I am familiar with the Macomb Orchard Trail (MOT), but have never ridden the Pere Marquette trail. So I can only share my experience with the MOT, but there are also two other trails that intersect the MOT that might be worth considering. The Macomb Orchard trail is asphalt, quite smooth, and mostly straight. It's flat except for a freeway overpass. It follows a transmission tower corridor for a good portion of the trail as it cuts through farm fields, wetlands, and occasional sections where the trail right-of-way is forested. Richmond (at the east end of the trail) is a small, one (and a half?) stoplight town with a convenience store, a couple of restaurants, antique shop, and Pyro Joe's at the intersection with the traffic light.
Near the western end of the MOT, an option to head north about half a mile or so will bring you to Stony Creek Metropark. There's a loop road and multi-use path that circles the lake with a couple of modest rolling grades. If you pack a picnic lunch, you can take your break by the lake. At the western terminus of the MOC, you can cross the road (Dequindre) and join the Clinton River Trail (CRT) which follows the old rail bed along the Clinton River. The CRT is mostly crushed limestone with a section of recycled asphalt millings. It's a riparian environment with trees growing in the flood plain along the river. The city of Rochester (downtown has four stoplights) is a larger burg than Richmond on the MOT with multiple options for a cafe stop or lunch and a bike shop in town. The city of Rochester is about two miles west of the end of the MOT (and surrounded by dense, suburban development). From Rochester, the CRT trail goes west toward Pontiac, but doesn't quite make it there without adding a bypass route that follows the surface roads. Also in Rochester, there is a short connector trail (River Walk Trail; ~ 1 mile) that will become the Paint Creek Trail (
PCT)-- another option that you could consider. The PCT goes north to the village of Lake Orion (10 miles one-way, I think). The village of Lake Orion is about the same size as Rochester with similar amenities. The PCT follows along the forested flood plain with bridges for crossing over the (occasionally) meandering creek. The trail surface is crushed limestone throughout and level.
All three of those trails are pretty popular on weekends, but trail traffic should be much lighter in the mornings. If I had to pick one of those for wildlife viewing, I'd probably go with the PCT, but the wildlife you're most likely to see are deer. The final option I'll mention is the portion of the
Polly Ann Trail (PAT) northwest of Oxford (another six miles or so north of Lake Orion). That section of the PAT is a more decidedly rural stretch of trail that follows the old rail bed and is similarly graded. It cuts through forests and wetlands and passes farms and horse pasture with the trail user density being decidedly lower. There is some pretty good birding along the trail with a mating pair of trumpeter swans and a clutch of five cygnets in residence in one of the trailside wetland ponds (picture attached, taken last Sunday). In the swan's neighboring pond, there's a pretty good population of box turtles, too. The little village of Leonard is even smaller than Richmond (it's a four-way stop town), but its got a convenience store with some patio furniture set up outside to host tired-cyclists.
So, sorry I didn't answer your question directly, but those are the local-like, multi-use trails in the Detroit-area that I ride and am familiar with. Hopefully, there is something useful for you in my response. The stay-at-home order in Michigan is supposed to be lifted next Monday (June 8), so cafe options along the routes should increase, but that might depend on your personal risk assessments.
Cheers.
Photo taken from the trail.