Exercise Guide: Pinckney Pickerel Lake Loop

This is NOT an in-person, group event.

Sierra Club group outings are currently suspended indefinitely due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

These Exercise Guides are intended to assist and encourage exploration of parks and natural areas in the Huron Valley Group region. Please enjoy them on your own or, using appropriate social distancing and masks, with others.

Enjoy a short, hilly hike around beautiful Pickerel Lake in the Pinckney State Recreation Area. It crosses a small wetland on a boardwalk and a few streams or channels on small bridges.

NOTE: these trails are in areas open to hunting. Deer season is done until next Fall, but rabbit and squirrel seasons run through the end of March.

NOTE: these trails tend to be fairly heavily used and can be icy after a snow. Trail crampons or ice cleats recommended.

Our map shows the trailhead at the Pickerel Lake access road, off Hankerd Road. There is a pit toilet there. Parking there requires a MI Recreation Passport. Alternatively, there is a pull-off alongside Hankerd a few hundred yards north on Hankerd where the trail crosses Hankerd; parking here does not require a Recreation Passport (but, please, buy a Passport and support our parks if you can afford it).

The pin on the map shows where the Pickerel Lake access road turns off from Hankerd. It is roughly 1.2 miles north of the turn from North Territorial onto Hankerd.