Eagle Run Trail, Huron National Forest

“Target of opprotunity. If you are in the area and want to go on some easy hiking let me know. I am on vacation that week in the area and just trying to take advantage of a good thing.”

“I'll be in Michican in late December for crying out loud. What's with this rail?!?!

This might turn into a muddy hike the way things are looking. Who knows...perhaps there will be a blizzard while I am there and the trail will be deep powder... (NOT!)”

“I hiked both of these trails last week (Eagle Run and Highbanks).

Highbanks: This is a nice trail segment. It starts at Iargo Springs just off of the Au Sauble river and proceeds east through the Canoers memorial and Lumbermans Monument. I grew up in this area but haven't hiked in this area in almost 30 years, so it was a lot of fun to revisit the area. The Highbanks are a sandy area that plunges down to the Au Sauble River a VERY steep grade. As a kid we would go there and roll down to the bottom or run down into the river, your feet would move so fast that you would lose control and crash. The trails were well marked and easy to find in the snow. Some of the views of the river were fantastic. There were some segments that popped out into power-lines and then back into the woods. It was a reminder that the river looks the way it does because of a series of dams put up by Consumers Power (I have visited and fished at all of them as a kid). The section of the trail from the Highbanks to the eastern trailhead is a bit nondescript, just another walk in the woods but a pleasant one. There was evidince of considerable foot traffic and skis. There was only one set of snowshoe prints. The snow wasn't deep enough to warrant snowshoes (under 4" but more than 2"). I wished I had skis. It’s an “out and back” hike 7 miles long so I hiked 14 miles that morning. There were no hills worth noting, just gentle grades. Outside of winter I am betting the soil is the soft sandy surface littered with coniferous tree needles (red pines, etc) that I felt under my feet as a kid. The only wildlife I saw was black squirrels and footprints of rabbits.

Eagle Run: This ski/foot travel trail is 2 miles east on River Road as you drive through Oscoda. The trails are set up for skiing in a series of loops. The perimeter of the system is 7 miles long which is what I hiked. The trails are fairly flat and open with only a few areas where trees overhang the trail. It was a “winter wonderland” when I hiked here. I got up at 6:00 am and decided to skip the days hike. Then I looked out the window and saw that it had snowed most of the morning. It was that heavy “industrial” snow, the kind good for making snowmen, snow forts, and snowballs. Good “packing” snow, really wet stuff in large chunks. OK, enough about the snow. You can tell I was excited since I figured I could justify using my snowshoes that I didn’t use two days before on the Highbanks trail (see above). In fact the snowshoes did an excellent job and I had a fantastic hike in them. I slept in a bit and hit the trailhead at sunrise (about 8am). The hike passes through pretty standard Michigan Huron National Forest scenery (red pines, some spruce, a few cedar trees here and there, etc). It pops out and parallels a power line for about a mile or two. At one point I got turned around. There is an area that is rather hard to read per the markers. I reached for my compass and was shocked to find I left it at home. It’s just like me to be over prepared and then forget something major like my compass. Anyway, the snow was coming down fairly hard and the sky was gray and featureless. In short it was the exact kind of day when a compass works best… you know what I mean. I found the power line and knew it ran East/West. Then I heard a car coming from a distant road I also knew was on the map. So those two points oriented my map for me and I figured out where I was. A quarter-mile hike along what I thought was the trail proved to loop back to where I started this particular loop… I could see my incoming snowshoe tracks. So I was off again. The trail then parallels the Au Sauble river again. Sections have benches and even a picnic table put there by the local Rotary club. It was very nice and I noted to return here with my family for a picnic/hike day by the river. Groves of spruce and a few cedar trees could be found. There were a few stream crossings on very well built bridges. The return of the final loop lead to the parking area where I saw the unmistakable tracks of a quad-runner ATV in the fresh snow. The trails are strictly for foot-travel/skis so I was pretty pissed. They had driven in perhaps a mile and then turned around. It was too nice of a day to stay pissed so I returned to the car and drove to my aunt’s house in Oscoda to visit. The first words out of her mouth basically were, “Have you had breakfast yet?” and when I said no she fixed me up a mess of scrambled eggs with smoked sausage, fresh squeezed orange juice, toast on her home made whole-wheat bread, orange marmalade, and hot coffee. It was perfect.”

“This ski/foot travel trail is 2 miles east

Correction ... 2 miles WEST

If you went 2 miles east you would be in Lake Huron... :)”