Celebrate National Bike Month on Michigan's numerous bike trails

The majority of Michigan State Parks have short 3-5 mile biking trails, but there are a couple nice long trails scattered across the state. The 34.5-mile Kal-Haven Trail State Park is enjoyed by almost 100,000 visitors each year. The trail is built upon the abandoned railroad bed of the Kalamazoo and South Haven Railroad. Limestone and crushed slag were used to make the roadbed of the trail.

For more information visit www.kalhaventrail.org.

The 22 mile long Betsie Valley Trail runs from Frankfort to Thompsonville and passes through Beulah and Elberta. It is paved with asphalt from Frankfort to Mollineaux Rd. and from Beulah to Thompsonville it is a gravel-based trail.

For more information visit www.betsievalleytrail.org.

Feel free to share any other biking trails in Michigan that you enjoy by posting them in the 'comments' section for this article.

Hot topics in the news today in Michigan

Here are some of the hot topics in headlines across Michigan today, April 24, 2007. Will a decline in the honeybee population affect Michigan's fruit production?

Great Lakes invasive species reducing food for native fish population

Conservation group looks to ban ocean vessels on the Great Lakes

Michigan Senate finds another $300 million to cut from the budget

Hey, Michigan lawmakers are searching for other areas to cut

State lawmakers are looking to cut $500,000 from the budget by cutting back on car washes. The current amount is $700,000 and lawmakers are looking to reduce that to a mere $200,000 for car washes. Hmm, if they can find a half million here and another million there - maybe they can cut their way to a balanced budget instead of hitting us up for another tax increase. And it seems like only a few weeks ago that we were being told that they had explored all avenues for cutting spending.

Read all about it in the Detroit Free Press.

Upper Peninsula gardeners practice patience

I'm a lower peninsula gardener and I sometimes rush things a bit to see how early I can get stuff growing in the garden. I would fail miserably if I was growing a garden in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The Ironwood Daily Globe has an article about how residents of the U.P. cope with the much shorter growing season. Most folks start their plants indoors and transfer them to outdoor cold frames in order to get a jump on the June 15th deadline that marks the last day for a killing frost in the U.P.

As if the weather isn't a big enough obstacle, Yoopers must also contend with herds of hungry deer and wild turkeys chomping away the fruits of their labor. Strands of electric wire keep most deer away, but not the turkeys.

You have to be a dedicated gardener in the U.P. I tip my hat to them and salute them with my trowel.

Republic-Michigamme pink-slips entire teaching staff

All 14 teachers in the Republic-Michigamme school system were given pink slips on Wednesday. The school will be back in session this fall according to school superintendent, Vicki Holsworth. The move was made in light of the rumblings in Lansing of possible cuts to school funding. There are 150 students in the entire K-12 at Republic-Michigamme making it one of the smaller districts in the state. Evidently the move gives the district flexibility in terms of having to adjust positions to half-time or eliminating some positions.

The article struck me as I had not heard of a district giving its entire (albeit small) staff pink slips.

Read my previous post about the possible cuts to the school systems in Michigan as proposed by Governor Granholm just a couple of weeks after telling schools to "fight" a similar (although less drastic in terms of dollars) cut to school funding by state Republicans.

The duplicity of our governor is too disturbing to even be funny.

Any plans for Earth Day?

If you want ideas for stuff to do for Earth Day (or any day for that matter) check out my Squidoo lens entitled Why Recycle? In addition to attempting an answer as to why we should (or why should we?) recycle there are ideas and plans for recycling products by making them into something new (like a purse made from seatbelts). I'm not some tree hugging hippie. I'm just trying to be responsible.