This past summer also saw the ribbon-cutting on the first four miles of the Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail, which promises eventually to take bicyclists from the southern edge of Leelanau County through Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore to Good Harbor Bay.

The Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail comes just in time for fall color season and follows a successful tourist season — the first one after viewers of ABC's "Good Morning America" voted Sleeping Bear Dunes the "Most Beautiful Place in America."

So far, the Sleeping Bear trail has attracted $8.5 million in state and federal grants and $1.1 million in private donations, said Patty O'Donnell, regional planner for the Northwest Michigan Council of Governments and project manager for the Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail.

This first four miles of paved trail begins at Sleeping Bear's Dune Climb — a big draw for tourists — then wends its way through Glen Haven's historic district and beach to just outside Glen Arbor.

In fact, O'Donnell said, the trail is not only for tourists. The locals now can get from one point to another without getting into their cars.

Matt Wiesen, owner of Crystal River Outfitters in Glen Arbor, recently branched out from canoe and kayak rentals to open The Cyclery, which rents and repairs bikes.

"Once we got our feet wet and we saw that there was an opportunity, that's when we decided to really go for it, open up a full-blown bike shop," Wiesen said. "Timingwise, it was absolutely perfect just because the trail ended up becoming a reality."

Wiesen said a combination of increased visibility of the area through Sleeping Bear's national publicity and the new trail delivered his shop a lucrative summer.

"Whether you are associated with the bike business at all," he said, "it really doesn't matter, because all these people who are coming to ride, they need to eat lunch, they need to go shopping, they need lodging, so it's a win-win for the entire community."

The trail opens up possibilities beyond biking, whose season "starts as soon as the snow melts and goes until the snow flies," Wiesen said. Because the trail will be groomed in the winter, his shop will rent cross-country skis and snowshoes, enabling him to retain more employees year round.

Nancy Krupiarz, executive director of the nonprofit Michigan Trails and Greenways Alliance, said her group's goal is to see that the state becomes a national leader in bike trails.

"We are going to be among the top five in bicycle tourism in the next five years if everything keeps going the way it is," Krupiarz said. "We're really hoping to get all of our stakeholders preparing for this so that there are connections, there are businesses that offer trail users services."

Although no estimates exist of the total statewide impact of bike trails, Krupiarz said, some grant funding is in place to do an economic impact study in Michigan.

Numbers from other regions indicate it's worth the investment, she said.

In the Great Allegheny Passage, a bike trail running from Maryland to Pennsylvania, annual direct spending coming from the trail was $40.8 million in 2008, Krupiarz said.