The Traverse Area Recreation and Transportation Trails (TART Trails) are a system of non-motorized trails in and around

Traverse City, Michigan Traverse City ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the county seat of Grand Traverse County, although a small portion extends into Leelanau County. It is the largest city in the 21-county Northern Michigan region. The population wa ...

, extending further into Grand Traverse and Leelanau counties. The system was established in 1998. The senior trail's acronym "TART" pays tribute to one of the best-known agricultural products of the Traverse City area, the tart

cherry A cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus '' Prunus'', and is a fleshy drupe (stone fruit). Commercial cherries are obtained from cultivars of several species, such as the sweet '' Prunus avium'' and the sour '' Prunus cerasus''. The ...

or pie cherry. For similar reasons, the local airport is called Cherry Capital Airport. Boardman Lake Trail Traverse City

Component trails

Boardman Lake Trail

The

Boardman Lake Trail The Boardman Lake Trail (colloquially referred to as the "BLT") is a recreational trail in Traverse City, Michigan. Established in 2005 and completed in 2022, the trail encircles Boardman Lake, and features a number of bridges over the lake an ...

is a loop trail around Boardman Lake. It was established in 2005, and completed in 2022.

Boardman/Ottaway River Trail

The Boardman/Ottaway River Trail is a singletrack trail paralleling the Boardman River from Traverse City into the heart of Grand Traverse County.

Buffalo Ridge Trail

The Buffalo Ridge Trail is a trail on Traverse City's west side, in Garfield Township. Completed in 2012, the trail connects the former Traverse City State Hospital and Mall Trail to infrastructure along Silver Lake Road, including a

Meijer Meijer Inc. (, ; stylized as meijer) is an American supercenter chain that primarily operates throughout the Midwest. Its corporate headquarters are in Walker, Michigan, which is a part of the Grand Rapids metropolitan area. Founded in 1934 ...

store, a

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams (philanthropist), Georg ...

, and Traverse City West Middle School.

Leelanau Trail

The Leelanau Trail is a

rail trail A rail trail is a shared-use path on railway right of way. Rail trails are typically constructed after a railway has been abandoned and the track has been removed, but may also share the right of way with active railways, light rail, or streetca ...

in Leelanau County, connecting Traverse City and Greilickville to Suttons Bay. It was established in 1995, and follows the bed of the former

Manistee and North-Eastern Railroad The Manistee and North-Eastern Railroad Railway Equipment and Publication CompanyThe Official Railway Equipment Register June 1917, p. 579 was a short, standard-gauge line in the U.S. state of Michigan. Organized in 1887, it served several counti ...

Mall Trail

The Mall Trail is a connecting downtown Traverse City with the

Grand Traverse Mall Grand Traverse Mall is an enclosed shopping mall serving Traverse City, Michigan, located in Garfield Township. Opened in 1992, the mall features five anchor stores: JCPenney, Target, Dunham's Sports, TJ Maxx, and Macy's. It is managed by Brookfie ...

. It parallels

US 31 U.S. Route 31 or U.S. Highway 31 (US 31) is a major north–south U.S. highway connecting southern Alabama to northern Michigan. Its southern terminus is at an intersection with US 90/ US 98 in Spanish Fort, Alabama. It ...

/ M-37 (Division Street) for its entire length.

Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail

Located within the

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is a United States National Lakeshore located along the northwest coast of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan in Leelanau and Benzie counties near Empire, Michigan. The park covers a stretch of Lake Michi ...

in Leelanau County, this trail runs for , paralleling M-22 and M-109. It connects the towns of

Empire An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...

, Glen Haven, and Glen Arbor. It does not connect to the rest of the TART Trails system.

TART in Town

The TART in Town is a series of streets in downtown Traverse City deemed safe for bicycle traffic.

TART Trail

The eponymous TART Trail is a

that runs east–west for , and was established in 1991. Part of U.S. Bicycle Route 35, it is a paved trail that extends from the west side of Traverse City ( M-22) to

Acme Acme is Ancient Greek (ακμή; English transliteration: ''akmē'') for "the peak", "zenith" or "prime". It may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Acme'' (album), an album by the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion * Acme and Septimius, a fictional ...

( M-72). Most, but not all, of the trail follows the 19th-century roadbed of the former Chicago and West Michigan Railway, also paralleling

Grand Traverse Bay Grand Traverse Bay is a deep bay of Lake Michigan formed by the Leelanau Peninsula in the northwestern Lower Peninsula of Michigan. The bay is long, wide, and up to deep in spots. It is further divided into two east and west arms by the Ol ...

. The last segment of trail, the so-called "Acme Connector", was completed in 2022. The trail will also eventually feature direct access to the Nakwema Trailway, a trail that will eventually connect Traverse City to

Charlevoix Charlevoix ( , ) is a cultural and natural region in Quebec, on the north shore of the Saint Lawrence River as well as in the Laurentian Mountains area of the Canadian Shield. This dramatic landscape includes rolling terrain, fjords, headlan ...

and the Little Traverse Wheelway.

Three Mile Trail

The Three Mile Trail (named for Three Mile Road, which it parallels) is currently a trail, beginning at the TART Trail. An extension of the trail to Hammond Road is set to begin construction in 2024.

Vasa Pathway

The Vasa Pathway system is a series of unpaved recreational trails east of Traverse City. Component trails include the Vasa Singletrack, Vasa Skillz Loop, Vasa Snowshoe Trail, and Winter Sports Singletrack.

Recent events

As of 2023, the TART Trails system asserts that it is a pioneer in the implementation of a formal maintenance responsibility-sharing system oriented towards the needs of a trail system affected by lake effect snow. The City of Traverse City, local townships, and volunteers coordinate snow removal and cross-country ski grooming. TART Trails believes they are leaders in the wintertime maintenance of a large () non-motorized trail system in a high-snow area. TART Trails reports that wintertime trail usage has increased 20% since the trail snow removal system was implemented.

References

{{MichiganTrails Protected areas of Grand Traverse County, Michigan Protected areas of Leelanau County, Michigan Rail trails in Michigan Traverse City, Michigan Traverse City micropolitan area