Revolinski - Hiking Wisconsin

Hiking Wisconsin

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Every effort has been made by the authors and editors to make this guide as accurate and useful as possible. However, many things can change after a guide is publishedtrails are rerouted, regulations change, techniques evolve, facilities come under new management, and so on.

We would appreciate hearing from you concerning your experiences with this guide and how you feel it could be improved and kept up to date. While we may not be able to respond to all comments and suggestions, well take them to heart, and well also make certain to share them with the authors. Please send your comments and suggestions to the following address:

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Thanks for your input, and happy trails!

To the thousands of men and women

who give so generously of their time

so that Wisconsin remains

a place well worth hiking.

They build and maintain trails,

attend conservation hearings,

and campaign against those

who would turn our rivers

into discharge channels for mines

and our forests into industrial tree farms.

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Copyright 2016 by Rowman & Littlefield

Previous editions of this book were published by Falcon Publishing, Inc., in 2002.

All interior photographs by Kevin Revolinski, unless otherwise noted

Maps: Melissa Baker Rowman & Littlefield

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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Information Available

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Available

ISBN 978-1-4930-1873-4 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-4930-1874-1 (e-book)

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The authors and Rowman & Littlefield assume no liability for accidents happening to, or injuries sustained by, readers who engage in the activities described in this book.

Contents

Acknowledgments

This book would not have been possible without the help of many people. I would like to thank the nearly fifty avid hikers who found time to return my questionnaires and inform me of their favorite routes. Many of those folks are active in the Wisconsin Lets Go Hiking Club, Sierra Club, Milwaukee Nordic Ski Club, North Country Trail Association, or the Ice Age Park and Trail Foundation.

Steve Sorensen, of Ashland, shared his knowledge of many hikes in that area. Drew Hanson, geographer of the Ice Age Park and Trail Foundation, supplied savvy trail data, a steady stream of encouragement, and text review.

Thanks also to the countless land agency personnel who patiently answered my questions.

I am grateful to copy editor Katie Sharp and the rest of the staff at Globe Pequot for their knowledgeable assistance.

Special thanks to my spouse, Anne Steinberg, for frontline editing that kept me on track and a faith in this project that smoothed the rough spots.

Any errors are mine, not theirs.

Eric Hansen

I am humbled to be providing what amounts to an assist in maintaining such a fantastic collection o f W isconsin hikes. Eric Hansens work in creating the original edition of this book is impressive, and the trails he chose have not lost their magnificence. Eric Sherman of the Ice Age Trail Alliance deserves my thanks for always keeping me up-to-date on the latest developments of the trail. Jon Jarosh of Door County Visitor Bureau helped me sort out the latest information for the Door County hikes, while Julie Van Stappen of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore was instrumental in getting me what I needed for the several hikes in the islands and on the lakeshore there. Also, thanks to Marty Swank of the Chequamegon Chapter of the North Country Trail Association. I cant begin to list all the various park personnel, managers, and rangers, and even fellow hikers, who contributed in some fashion to this new edition. Thanks also to David Legere at Globe Pequot/FalconGuides for his guidance and infinite patience. Finally, as always, I am fortunate to have my wife, Preamtip Satasuk, with me literally every step of the way and taking care of so much, from photography to drive navigation to snacks. I couldnt have done this without her.

Kevin Revolinski

Anderson Lake Trail passes close to Clay Lake (hike 10).

Introduction

Hiking Wisconsin

If a foreign visitor were to ask me about hiking in Wisconsin, I would sum it up in three words: water , woods , and wolves . Bordered by two of the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River, filled with thousands of inland lakes and sparkling streams, the states abundance of pristine water attracts natives and neighbors alike. A vast second-growth forest of hardwoods and evergreens, concentrated in the Northern Highlands and Central Plain, covers 46 percent of the state. An impeccable authority indicates the quality of that forests quiet corners: Wild timber wolves, returning of their own free will, have reoccupied much o f W isconsins forest land, raising pups as far south as the center of the state.

I would tell the visitor that I can leave my Milwaukee home, drive three hours, and walk past the tracks of one of the eight breeding packs of wolves in the central forest. Or I could travel west, to a quiet bluff-top prairie offering broad views of the Mississippi River and the hardwood forests clinging to steep slopes along its shores. Upstream, an hours drive north of the Twin Cities, I would walk beside one of the cleanest large rivers in the country, the St. Croix, while eagles scan for dinner. There huge glacial potholes, scoured 60 feet deep and 12 feet wide into bedrock, illustrate the epic glacial forces that shaped the St. Croix valley and much of the state.

A little north of there the choices become difficult. Should I walk to the fourth-highest waterfall east of the Rocky Mountains, a stunning 165-foot drop, or opt for solitude at a charming backcountry cascade? Or should I follow part of the North Country Trails 60-mile passage through a remote forest, passing lakes where the haunting cries of loons echo?

I couldnt leave this part of the state without communing with Lake Superior, possessor of a full eighth, and some of the purest, of the planets fresh water. Two outings along its shores are classics: a walk along one of the pristine beaches and a hike to one source of that sand, the spectacular wave-carved sandstone sea caves and cliffs east of Cornucopia.