A hike that offers river views, few people, and ruins of a castle? Sign me up!
The Mason Tract Pathway is a nine-ish mile hike near Grayling, beginning at the Chase Bridge parking area, ending just beyond the Canoe Harbor State Forest Campground. While it doesn’t hug the Au Sable river bank closely enough for continuous views, it does offer them periodically, and there are many side trails that head down to the river.
The trail’s beginning point has a parking area that accommodates 7-10 cars, depending how closely people park. The trailhead is across the bridge from the parking area, on the same side of the road.
The trail is a very easy hike, with few hills, and small bridges over marshy areas. There is a picnic area about three miles in, at a location called “Durant’s Castle,” where Cliff Durant, son of GM executive William Durant, built a luxurious hunting lodge in the early part of the 20th century, only to have it burn down before its completion. The picnic area contains some historic information about Durant’s Castle, and there are a few remnants of concrete foundations near the picnic table. However, we also spotted the remains of a chimney a little northeast of the picnic area, and concrete walls and an uncapped well or cistern a little southwest of the picnic area, which I assume were also part of the estate.
The trail passes through oak savannas, hemlock forests, and other unique biomes. At about 8.5 miles, hikers will arrive at Canoe Harbor State Forest Campground. The campground loop takes hikers into one of the canoe-in campsites, which has a privy and water pump. A trail leads up from the river to the car-camping area. For those looking to avoid backpacking, staging a campsite first, then driving to the trailhead and slack-packing back to the campground would make for an easy trip! However, backpacking from the Chase Bridge trailhead would be a great beginner trip–it took us about three and a half hours to hike the path, including breaks. There were a few car campers in the car-camping area, and no one was using the three canoe-in sites. There were many hammock-friendly sites in the campground. Dispersed camping is not allowed along the Mason Tract Pathway.
To complete the pathway in its entirety, hikers would continue on an additional half-mile beyond the campground, although that section of trail did not look scenic due to clear cutting, so we opted not to complete that section.
Paddle Hard Brewing in Grayling is a great place to stop for a post-hike meal.
You can access a map of the trail here.
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