I'm going to suggest that the damage is caused by shrews. Look up google images for shrew damage to lawns.

It might be shrews, but the google images look different than what I have. I also just read that the often use other animals' tunnels and don't usually cause damage to the landscape. It's hard to imagine something so small moving that much dirt.

I'm going to need some really fine shot to take out a shrew.

Voles, Field Mice. That type of damage has been spotlighted on the local news several times of late. As the snow cover recedes you see this and some want to do something but there is nothing to do since they will move back into the wild until there is once again heavy snow cover to hide them.
As the soil warms and the grass grows those "trails" will disappear.

Here is a link that might be useful: vole damage images

I've had vole damage before, and you're right, it's just surface damage. This looks much different than past vole damage though. I found one above ground trail, but most are underground holes with long deposits of dirt on top of the grass. If they're voles, they are acting much differently than the voles of the past. In the past, I just had to rake some dead grass off the top. I think I'll need a shovel for this mess. Voles eat mostly roots from what I understand, but knowing that I had a major grub problem last year, I suspect that this critter was after grubs. That makes it more likely that it was a shrew, but I still can't imagine that it was an animal that small. Shrews are tiny.

trying some deductions ....

how and what did you use on the lawn to treat the pre-existing grubs??? .. any hardcore treatment???

if so... what grubs would there be???? ... presuming a proper application ...

but then.. i see little actual damage to the grass left ..

so both together.. it seems that one might not ID the food source they used all winter ...

unless ... hmmm.. i see driveway .. is this near the garage??? .. you didnt happen to have a 50 pound bag of sunflower seed in there??? ... perhaps you ought to widen the search a bit.. or correct any presumption above...

i am just speculating ...

ken

Good questions, Ken. The grub damage was last spring, but wasn't evident until I used a thatcher and removed some sod, so I don't think I'd notice it yet. I've been trying to avoid using grub control on the grass, because I don't like what it does to the environment. Now that I think about it, the grubs were two springs ago and I replanted that fall. I used Seven grub control that summer or fall. I didn't use anything last year. Bottom line is, I'm not sure that I have grubs, but I wouldn't be surprised since I haven't continued treatment.

As for the sunflower seed question, I do have sunflower seeds in the garage which is nearby, but they're in a garbage can. The chipmunks got in through a hole in the middle top of the lid years ago, but I patched it with wire mesh and silicone. I'm sure there are no chipmunks in there now. I do have chipmunks and black squirrels in the yard, but I know what their holes and burials look like. This is something I've never seen before.

I'm all for widening the search, and I haven't ruled out voles or shrews.

Thanks everyone for help with the detective work.

Since the primary food of shrews is insects and there are few insects out and about in Michigan during the winter I would suspect shrews hibernate, but nothing I have found anywhere suggests the damage you see was done by shrews. Vole damage in my yard is very similar to what you have posted here.

I definitely have voles, so that's probably it. In the past, they've only done surface damage. They just tunneled through the grass, not the dirt.

I noticed yesterday that as the grass is greening up and after a couple of light rains, 0.1 to 0.25 inches, the vole trails in my grass are going away with no raking by me or anyone else.