Stop and shop: What to keep in mind for Yard Sale Trail this weekend

Whether “you’re 3 years old or 83 years old,” event founder Mary Teichow said there’s something for everyone in the Yard Sale Trail.

The annual three-day concurrence of roadside vendors, antique pop-ups, and garage sales dotting the M-29 and M-25 state throughways up and down the Thumb returns this Friday.

In a way, Teichow, who’s credited with starting the event two decades ago, and others promoting the area admit the Yard Sale Trail has sort of grown a life of its own, bringing in hundreds of out-of-town visitors hunting for new stop-and-shop discoveries.

“It’s impossible to estimate how many people are going to do it,” said Katie Stepp, marketing manager for the Blue Water Area Convention and Vistors Bureau, because it depends on the weather and “who puts out what the first day.”

Also, she said, “There’s no official organization of where to go or what the map looks like. You just follow the M-29 and M-25 and see what’s along the trail.”

But like clockwork, Yard Sale Trail always occurs the second weekend of August and encapsulates communities for more than 150 miles from New Baltimore to Sebewaing all the way up the state’s most-eastern coastline through St. Clair, Sanilac, and Huron counties.

Teichow said she’s been getting a ton of calls from vendors asking where they can set up.

“We are rebuilding after COVID, so I’m hoping for a good weekend,” she said.

When does the shopping typically occur each day?

Teichow, of Teichow’s Treasures Antiques in Greenwood, said she usually sees people pulling off tarps in their driveways and opening garage doors around 8 or 9 a.m. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday each year.

Jason Schofield, a writer and freelancer who lives in New Baltimore, took on some promotion for the event this year independently, producing a digital booklet. He’s been telling people the common hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

But when that ends, Teichow said, depends on how busy sellers are as vendors and hosts.

“In years past, once Yard Sale Trail starts, they just keep coming and coming and coming, and there’s been nights that I couldn’t put a tarp on one of my tables until eight o’clock at night,” she said. “I’m just excited that things have opened up where folks can do (activities as a) family, and we want those expendable dollars here in the Thumb. I just tell people, please sweep off your driveways and welcome folks to our side of the state.”

Where will there be stops to shop?

The communities commonly listed as participants — or areas where vendors and residents looking to host garage sales typically set up — include Algonac, Clay Township, Forestville, Harbor Beach, Lexington, Marine City, New Baltimore, Port Hope, and St. Clair.

However, that also depends on who you ask.

Teichow said it may also include folks who set up in Marysville, Port Huron, all the way through Lakeport, and up to Port Austin. Of where she sets up, she joked, “Lexington is kind of the heartbeat of the trail.”

Schofield said he hoped to help people understand the full length of the trail, adding it may be easy to forget where it starts and that it may not be over if a shopper hits long stretches of highway without anything.

“A lot of people will drive a certain distance, and once you hit more rural country areas, they tend to back off. People on the south end here near New Baltimore, they really don’t think anything goes past Algonac,” he said. “There’s going to be parts where they’re going to experience Michigan’s beautiful coastline, and the rural area, and there might not be as many yard sales set up. But that doesn’t mean there’s nothing along the way.”

What can you discover along the trail?

Teichow said there’s typically a host of items and antiques available along the way.

“You know what they say, the old saying, ‘One man’s junk is another man’s treasure.’ So, there’s just a whole variety,” she said. “I mean, you will see where (there are)  young families and they’ve matured enough, they’re getting rid of their baby stuff as far as the little walkers and the playpens and that type of thing to folks like myself. My family’s grown, and I have quite a collection of antiques and vintage items.”

Teichow said most of the hotels are off the Water Street exit of Interstate 94/69 in Port Huron, but that there’s plenty of other bed-and-breakfasts and roadside motels along the way that fill up quickly. She recommended people stay the night to hit the whole trail.

Stepp said the CVB is also promoting overnight stays, restaurants, and points of interest along the way with a map highlighting them along the trail. That can be accessed through its events calendar and the Michigan Yard Sale Trail Facebook page that Schofield runs.

How can shoppers stay safe along the trail?

Stepp recommended people heading south stick to stops on the west side of M-29 and M-25 and those headed north to the east side.

Teichow advised the same thing, as in many areas along both highways, there are no marked places to park and it helps keep people from “crisscrossing” the busy roadway.

“Please, drive with caution, drive with courtesy. It does get crazy,” she said. “I know I set up in Lexington, and it looks like a parking lot out there on Friday evening. "

Downriver, the “more populated end of the trail,” Teichow said drivers may have to pull off to side streets to park.

She also advised drivers to concentrate on the road, enabling whoever's riding shotgun to "shop from the road."

Stepp said that means driving a little slower where sales pop up.

“People get excited. You know, like, ‘Oh my god, that looks amazing,’” she said, adding a screeching sound. “And they go to pull over, and they’re doing wheelies in the middle of M-25."

For more information, visit Facebook.com/MichiganYardSaleTrail or YardSaleTrail.com.

Contact Jackie Smith at (810) 989-6270 or jssmith@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Port Huron Times Herald: Stop and shop: What to keep in mind for Yard Sale Trail this weekend