Spring Events 2013

While Kalamazoo's Spring started with substantial snowfall this year, warmer weather, birds, wildflowers, and morels are all on their way and hiking and biking will replace the winter sports.   A substantial number of local events celebrate spring.

Spring events near Kalamazoo

March 1- April 30 Butterflies are Blooming at Meijer Gardens Grand Rapids

April 13th Wenke Greenhouse tour 9-10:30am Reservations Kalamazoo

April 13 Friends of Indiana Dunes Native Plant Sale 8 am -1 pm Indiana Dunes State Park Chesterton,IN

April 13 Annual Midwest Crane Count 5:30-7:30 am

April 20 Third Annual Grand River Green Up 9am-noon Harbor Island, Grand Haven

April 20 8th Annual Lakeshore Earth Day Celebration Grand Haven

April 20-28, National Park Week   (subject to sequestration cuts)
  
April 22 Free Admission for Earth Day at Kellogg Bird Sanctuary 9:00am - 5:00pm Augusta

April 26-27 Thornapple Woodpecker Festival Middleville

April 27 Green-A-Thon 2013 Celery Flats Portage

May 4-11 Tulip Time festival Holland
May 4 Blossomtime Grand Floral Parade 1pm St Joseph - Benton Harbor

May 4-5 Victorian Days Grand Ledge

May 11 Spring Blooms in the Dunes (and Native Plant Sale 9am - 3pm) Gillette Visitor Center Hoffmaster State Park Muskegon

May 11 Lees' Kayak & Canoe Demo day Kalamazoo

May 11-18 Kalamazoo Bike Week Kalamazoo

May 17-19 Great Lakes Kite Festival 2013 Grand Haven

May 18 Family Fishing Fair Ramona Park 10am-1pm Portage

Also consider

Maple Syrup Events 2013

Vegetable planting dates

Earth Day Activities throughout Michigan

Earth Day events in Metro Detroit

Wild Ones (Kalamazoo Chapter) Programs & Field Trips

Battle Creek Cleanwater Events

Tawas Point Birding Festival Iosco County May 16–19

Event listings from Discover Kalamazoo
 
DNR has calendars for State Park events in March, April, May

Gazelle Sports' calendar of West Michigan Races & Running Workshops

League of Michigan Bicyclists Michigan Bicycling Calendar

Outdoor Athlete has lists for Michigan running, biking and triathlon events.

Michigan Festivals and Events Association Events browser

Spring weekend getaways

Enjoy!

Maple Sugar Festival

The Kalamazoo Nature Center's annual Maple Sugar Festival is this weekend.  The event features demonstrations of maple sugaring, from tree to syrup, and maple-centered food.  We enjoyed pancakes with maple syrup for breakfast this morning and, later, some maple cotton candy.  In the afternoon, they feature sundaes: ice cream with maple syrup.

They have different activities and shows for kids.  We saw a raptor demonstration with an American Kestral, Red-Tailed Hawk, and a Screech Owl.  We skipped the Maple Sugar Tour this year, to have more time at the Delano Homestead area.

Maple Sugar Festival events at Delano Homestead included a pioneer maple syrup demonstration, where sap was collected in wooden buckets coated with beeswax, then boiled in iron pots over an open fire. 

There were demonstrations of blacksmithing, spinning yarn, and rides in horse-drawn wagons.

Kalamazoo Nature Center
7000 North Westnedge Avenue
Kalamazoo, MI 49009 

KNC's Delano Homestead
555 West E Ave
Kalamazoo, MI

Interested in other maple events near Kalamazoo?  See 2013 Maple Festivals

Muskegon Winter Sports Complex

The Muskegon Winter Sport Complex is in Muskegon State Park, a drive of about an hour and a half from Kalamazoo.  We visited last weekend since their snow conditions report said the ski trails were in great condition.  The Complex offers over 9 miles of groomed trails in its system of five loops.  The trails are groomed for both skate-skiing and classic two-track skiing.  Several of the trails are lit for night skiing.  Most of the trails are very accessible for beginning skiers.

We skied for about an hour on an intermediate length loop.  The melt and freeze cycle had made Kalamazoo un-skiable, but Muskegon's groomed tracks were fine.  The classic tracks were a little icy, since there hadn't been any recent snow, but not too slippery to be enjoyable.  The wide section, groomed for skate-skiing, had a very good surface.

Besides the ski trails, they offer an ice skating trail through the woods and multiple ice rinks.  The skating attractions were very popular on a sunny Sunday.  A lodge offers skate and ski rentals, hot chocolate, cookies and other snacks, and a warming fire.  It's also where you purchase ski and skate passes.

Muskegon's Winter Sports Complex is probably best known for its luge track, one of three places to luge in the United States.  We didn't try the fast little sleds that day, although I did spend an afternoon learning to luge on the beginners track, nearly twenty years ago.

Muskegon Winter Sports Complex
462 Scenic Drive
N. Muskegon, MI  49445

Ski pass $7
Skate pass $5
luge $40 
parking: State Park passport or fee

Maple Syrup Festivals 2013

As Winter becomes Spring, cold nights and warmer days provide the temperature differential to get the maple sap flowing, which means syrup season is here.   

2013 Maple Syrup Events near Kalamazoo

March 2-3 Maple Sugar Madness Sarett Nature Center Benton Harbor

March 2-3 Maple Sugar Time Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore Chesterton, Indiana

March 8 Maple Syrup by Moonlight 7 pm Bendix Woods County Park New Carlisle, IN

March 9 Sugarbush Festival  Blandford Nature Center Pancake Breakfast  9am-12noon Grand Rapids 

March 9-10 Maple Sugar Time Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore Chesterton, Indiana

March 16-17 Maple Sugar Festival Kalamazoo Nature Center Kalamazoo

March 16-17 Sugar Camp Days Bendix Woods County Park, New Carlisle, IN

March 16 Community Sugarbush Tours Blandford Nature Center 2- 3:30pm Grand Rapids

April 19 - 20 Wakarusa Maple Syrup Festival, Wakarusa, Indiana

April 26-28 73rd Vermontville Maple Syrup Festival Vermontville

Also consider

Kalamazoo-area Spring Events 2013

Oakland County Maple Syrup Events

National Maple Syrup Festival Medora, IN

Shepherd Maple Syrup Festival

Maple Syrup festivals in the Midwest (mostly Wisconsin and Minnesota)

Michigan is in the top 10 largest maple syrup producers, a list led by Quebec.  Last fall, thieves raided Quebec's Strategic Syrup Reserve, which producers use to control prices.  21st Century Maple Syrup Production does use some new technology.

Top Five Beginner Ski Trails near Kalamazoo

My wife and daughter have just started cross-country skiing, so I've been considering the best local destinations for them.  Steep hills are really hard for someone just learning to ski and overly long trails can make the sport seem exhausting rather than fun, so I was looking for areas that offered relatively level trails and relatively modest distances.

Kalamazoo's best places for beginners to cross-country ski

1. Alamo Township Park
Alamo Township Park is far and away the best local option for beginner cross-country skiers.  Three loops wind through a mix of hardwood and conifer forests with a bridge over an attractive creek.  The trails are groomed and never crowded.  This park offers all the beauty of the winter woods without any steep hills and it's close to town.  These trails are nice enough to satisfy more experienced skiers looking for a short outing.

2. West Lake Nature Preserve
West Lake Nature Preserve in Portage offers a nice short loop through the woods very close to town.  It's very accessible for beginners, with no hills.  It's probably too short to attract advanced skiers.  This park attracts lots of foot traffic, so the snow is often packed down and I've never seen good ski tracks established, so it's probably best to visit when there is fresh snow.

3. Milham Park Golf Course
Milham Park Golf Course does have more hills than the other areas on this list.  The hills are steep enough to be fun and they are wide open, without trees or obstacles, so even if a beginner veers off-course they should be okay.  The trails are groomed, when there's enough snow, for both skate skiing and classic skiing.  The golf course doesn't offer the same natural beauty as the other areas and if it's windy it feels colder.  It's right in town, so travel time is minimal.  

4. Schrier Park
Schrier Park offers a decent length trail system that can connect to West Lake Nature Preserve through Bishops Bog.  The orchard area near the Osterhout Road entrance is a big open area good for practicing.  The trails have some modest slope, but no demanding hills.  Snow is the big drawback at Schrier Park.  Since its main trails are paved, it takes fairly deep snow to make them skiable.

5. Russ Forest
Russ Forest in Cass County is another good destination for cross-country beginners.  If it was closer to Kalamazoo, I would put it higher on this list.  The trails go through mature forests with some really nice views of Dowagiac Creek.  None of the loops have challenging hills.  The trail system is longer than the others listed here making it worth the drive.

None of these areas charge admission and none offer ski rental.  Lee's Adventure Sports in Kalamazoo does rent skis.  They also have occasional demo days where you can try skis and other equipment.  Two cross-country ski areas that offer on-site rental are within reach for a day trip: Love Creek County Park and Muskegon Winter Sports Complex. Update: Pigeon Creek Park also has ski rentals and its trails are beginner friendly.

WMU Winter Carnival

Saturday was Western Michigan University's Winter Carnival.  The main attraction was the Polar Plunge, a jump into freezing cold water through a hole cut in the ice on Goldsworth Valley Pond.  About 50 people took the plunge, which was a fundraiser for Special Olympics.

The Kalamazoo Gazette has a story with photos and video.  The Western Herald has slideshows of the carnival and the plunge.  See more of my pictures of this event on Facebook.

The carnival included music, a snowman contest-- made difficult by the light fluffy snow-- and pizza, doughnuts, and hot chocolate.  A temporary ice rink was erected but not open for skating when I visited.  A cardboard sled contest was planned for later in the afternoon.

WMU President John Dunn in the freezing water.

Ski Woodland Park

Last winter, I'd hoped to ski at Battle Creek's Woodland Park but there was no snow when I visited.  A few days ago, I returned and, while the conditions were not perfect, I did enjoy skiing the park's trails.  The snow was just deep enough to ski with the occasional rock or root breaking the snow surface. 

Like some of my usual Kalamazoo ski destinations, Woodland Park seemed popular with hikers and dogwalkers and most of the trails were packed hard and somewhat slippery.  One loop did have a nice set of tracks set by previous skiers with only a few footprints marring the track.  That trail section offered the best skiing.

The trails were mostly flat with a few rolling hills.  There was one very short but relatively steep slope.  A new bridge over the park's creek opened a loop that would have been inaccessible on skis.  (Last winter I crossed the water on a fallen log, but I couldn't have done that on skis.)  The outer loop was about 2.5 miles long.  With good snow conditions, this park would be good for beginning skiers.

If I lived in Battle Creek, I'm sure this would become a regular winter destination for me.

Woodland Park and Nature Preserve
14201 Helmer Road
Battle Creek, MI
[address is approximate]