Maybury State Park (Michigan)
Episode Guest
Kale Leftwich – Park Supervisor
Maybury State Park (Michigan)
Park Stats
Location: Northville, Michigan
Date park was established: 1975
Park size: 1,000 acres
Fun Facts:
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- In 1919 this land was home to Detroit Municipal Tuberculosis Sanitarium until it closed in 1969
- It’s named after William H Maybury
- 6 hiking trails
- 4 miles of paved biking trails
- 7 miles of mountain bike trails
- 8 miles of equestrian trails
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Speed Round
What is your earliest park memory?
Camping with my parents.
What made you love the parks?
How they make you feel. They feel great to be in them, to see them, to feel them, to smell them.
What is your favorite thing about Maybury State Park?
Mountain bike trail.
What is your favorite thing to do at Maybury State Park?
For me, it’s mountain biking, but as a park supervisor, it’s seeing people enjoying the park.
What park have you yet to visit but is on your bucket list and why?
Sequoia (National Park). I feel like I have visited Glacier. I have visited Grand Canyon. I have visited Yosemite, and those are three of the most beautiful places in the world. But I can’t imagine seeing the largest living organism in the world, a Sequoia tree. And I just want to. See it and smell it and hug it.
What are three must-haves you pack for a park visit?
I’m not quite a millennial. I’m almost a Gen X er. I’m right on the border. So don’t shoot me, but I have to bring my cell phone to document things, to see it right. I might want to write about it later. Might be on Facebook. It might be on Instagram, something. So I gotta have my phone.
Definitely gotta have water because that’s the one thing you need. That’s the one thing that can keep you safe.
And the proper clothing.
How about a good travel partner.
What is your favorite campfire activity?
Can I say bourbon? And marshmallows. Maybe the combo.
Tent, camper, or cabin?
We talked about this earlier. I’m a car camper. I love the security of the car, I’ve got a full size Suburban, so I can sleep in the back of the thing. I can have the keys in the ignition. Things get kind of weird. I can leave at the drop of a hat. It’s hard sided. I don’t have to worry about whether it’s not built like, sorry, if you have a travel trailer, but they’re built out of sticks and staples and they leak and a grizzly bear can rip in there.
In two seconds. And at least my car door will slow grizzly bear down for 10 seconds, enough time for me to get in the car and get out of there, but I feel secure. I feel free. I feel like I can do what I want and I can have that. I can have the experience I want to have because it’s whatever I want to do.
And the car allows me that flexibility
Hiking with or without trekking poles?
Without. Yeah, I got hands if I need to use them if I need to be scrambling like that, but I don’t want to have 1 more thing that I have to hold or lose.
And what is your favorite trail snack?
Snickers.
What is the best animal sighting that you’ve had?
I mean, for around here, it’s just coyote because they hide so much, even even though we’ve got only 944 acres. You hear them all night long, but if you get a chance to see one, that’s cool. It’s rare.
What is your favorite sound in the parks?
Either kids enjoying the playground or just this the sound of leaves when you’re walking on a trail.
What is the greatest gift the parks give to us?
That they recharge us. IThey bring us back around. Life brings you down. Parks bring you up and that’s what parks provide. Recharge.