Route takes walkers across the 640-foot Mill Creek bridge
By Barb Pert Templeton
The annual five-mile walk across the Mackinac Bridge on Labor Day has been drawing people to northern Michigan since 1958 and a desire to do something similar locally prompted the formation of the St. Clair County Labor Day Community Walk.
“We thought it was a good idea to do something with out community that was similar to that walk,” St. Clair Marketing Specialist Jennifer Catanzaro said.
Founded more than a dozen years ago, the free event will be hosted by the St. Clair Parks and Recreation Commission on Monday, Sept. 4 at 9 a.m. at the Avoca Road Trailhead in Avoca. The event, is dubbed “Trek the Trestle,” and includes a five-mile walk that crosses the 640-foot Mill Creek trestle, the longest bridge of its kind in the state of Michigan.
While no formal registration is necessary, Catanzaro said if those planning to attend can just follow the link to the event on the St. Clair Parks and Recreation Facebook page and click on the “going” box that will help with planning.
After the completion of the walk lunch will be available for a donation as a local group of labor organization volunteers serves up Michigan Made Products. The menu includes Koegel’s Hot Dogs, Better Made Snacks, and Faygo Pop. Proceeds will benefit the United Way of St. Clair County. Trek the Trestle T-Shirts will be for sale the day of the event.
Catanzaro said she believes some people travel from around the state of Michigan to attend the event and noted that some walkers from Grand Rapids were in attendance last year.
“I think last year we had about 150 people come out which was a pretty good turnout because it was kind of rainy,” Catanzaro said, noting that the even is hosted rain or shine.
She said the trail is also ADA Accessible and if someone is in the midst of the five-mile walk and feels they can’t finish organizers will pick them up in a “gator” which is a vehicle that’s a bit larger than a golf cart.
Hosting the event has proved to be a positive way for the parks commission to show off the unique bridge in Avoca and some participants are quite surprised to even find out the Mill Creek Trestle is in their own community.
A more formal description of the Wadhams to Avoca trail is offered at traillink.com.
The trail’s name reflects its initial endpoints, although the trail now extends from Avoca to the outskirts of Port Huron, about 4 miles from downtown. It follows the route of a railway built by the Flint and Pere Marquette Railroad between Yale and Port Huron in 1890. It subsequently came under control of the Pere Marquette Railroad, the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, and finally CSX, which sold the rail bed to the county in 1999.
Completed in 2003, the trail is covered in limestone fines for 6.7 miles from Avoca to McLain Road and paved the rest of the way to Griswold Road near Port Huron. Three trailheads offer vault toilets but no drinking water. After Avoca, there are no services for about 10 miles until the residential areas around Wadhams.
The 640-foot-long railroad bridge has been outfitted with side rails and decking for safety, plus four overlooks where visitors can enjoy the views without blocking passersby.
For more information on the upcoming Labor Day Walk visit St. Clair County Parks and Recreation Commission/Facebook.
