There is no known public access to the lake.

Many Michigan lakes share a name or have a name that is very similar to another lake and this lake is one of those lakes. This Town Line Lake is often confused with a neighboring  Townline Lake which is located  in the same county.

There is still time to enjoy a Michigan lake.

Townline Lake is on the Big Rapids/ Colfax Township line in Mecosta County. This Michigan lake is 73 acres and has reported depths of up to 52 feet. It is conveniently located just a couple miles outside the city of Big Rapids.

The lake is sparsely populated, only a few homes and cottages along its shoreline. It is scenic, but largely goes unnoticed by those traveling to one of many larger Mecosta County lakes, including neighboring Clear Lake and Hillview Lake

The DNR maintains a public boat launch on the east side of the lake. The site is small with limited parking. When I passed by the public access the other day, I noticed that the parking lot was filled with empty boat trailers. That’s a good sign regarding the fishing.

Enjoy a Michigan Lake

On my visit, I noticed a post by the DNR. I learned that Clear Lake is one of the few lakes in Michigan where the Common Loon is known to rest. Loons are considered a threatened species in the state of Michigan, with fewer than 400 nesting pairs in the state.

If you come across the Common Loon, you are advised to do your part and to help protect the Loon.  Please keep your distance. Disturbance of the Loon can cause them to desert their nest or chicks.

Sometimes I do not always agree with everything that comes out of the DNR. But on this topic, I am in full agreement. Let’s do all we can to preserve this beautiful, elegant bird.

Clear Lake is  located in Mecosta County, Colfax Township. It covers 130 acres and has a  reported depth of 30 feet. A Public launch is located on the south side of the lake.

Anyway. While driving through  Big Rapids the other day, I noticed an interesting painted sculpture of a dog and had to stop and take a picture. I discovered and interesting event entitled year of the dawgs. Hosted by the Leadership Mecosta, this is  designed to be a community art project. Twenty-five fiberglass bulldawgs, standing about three feet tall and four feet long, were painted by a local artist. They are now displayed at the sponsor’s business site. The art I saw was well done. Sometimes when I look at art, I think I could do better, but in this case I could not begin to match what these artists are doing.

Next time you travel thru Big Rapids on the way to your favorite lake, slow down  and have a good laugh. I promise it will brighten your day.

Hello Sister,

I got the letter, it is a dandy day here and I have made thirty cents this for noon and will make sixty more this afternoon. Got a letter from bro Fred this morning and one from mother the other day. I will answer your letter tomorrow, so good by till I write.

Bro Carl

This postcard with it’s intriguing message, is dated Sept. 22.  Unfortunately, it is impossible to read the year, but because of the type of card it is, we can assume it was between 1901-1907.

The picture you see on the postcard is of the Fairman Block in Big Rapids, Michigan. The building was built by Ferdinand Fairman in 1880 and from the postcard we can tell that the corner store housed Fairman’s Drug Store.  Today the corner store is home to Fairman’s Apparel, a women’s apparel shop owned by the great and great-great granddaughters of Ferdinand Fairman.

The next time you are in or near Big Rapids, be sure to check out this important piece of Big Rapids history.

Where they grow thickest, you can often see broad stretches of rich, open maple and beech woods carpeted with white, as if someone had strewn popcorn through the hardwoods. Of all the spring wildflowers, the great white trillium is the icon of this time in the northwoods when the forest floor comes alive with color.

For the past two weeks I had been laid up with a nasty bug. I finally reemerged from my enforced confinement, where life had been reduced to four walls and many a bowl of homemade chicken soup, to discover that spring had not waited for me. What had a short time before been just the first hints of emerging greenery—wild leeks popping up in the woods, the first Canadian anemones and a few pioneer trout lilies showing their blooms—had become a full-blown explosion of color and life.

My first tentative, post-convalescent hike told me that I was by no means up to snuff yet physically. But by my second outing earlier this week, I had improved greatly, and was in good enough shape to finally enjoy the season’s progression along the Coldwater River.

Stately sycamores grace both sides of the river along the Dolan Trail where I went walking. Their striking olive, beige, and gray mottled bark so much resembles camouflage that you’d swear nature had cloaked the trunks in RealTree. The woods along the trail are marked by large trees of every kind—huge sycamores, big maples, immense old beeches. With large branches spreading high overhead, the understory is thin, and the presiding mood is spacious, ancient, and cathedral-like, the way I have always pictured Sherwood Forest. Pileated woodpeckers nest there, and I once watched an enormous gray owl hopscotch through the treetops. On this day, as I sat by the bluff just below where the fast-flowing river forks into two channels, an otter slipped along the opposite bank and disappeared into a hole.

Virginia bluebells were at their peak, covering large patches of the woodland in an Impressionistic azure wash. Fat bumblebees moved busily among the flowers, poking their heads into the long, bell-like tubes. I’ve never been stung by a bumblebee and I hope never to acquire the experience. Judging from their size, I’m sure the bees pack a wallop. But they seem to be docile, peace-loving creatures that pay little attention to me. We’ve ranged through the same stands of bluebells together for many springs, coexisting, the bees pursuing with single-minded purpose their mission of pollinating the flowers and ensuring that in the few places where this rare Michigan wildflower grows, it spreads and prospers in profusion.

Unlike the Virginia bluebell, the great white trillium is fairly easy to find. Most Michigan residents know it by sight. With its three rich, creamy white petals and three broad leaves, Trillium grandiflorum is a flamboyant plant, commonly growing in colonies too large to overlook. Not that it grows everywhere. I don’t find it in oak woods, which tend to be a bit sterile overall. The trillium is a friend of maples, beeches, and rich, black soils, and it prefers woods edges and settings where light can filter through rather than deep, heavily shaded forest interiors.

From now until late May, this queen of the spring wildflowers holds court. In another week or two, look for some of the older flowers to start turning pink. Another species of trillium has dark red petals, but the two plants are distinctly different. There are in fact a number of trillium species native to Michigan, most being considerably rarer than the great white trillium. The toad trillium’s hallmark is its odd, mottled leaves; the painted trillium has a striking, crimson V on each of its three white petals; the diminutive snow trillium is one of the earliest of the spring wildflowers.

But the great white trillium is the belle of them all–showy,  stately, graceful, an emblem of the Michigan wildwoods in the spring.

I don’t know how many Blue Lakes are in Michigan, but there are a number of them. The Blue Lake I am going to highlight today is located in Morton Township, Mecosta County. Located adjacent to Round Lake and Lake Mecosta, it is just north of School Section Lake and north east of Canadian Lakes. Blue Lake is part of the headwaters of the Little Muskegon River.

Blue Lake has 235 acres of surface waters with reported depths of up to 50 feet. The lake is part of the Tri-Lakes Association, a lakefront property owners association. You will see their signs everywhere.

The lake area is a highly sought after area and the homes and cottages often sell quickly.

The park also offers frontage on a second  Michigan Lake, Gorrel Lake, a 30 lake. That means twice the opportunity for summer fun. The park is closed in the winter. Two boat launches, two swimming areas and twice the opportunity to catch dinner.

One may elect to rent one of the parks four Camp-n-Cabins, a 12 x 12 cabin with a 5 x 12 covered front porch.

A manager is on the grounds during the summer months.  For more information contact  Mecosta County Parks Commission  at (989) 382-7158.

Mecosta County has other waterfront parks worth checking out;  Brower Park, Paris Park  , Tubbs Lake State Forest Campground  , School Section Lake   and the Haymarsh Lake Campground.

Near the site of the dam is a picnic area with vault style toilets. The perfect place for a peaceful dinner on a warm summer evening.

On the northern side of the pond the township maintains a small local park with picnic tables and playground equipment. The park is located behind the Deerfield Township Hall.

I have driven past the pond many times as I traveled on Northland Drive, but I have never fished or had the boat in the water. I think next summer I will make it a point to stop and investigate this area a little further.

The lake is home to Cran-Hill Ranch, a 300 acre summer family camp on the north side of the lake. The camp features 100 plus RV sites, horses,  wooded  trails, frontage on Cranberry Lake, as well as over a thousand feet of lake frontage on Hillsview Lake.

Haymarsh Lake State Game Area also fronts Hillsview Lake, which is the subject for a future post.

The Michigan DNR maintains a public boat launch on the east side of Hillsview Lake, just off 17 Mile Road. The site has very limited parking, a gravel launch and vault style toilets.

Enjoy Michigan.