The helmet cam headed to the west side of the state to the suburbs of Grand Rapids to ride the Merrell Trail (Belmont, MI) and Luton Park (Rockford, MI).
The Merrell Trail, named after the local hiking shoe company of the same name (looked it up), is a little over five miles according to my phone but may have missed a turn so it could be longer. It was built/created with the intention of mountain bike use so it has some 'flow-ee' areas to it where you are zoom-zooming through the woods at a pretty good clip. It reminded me of sorts to the DTE/Waterloo Recreation Area trails in Chelsea.
Luton Park is named after Dr. Harry H. Luton (you are getting some history knowledge today), a Grand Rapids area native who did some great things for the area and was an avid outdoorsman. The trail network is comprised of five sections, each about 1-3 miles. The green loop into blue into yellow, into orange, into black, into red and close back on green. Not initially built specifically for mountain biking as Merrell is, the trail still has some cool parts, my favorite being the tall pine tree portion (right around the 5:19 mark of the video).
trailhead
Both trailheads are minutes from each other. About 10 minutes north of Grand Rapids, Merrell is about 1/4 mile east of highway 131 on 10 Mile Road and Luton another four miles east of there through the town of Rockford (cool little town).
My idiot phone acknowledged both locations so there is that option as well.
positives
All positives as both trails were well maintained and served their purpose well.
negatives
Stupid people. Not trail related as there is nothing negative to report in that area. The stupid people referring to the morons who destroyed some of the store fronts in downtown Grand Rapids.
(put quality settings to 1080hd for best picture quality)
Trail Head
