#TrailTuesday: Exploring Island Lake Recreation Area's Hickory Ridge Trail

Welcome back to our #TrailTuesday Series! This edition explores the towering pines, vast meadows, and glistening snow-covered vistas of Island Lake State Recreation Area's Hickory Ridge Trail! Join us as we capitalize on the Detroit region's first snowfall by exploring Island Lake's most accessible - and possibly most beautiful - trail.

Let's start with a polarizing confession: I am a "Thanksgiving believer."

That means that I absolutely refuse to engage with the connotation of "Christmas" until that extra plate of turkey has reached its final destination, a post-meal nap has concluded, and a Detroit Lions loss has adequately been mourned. I try not to take hard stances on trivial matters, but I will absolutely die on the hill of delaying any Christmas activities until Black Friday at the earliest. I may or may not have lost relationships over this belief.

Where did that irrational stance originate? Right here in the Detroit region's outdoors. Growing up as a Michigan transplant to Washington, D.C., my family always made the pilgrimage back to Metro Detroit on the Wednesday prior to Thanksgiving. That 8 hour drive from the Mid-Atlantic to the Great Lakes struck my impressionable mind as a seasonal rite of passage: the gradual shift of fall into winter, with one final autumnal act to go before the great jovial wave of Christmas cheer covered all.

Don't get me wrong - I absolutely love winter (and Christmas, I swear I'm not the Grinch). In fact, a large part of why I vividly recall that episodic childhood experience involves the Thanksgiving weekend snowfall that always seemed to arrive in step with our family minivan. For a D.C. kid, venturing out into the snow-covered expanses of the parks near my cousins' homes felt like journeying into the frontier of the "Great White North." An adventurous expedition from fall into winter.

And yes, an internalized sensation that winter recreation - in all of its varieties - starts after Thanksgiving.

Fast forward a few decades, I'm making fresh tracks during yet another Thanksgiving weekend snowfall along the beach at Kent Lake. The crisp air, crunch sensation of fresh snow, and ethereal silence of the iced-over waves confirm that winter has finally arrived in Detroit. As the snow rapidly accumulates around me, a familiar childlike instinct starts compelling me to go explore.

"Genius is no more than childhood recaptured at will." That quote from 19th century poet Charles Baudelaire has inspired, both implicitly and directly, most of the growth of the Expedition Detroit platform. This winter, we invite you to join us on rediscovering your childlike genius along Detroit's stunning, snow-covered trails.

Especially when those trails are as diverse, picturesque, and accessible as Island Lake State Recreation Area's Hickory Ridge Trail.

MEET ISLAND LAKE STATE RECREATION AREA

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