North Country Trail - Barry State Game Area (south)

Introduction

I hiked this short portion of the North Country Trail (NCT) in the southern part of the Barry State Game Area in Oct 2010. I had done it before, along with the next part to the south (see Connector section), but had not taken any pictures.

This was a nice sunny fall day, with the trees turning color. That being said, this is a pretty boring part of the NCT, and since the trail is mostly sand and shared with horses, that makes it a little more difficult to get through. It's a lot like walking in the deep sand on the beach!

Descriptions are given in the NY-to-ND direction.

The trail is well-blazed. There are no road connectors; it is all trail or woods road.

The route appears to follow map MI-02 exactly.

Description

From the McKibben Road trailhead, the NCT shares much of its route with horse trails. There is a little elevation change, but not much. The trail crosses a sandy woods road (Sager Trail, not Wildwood Road as indicated by Google maps). It continues until it turns left onto a woods road which leads to the Barry State Game Area Norris Road trailhead. From the trailhead, the NCT continues out the driveway to Norris Road and across the street into the Yankee Springs Recreation Area Norris Road trailhead.

Picture information

See the attached album.

-->ND:
20101010 1408 TH, 1415, 1429, 1435, 1442, 1447, 1449, 1453, 1501, 1504, 1508, 1509, 1511 TH, 1512b TH, 1513 TH YS, 1514 TH YS

The last two (designated YS) are in the Yankee Springs Recreation Area.

-->NY:
20101010 1257 TH, 1258 TH, 1301, 1305, 1310, 1316, 1320, 1324, 1333, 1341, 1348, 1351 TH

Trailhead only:
20101010 1353 TH (McKibben Road trailhead)
20101010 1512 TH (Barry State Game Area Norris Road trailhead)

Connector info to next NCT segments

The next NCT segment in the NY direction, to the south on map MI-02, has been withdrawn from use by the landowners. This is the 2.0 mile segment marked between Keller Road and McKibben Road. I am told this was due to issues with horses, not hikers, but we still can no longer use it. Therefore, the NCT now proceeds by road connector between the McKibben Road trailhead and the Kellogg Biological Station (~15.7 miles). A description of the map deviation is given in the main NCT MI-02 section page.

(Note: I did that segment in 2009, and it was rough and very overgrown in two main places, so while I would always prefer trail to road connector, this part was not maintained at all.)

In the ND direction, the next segment starts literally across Norris Road in the Yankee Springs Recreation Area.

Images

View North Country Trail - Barry State Game Area (south) Image Gallery - 1 Images