing of major freeways,

Interstate 69 Interstate 69 (I-69) is an Interstate Highway in the United States currently consisting of 10 unconnected segments with an original continuous segment from Indianapolis, Indiana, northeast to the Canadian border in Port Huron, Michigan, at ...

(I-69), I-94, and US Highway 23 (US 23) are major considerations. MDOT constructed a pedestrian/trail bridge over the M-5 freeway in Commerce Township in 2018 removing that obstacle to continuity of the trail. Much of the route follows a historic rail line known as the

Michigan Air Line Railroad The Michigan Air Line Railroad was a railroad across southern Michigan, connecting the Canada Southern Railway to Chicago, Illinois. Only part of the line was built before the company that first built it folded, and it was split between the Mich ...

, which began in 1869 with the intention that it would be a new route from Chicago to Port Huron. The Canada Southern Railway would connect to it via ferry at the

Saint Clair River The St. Clair River (french: Rivière Sainte-Claire) is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed November 7, 2011 river in central North America which flows from Lake Huron int ...

and traverse

Southwestern Ontario Southwestern Ontario is a secondary region of Southern Ontario in the Canadian province of Ontario. It occupies most of the Ontario Peninsula bounded by Lake Huron, including Georgian Bay, to the north and northwest; the St. Clair River, Lake St. ...

, Canada to connect to Buffalo, New York. This new destination trail does not overtake identities of the individual trails along its length but enhances the connectivity and tourism opportunities of all the trails. Completion of this trail will add to Michigan’s identity as the top trail state in the nation, boosting tourism and generating new nonmotorized connections as communities all along the way endeavor to tap into this vital recreation and transportation artery. There is also a seven-mile segment of this trail corridor that is officially designated as the Michigan Air Line Trail; it is the segment in western Oakland County adjoining the West Bloomfield Trail on the east and the Huron Valley Trail on the west. This segment is owned and operated by the CW2 Trailway Management Council, composed of representatives from the communities of Wixom, Walled Lake and Commerce Township. The first phase of the trail was opened in the spring of 2020 and is the only portion of the overall cross-state trail which still carries the Michigan Air Line Trail name. A second two-mile Phase Two is currently under development.

Trails within the Michigan Air Line

Clinton River Trail Clinton is an English toponymic surname, indicating one's ancestors came from English places called Glympton or Glinton.Hanks, P. & Hodges, F. ''A Dictionary of Surnames''. Oxford University Press, 1988 Clinton has frequently been used as a given ...

Battle Creek Linear Park A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and forc ...

Falling Waters TrailHuron Valley Trail
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Kal-Haven Trail The Kal-Haven Trail, formally known as the Kal-Haven Trail Sesquicentennial State Park, is a rail trail in the USA that originally ran between South Haven, Michigan, to a point just west of the city of Kalamazoo, Michigan, where there is a trai ...

* Lakelands Trail State Park *

Macomb Orchard Trail The Macomb Orchard Trail is a 23.5 mile long rail trail in Macomb County, Michigan, United States. It is built on the right-of-way of an early Michigan railroad, the Michigan Air Line Railway, later owned and operated by Canadian National Railway. ...

Michigan Air Line Trail
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West Bloomfield Trail The West Bloomfield Trail is a rail trail in Oakland County, Michigan. It is built on the right-of-way of an early Michigan railroad, most recently operated by the Michigan Air-Line Railway The Michigan Air–Line Railway was a short-line railro ...

References

External links

Proposed Great Lake to Lake Trail
{{MichiganTrails Rail trails in Michigan