The Fred Meijer Clinton-Ionia-Shiawassee Trail

Our Annual Trailblazer Newsletter is out. Catch up on some of the happenings and some history along the Fred Meijer CIS Trail.

Friends of the FMCIS Trail Annual Meeting was on April 9, 2025.

Our featured speaker, John Morrison, Executive Director of West Michigan Trails, 

gave us an update on West Michigan trail initiatives, wayfaring/signage and the regional master plan of West Michigan trails.

Friends of the Fred Meijer Clinton Ionia Shiawassee Trail
PO Box 274
St. Johns, MI, 48879
Contact Us: cistrail@gmail.com

Friends of the Fred Meijer CIS Trail. All rights reserved

Maintenance 

The storms that came through on May 15th left us quite a few trees across the trail. I want to thank Allen Martin and Dave Weber for the help of clearing the trail. In all we removed 36+ trees.

It has been quite 

a spring for 

storms and winds. 

Since the first of 

March we have cleared over 166+ trees.

We just finished our first mowing and blew the trail of debris from the winter weather.

Trail is open to all non-motorized uses year round.


   Trail Length:  41.3 Miles

  Trail Surface:  12 ft, compacted crushed limestone with 8 miles of asphalt in towns

Snowmobiles:   PROHIBITED

           Horses:   PROHIBITED

    4 Wheelers:   PROHIBITED

Electric Bikes:  CLASS #1 ONLY


The Fred Meijer Clinton-Ionia-Shiawassee Trail is a 41.3 mile, 12 ft. wide, packed crushed limestone, with 10 ft. wide asphalt surface in towns for a total of 8 miles of asphalt. It is non-motorized, non-equestrian, trail located in mid-Michigan in the counties of Clinton, Ionia and Shiawassee. It connects the communities of Owosso, Ovid, St. Johns, Fowler, Pewamo, Muir/Lyons  and Ionia utilizing a former railroad corridor.


The trail is part of the Midwest Regional Rail-Trail Network,  joining on the eastern end with the Fred Meijer Grand River Valley Trail (Ionia to Lowell), the Fred Meijer Flat River Valley Trail (Lowell to Greenville), and the Fred Meijer Heartland Trail (Greenville to Edmore to Alma) for a total of 125 miles.


The trail parallels M-21 and traverses mostly rural areas and farming communities, but portions also run near and across Stoney Creek, Maple River and Grand River watersheds in Ionia County


The trail is owned by the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) and is managed by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) with the Mid-West Michigan Trail Authority and maintained by volunteers of the Friends of the Fred Meijer Clinton-Ionia-Shiawassee (FMCIS) Trail.