Wheels on Rails Traverse City — Attraction in Blair Township

Horrible experience!!! I can't even believe how bad this was. Rushed, frantic, brutal, and overall just awful.

We were the first car right behind the staff, a quad with two adults and kids ages 7&9. The staff who were leading took off like a rocket and were so incredibly fast that we absolutely could not keep up. We were told to keep 10-20 ft between cars, but we were never able to get even close to that.

As we were frantically pedaling, both of my kids chains came off making it incredibly hard for us to pull. But the staff were too far away and never looked back to check on us. They were nearly out of sight and could not hear us yelling or see us waving for them. Glad it wasn't an actual emergency!

I run up and down mountains for fun and my Mom is a hiker and cyclist, so we are in great shape, but it was still VERY hard for us to move the quad with two of the chains off.

When we finally got to the road crossing where the staff were waiting, we told them they were way too fast and that it was horrible frantically chasing after them. We explained about the chains coming off, and that we had tried to get their attention but they were too far away. We asked them to slow down and/or look back occasionally, as we felt the extreme distance and inability to get their attention wasn't safe.

They completely ignored us, and once everyone was across the road, they took off zooming again. It literally felt like a bike race, and again, both my kids chains quickly fell off. This time, I was so tired and over this experience that I didn't even try to catch the staff. We slogged our way to the turn around point with only half the pedals working. The 'downhill coasting' section was brutal and I hated every second of it. The front staff car was actually completely out of sight one point.

At the turn around, they quickly talked about the history of the railroad...I think. We were now in back and couldn't hear (where's that megaphone you used in the beginning?). Even though we told them we couldn't hear, they just kind of shrugged. So I have no clue what they even talked about.

Thankfully on the way up, the zooming staff were behind us and it was actually less brutal. Until my kids chains fell off again. And again.

We were all so incredibly happy for it to be over. I feel especially bad, as my local relative took us here thinking it might be a fun place to take all of her visitors (spoiler, it isn't) and she doesn't exactly have loads of money to blow on horrible experiences.

It was so frantic and miserable. Not at all the fun, relaxing and interesting experience...

Well worth the cost for the unique experience of being on the rail road tracks. Saw some very old telephone/telegraph poles and mile markers along the way that our guide, Gary, was kind enough to point out. We had wet, drizzly weather, just perfect for this. Pedaling was not that hard (77 year old with 2 knee replacements last year+ 75 year old with 1 replacement ). Neither of us are particularly active! Tracy & Gary were kind & considerate of my hesitation that I would have the strength/stamina to do this. Only takes 20 minutes to the turn around, very little effort required for pedaling either way, unless you're the only one pedaling. Gary adjusted my seat 2 times, & again once we started, so I could pedal, & at 5ft of height, it was a surprise that the seat had to be pushed back not forward. (At the gym, I can't use a recumbent bike as my feet won't stay on the pedals no matter how close the seat is to the pedals.) Gary rode with us to help pedal & Tracy checked with Gary, halfway to the turn around, to see if he wanted her to join him on our bike to assist as well. How nice is that?? Gary was just bursting with information about the area & the railroad's early days. The tracks weren't used for 12 years & they had to clear the 1+ mile they use now by hand. You would never know they had to clear trees that were actually growing up through the tracks. What dedication! The ride back is on a slight ( emphasis on slight) incline. Don't honestly know if we'd have noticed the incline if it wasn't mentioned. Would I do it again? Yup! But would make sure it was a cool, cloudy day, like today. The remaining trees & shrubs along the track cancel a lot of the highway traffic noise & the scenery is very nice. Except for the little road noise, you would think you are out in the wilderness, there's so much greenery around. We did this 11am, on a Sunday so traffic might have been on the heavy side. I've read the negative comments coming before my post, but honestly can't agree with them. For this tourist attraction to have only been doing this for 3 weeks, they've got their act together! Would like to see a fall color schedule & even one for Halloween! Also put out a tip jar!! You guys deserve a little extra for taking such good care of your customers. Thanks to all! After our excursion, neither of us had any sore muscles or joints, even the morning after. So you can be assured this is not a...

So I want to rate this lower star (probably would be a one star to be honest)…but it’s a cool idea and I know this is a small business trying to provide a unique adventure….

BUT…I think the instructions were lacking, especially with the first crossing of the main road with the light…

And that’s where our experience literally went downhill with the train track. The first intersection is where we found out our bike had zero breaks, because we couldn’t stop at the intersection so we had to go through, with cars coming from every direction it felt like…and then we hit the lead rail bike. (We were the second rail bike). Nothing was done. Which was kind of concerning at that point, but what do we know except the breaks aren’t working. Coming to the second road crossing….no breaks still, they haven’t magically started working…hit the rail bike in front of us, again.

The first half is all down hill, so we weren’t peddling fast and picked up speed quickly. Now, coming up to the third stop, the lead rail bike gave very little warning for the stop, after we had already hit them twice. And we hit them. Hard. So hard that the child on board the lead bike started crying. All the rail bike passengers behind us were looking like they had just seen a train wreck because we were yelling and panicking because we knew we were coming in fast and there was literally nothing we could do. The impact was loud and we knocked the turning thing off the rails because we pushed the lead bike over it. It was awful to experience. The guide looked frustrated and was like you seriously don’t have any breaks?…like no and we told you this 30 feet into the ride and we’ve already hit you twice. It wasn’t for funsies and trying to make this into a bumper rail bike experience. I still have a mark on my hand from trying to push the break forward so hard to not hit. Luckily the second half of the trip is uphill…but the bike in front of us was so nervous, he held onto us for quite a ways because he didn’t want to get hit….and I don’t blame him and his family. We were joking and laughing about it, but that’s all you can really do at that point until you get in the car and can process and say, what actually just happened in this 45 min trip?! I still can’t even fully understand why our rail bike was allowed to continue on the trip knowing our safety and the safety of the lead rail bike was...