This evening, Peninsula Township is cutting the ribbon on a new elevated boardwalk through the hemlock wing at Pelizzari Natural Area. Nobody is driving in from Traverse City for it. The people gathering at the trailhead off Center Road live within a five-minute bike ride, and most of them have probably walked past those same hemlocks a hundred times before the trees needed saving from the people walking past them.
That's the part of peninsula life that doesn't show up in the wine trail brochures. Somebody has to fix things here, and more often than not, it's the neighbors who do it, not a county crew.
The Trail That Was Being Loved to Death
The hemlock wing at Pelizzari is a small, dense stand of old growth trees tucked into the southeast corner of a park known mostly for open orchard fields and three miles of walking trail. It's also the most photographed corner of the park, which turned out to be the problem. Hemlocks root shallow in soft, moist soil, and years of foot traffic had started to compact the ground and expose roots along what's known as the Dr. John Spencer Trail.
Peninsula Township started raising money for an elevated boardwalk almost three years ago, once it became clear the trees were, in the township's own description, literally being "loved to death" by the very visitors who came to see them. Some of the money came from the township's ARPA funds. The rest came from a list of local names you'd only recognize if you've lived here a while: the Huckle Family Foundation, the Thomas Family Foundation, the Tim and Libby Ash Foundation, the Oleson Foundation, the Biederman Family Foundation, the Traverse City Track Club, and the Schmuckal Family Foundation, backed by hundreds of individual donations from residents who wanted the trees standing for the next generation of kids who'd skip school photos to go look at them.
Construction started this past April and wrapped by early summer. The Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy, which partners with the township on managing the park, calls Pelizzari "a backyard park for many in addition to a destination worth traveling to." Tonight's ribbon-cutting, set for 6 p.m. at the Pelizzari trailhead, makes that backyard a little more permanent.
Nobody waited for a state grant to save these trees. They passed the hat for three years and then they built a boardwalk over their own roots.
The Farm Stands Are Changing Their Signs
While the township was finishing a trail, the orchards are finishing a season. Third Coast Fruit Co., the sixth-generation Wunsch family operation on Wilson Road, is running its U-pick cherry season from June 30 through August 13 this year, which means the picking windows still open this week are some of the last ones on the peninsula. After that, the same stand becomes Wishful Farms Cider Mill, selling popcorn, donuts, maple syrup, and cider pressed from Wunsch-grown apples.
A few other names to know if you're planning a weekend stop before the fruit turns over completely:
- Local Yokels Green Market, run by Jen and Ben Bramer, at the corner of Center and Gray roads
- Warren Orchards, known locally as Between the Bays, with stands at 8169 Center Road and 2705 Island View Road
- Buchan's Blueberry Hill, a fifth-generation farm still turning out what neighbors call the best ice cream on the peninsula, alongside blueberries, apples, and peaches as they ripen
The Gazette's own week-in-photos column caught two of those fifth-generation farm families visiting each other's stands earlier this month, which tells you most of what you need to know about how small this economy really is. These aren't competing storefronts. They're neighbors who grew up trading fruit.
The Tavern Comes Back Around
The Old Mission Tavern changed hands for the first time in 49 years back in January, when the sale finally closed and new owner Stephanie Krupka took over from the Bartnick family, who had run it since it started as a small ice cream shop called Mission Freeze in the 1970s. Krupka told the Gazette at the time she hoped to reopen by March with a mix of old Tavern favorites and new additions. While the building sat quiet, she and her crew kept cooking, running the twice-monthly community dinners at the Old Mission Legion Post.
The tavern's website is live again, a quiet signal that the doors reopened after Krupka's winter transition. That's the kind of handoff that happens when a business changes hands within a community rather than getting sold to an outside group. If you haven't been back since January, this is the season to check.
What's Already on the Calendar for Harvest
Cherry season closing out doesn't mean the peninsula goes quiet. It means the wineries start planning their own version of harvest. The region's wine trails, Old Mission included, run their fall calendar from September through October, when tasting rooms slow their pace, limited-release wines start showing up, and several producers host harvest dinners tied to whatever came off the vine that week.
Wineries worth watching for September announcements include:
- Chateau Chantal, known for its ice wine program and sunset terrace
- Brys Estate, built on an old cherry orchard homestead and known for rosé and lavender
- Bonobo Winery, founded by Traverse City natives with a focus on conservation
- Mari Vineyards, known for extended hang time on its red grapes
- Peninsula Cellars, housed in a converted schoolhouse
- Chateau Grand Traverse, credited with planting the peninsula's first Riesling
Past years have included a Mac and Cheese cook-off pairing local restaurant chefs with peninsula wineries and a fall grape-stomping festival, both organized through the Old Mission Peninsula Wine Trail. If you've never gone to one because summer weekends are already spoken for, this is the slower, less crowded version of the same wineries you drive past every day.
The Pattern, If You're Looking For It
None of this reads as connected if you take it one story at a time. A boardwalk. A cider mill switching over. A tavern reopening. A wine trail's fall calendar. But look at how each one actually got done. The trees got saved because residents raised the money themselves over three years, not because a grant showed up. The tavern didn't go to an outside buyer with a concept and a consultant. It went to someone already cooking community dinners two miles away. The farm stands trade customers back and forth instead of competing for them.
That's not a marketing line about small-town charm. It's a description of how the infrastructure and businesses on this peninsula actually change hands and get maintained, one relationship at a time instead of one transaction at a time. If you live here, you already knew that in your gut. Now you've got the receipts.
If you're weighing what a place like this is actually worth, or thinking about a move to the peninsula down the road, Jennifer Gaston has spent her career watching these same names and streets show up again and again. Request a free home valuation whenever you're ready to talk specifics, no rush required.
