A Trail to the Past
By Jeff Olsen
The cabin my sister and I own on the north shore of Sugar Lake was bought by our grandparents before I was born. Growing up in Grand Rapids one of my sisters and my best thrills was visiting Grandma and Grandpa on Sugar Lake!
My grandparents were part of a mostly retired group of couples who owned cabins near the boat landing. Past owners (from the late 50s and early 60s) included Mrs. Bell, the Doelles, the Reynolds, Doc Parker, the Gefford's, the Bruneaus and the Albrights. My grandparents knew all of the cabin owners and when I stayed with them, they would take my sister and me to visit some of the other couples. I remember many of them having fancy dessert dishes and amazing summer treats when we would visit.
There was a trail between the homes that fascinated me as a kid. I could go from Mrs. Bells into the Doelle woods, where Dr. Doelle made a series of winding trails in the woods on his property, and then all the way over to the creek bordering the Albrights and the Hoene property. One summer my sister and I joined the Doelle kids to build a bridge over a dry creek on the east side of the Doelle property.
I thought the trails were made for me! However, decades later, this thought was shattered when I met a frequent guest of Mrs. Bell. She told me how the trails were used by neighbors to gather for cocktail parties, especially at Doc Parkers cabin. (This did not happen when my sister and I would visit our grandparents.)
When the lodge was sold to the ski area, they put games and candy machines in the basement for winter guests. The lure of ping pong and candy led to a new discovery, a trail up from the shoreline from the Hoene's property and over to the lodge.
This was a well-used trail, a trail my imagination assumed was a trail used before European settlers found Sugar Lake! To add to the intrigue, the trail had two abandoned cottages with old metal bedframes and Life Magazines from the 40s! The trail had high spots with beautiful overlooks at Sugar Lake and then it went across the Norton property to the shoreside cabins and then the lodge.
I remember how the basement of the lodge had a bar that was never in use except during the ski season and then the ping pong table and pinball machines. Our time there was brief because we needed to be home before dark.
As years passed, the retired owners sold to families with kids close to my age who joined in the adventure of taking the trail to the lodge. On one occasion, on our way back from the lodge I needed to go to the bathroom and used an outhouse on the trail and, well, I encountered a bunch of bees. We ran back to our cabins in a gale of laughter!
Use of the trail ended as we got older and our focus shifted to other things. Yet I will always remember the trail, the fun, and the adventure of so long ago.
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