One Block, Four Lakes: A Local's Playbook for a Lake Ann Summer Weekend

If you live in Lake Ann, you already know the trick. Almost everything worth doing on a summer Friday sits on the same short stretch of First Street, and everything else sits on a trail you can reach before your growler gets warm. This is a post for people who don't need to be sold on Benzie County. It's a post for the neighbor who's tired of driving into Traverse City for a night out and forgets how much runs within a five-minute walk of the post office.

Here's the claim the rest of this piece will defend: Lake Ann is one of the few places in northern Michigan where a full evening — food, live music, ice cream, park time, and a lake view — happens on foot from a single downtown block, and where the trail system extends that block into four lakes without asking you to move your car.

The First Street Loop

Start at The Stone Oven at 6551 First St. Order at the counter. If it's busy, and in July it will be, the staff hands you a pager and you walk next door. That "next door" is Lake Ann Brewing Company at 6535 First St, which explicitly allows Stone Oven food to be carried in so you can eat, drink, and catch live music in the same seat. The brewery keeps this arrangement casual on purpose. There's a park across the street for kids, a free game shelf inside, and Corner Cone ice cream on the other side of the brewery and a grocery store within walking distance.

That's the loop. Pizza pager in hand, walk fifty feet, order a kettle sour or an IPA, grab a picnic table on the lawn, wait for the buzz, walk fifty feet back. When the pizza's gone, cross First Street to S.S. Burnett Park with the kids, then double back for a cone. No one moves a car. No one checks a map.

The Stone Oven's menu rewards the effort. Reviewers highlight the exceptional pizza, noting the quality of the crust and toppings. Popular choices include the white chicken pizza and specialty pizzas. The mac and cheese is frequently mentioned as a standout dish, with generous portions and unique flavor combinations. Other menu items like the Thai Reuben, grilled ham and cheese, and chicken jalapeño soup also receive high marks. If you've been ordering the same pepperoni for three summers, the Thai Reuben is the local rite of passage.

Who's On the Outdoor Stage

The brewery's stage is what turns the block from a dinner run into a Friday night. Live music on Tuesdays year-round. Music on the patio during the summer months Tuesday - Saturday (weather permitting). Corner Cone confirms the rhythm from its side of the fence: Live Music is performed nightly (Tue-Sat) next door at Lake Ann Brewing Co during the summer season.

If you've been treating the stage as background noise, the July calendar is worth reading closely.

A few of these acts pull people from well outside Almira Township. New Third Coast is a trio of musicians who come together to deliver a unique Power Folk, Leelanau County style sound. Their strong three-part harmonies, combined with diverse instrumental musical expression, have created a large following throughout Northwestern Lower Michigan and beyond. If you have out-of-town family in for the weekend, a New Third Coast or Delilah DeWylde night is the one to plan around.

Homecoming, Anniversary, Oktoberfest

Beyond the weekly stage, there are three dates on the 2026 Lake Ann calendar worth blocking off now.

Saturday, July 11 — Lake Ann Homecoming, 9:00 AM at S.S. Burnett Park. The park sits conveniently nestled in downtown Lake Ann across from Stone Oven and is available to the public during non-snow seasons (Spring, Summer, and Fall). Homecoming day stacks on top of a busy brewery Saturday, so plan to walk in from home if you live within a mile.

Saturday, August 15 — ATFEMS Annual Open House and 75th Anniversary at 7272 Ole White Drive, 10:00 AM. Seventy-five years of the township's fire and EMS service is not a routine anniversary. It's the kind of civic marker worth showing up for even if you've never poked around a fire hall before.

Saturday, October 3 — RBR at Lake Ann Brewing Oktoberfest, 6:00 PM. If your summer routine is the outdoor stage, Oktoberfest is the graceful handoff into fall.

One more logistical note for anyone who tracks the brewery's promotions closely: Next Bonus Day is Sunday, September 6, 2026. Open Noon-10pm. We will be closed Labor Day. Two things to file away there. Labor Day itself is closed, and the Bonus Day the day before Labor Day is when the regulars show up.

Four Lakes in Under Four Miles

Now the second half of the thesis. When the block gets too busy, or you just want your Saturday morning back before the crowds land, the Lake Ann Pathway is your escape hatch, and it's genuinely unusual.

Lake Ann Pathway lies in the Pere Marquette State Forest and is known primarily as an excellent Nordic ski trail, featuring many loops and a rolling terrain. What started out as an interpretive trail in the late 1970s is now a popular multi-use trail with mountain bikers and hikers enjoying what skiers love; the scenic overlooks from the trail and the quiet nature of the area. In less than 4 miles, you view four lakes, skirt three bogs, and follow a stretch of the Platte River. From swamps and lakes to a trout stream, few trails in southern Michigan display so much water in such a short distance.

Four lakes in under four miles is the stat that makes this trail unusual. For context, most northern Michigan loops of that length give you one lake, maybe two if you count a marsh. The Lake Ann Pathway hands you Lake Ann, Marys Lake, Shavenaugh Lake, and Harvey Lake, plus a Platte River frontage, in the time it takes to listen to an album.

The network is not one trail. It's four loops. The network is actually four loops. The first loop encircles the state forest campground for 1.8 miles on the east side of Reynolds Road and, while scenic in places, is not nearly as interesting as what lies on the other side of the road. West of Reynolds Road, the first loop is a trek of 1.2 miles from the posted trailhead; the second is a 1.8-mile walk. The entire circuit on the west side of the road is a 3.4-mile hike. Translation for locals: skip the campground loop, cross the road, and do the west side. That's the money side.

If you're bringing kids, grandparents, or a dog with short legs, the Lakeside Loop is the right choice. Lake Ann Pathway: Lakeside Loop is considered an easy route with an elevation gain of 65 ft, taking approximately 0.5–1 hr to complete. Easy trails are typically short, with clearly marked paths and fairly level terrain. Lake Ann Pathway: Lakeside Loop is a 1.5 mi loop trail.

Two calendar notes if you've only ever done the pathway in winter on skis. The hiking season runs from early May to late November, but keep in mind that the low-lying swamps and bogs found here are bug factories during the summer, especially from mid-June through July, and that a potent insect repellent is a requirement then. Fall colors are excellent, and the bogs are a profusion of wildflowers in the spring.

That mid-June through July window matters more than most trail write-ups admit. If you have friends visiting from Chicago in early July and you want them to love this trail, either go before 8 AM or wait until August. The bogs are real, and so are the mosquitoes they produce.

The Season Shift Nobody Writes Down

Here's a rhythm you learn only by living here. From mid-May through mid-September, the outdoor stage runs Tuesday through Saturday and the sidewalk between the brewery and the Stone Oven feels like a small festival every weekend. After Labor Day, the block exhales. Live music on Tuesdays year-round. That Tuesday night through winter is the version of Lake Ann most out-of-towners never see, and it's arguably the best one. You get a table, the bartender remembers your order, and the acoustic set sounds better without the summer overlap.

If you moved here for a quieter version of northern Michigan, September through May on First Street is the payoff.

A Local's Order of Operations

Put the pieces together and a Lake Ann summer Saturday runs like this. Walk the west-side Pathway loops before 9 AM, when the bogs are still cool. Home for a shower. Late lunch pager pickup at The Stone Oven, brewery patio for the 3 PM Daydrinker's set, ice cream at Corner Cone with the kids, twenty minutes on the Burnett Park lawn, then back for the 7 PM headliner. Nobody drives. Nobody circles for parking. Nobody wonders what to do next.

That's the version of this town that doesn't show up on a search-engine snippet, and it's the version worth protecting.

If you're thinking about how a home in Lake Ann fits into the rest of your life up here, or you have neighbors asking what your place might be worth heading into the 2027 season, Team Shimek knows this block, this pathway, and the streets that feed both. Schedule a free consultation when you're ready to talk.