During September and October, Bayfield Area Trails Committee partners contributed lots of time, equipment, and energy to prepare the Upper Pileated Woodpecker Trail for hikers and snowshoers this fall and winter. And now it’s ready for YOU to enjoy! The trail can be accessed at the start of the nordic ski trails at Mount Ashwabay. A trail sign marks the start of the trail and provides information about distances to trail intersections and the Pikes Creek bridge. Although the trail between the bridge and the fish hatchery is still closed to public use due to a land ownership dispute, it is a nice 1.8-mile hike to Chickadee Point and 2.2-mile hike to the bridge, making it about 4.5 miles round trip from Mount Ashwabay. The fall colors may be starting to fade, but the grouse are still drumming and the woods are peaceful.
Status Update on the Hatchery Access
Reestablishing public access behind the Les Voigt State Fish Hatchery remains a priority for the Wisconsin DNR. The DNR and Bayfield County are working on a land sale that would transfer three small parcels of property from the County to the DNR. This will be the first step toward reestablishing trail access. DNR continues to research the legal status of the old access road that had been used for many years for public access. The findings of this research will be pivotal in reestablishing access. The DNR recently met with the private landowner to convey their intent to reestablish public access.
Please continue to respect the trail closure until legal public access is reestablished. Thank you for your cooperation!
Ted May, Gene Lemmenes, John Ipsen, Kris Wegerson, Tracy May, Mike Kinnee and Jeff Martin put in the finishing touches by hand, clipping overhanging branches; digging out exposed trippy roots and stumps; cleaning up or fixing water diversions; and adding a couple small water diversions.
In addition to leading to Chickadee Point and Pikes Creek, the Upper PWT connects to the Jolly Long Loop and ultimately to the Jerry Jolly Trails. Follow the signs and discover the adventure out there!
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A total of 18 volunteers turned out for two beautiful autumn mornings to work on repairing the Brownstone trail below the Wild Rice Retreat on October 17th & 18th. The three amigas, Kris Wegerson, Cami Smalley, and Suz Thomson also worked on a segment near the Waterford Condos. Thanks to everyone who made it happen! Crew Leaders Extraordinaire: John Ipsen & Kris Wegerson. Track Loader Operator, the magnificent Mark Frazer. Hard working hand crew members who did it ALL: leaf raking & blowing, weed trimming, branch lopping, ditch digging, gravel raking, trail tamping, and culvert installing -
Thank you, donors! This would not have happened without donations of time and funding from Rex Dollinger, Mark Frazer, David Sonstegard, Viking Motors, Wild Rice Retreat, and two anonymous donors.
Crew leader John Ipsen remarked, “This was a pretty complicated project with lots of moving parts and players. But I’m always impressed at how advance planning, the right tools and equipment, and enthusiasm about the trails enables us to accomplish so much in just a few hours.” I think we will call this “the year of Blue Brule” said Kate Kitchell. “We added 31 yards of this gravel in key locations on the west and east sides of the Big Ravine in late September; and now Dan Maki from Viking Motors brought us another 13 yards for the Brownstone Trail.” It’s amazing how the Bayfield Area Trails volunteers rally together to continuously improve the trails.
The gravel was placed in locations that have been consistently muddy and difficult to traverse late into the spring season. Trail users will recognize these locations where impermeable clay soils and lack of drainage on flat terrain cause the water to pool and stand for extended periods. These conditions were especially prevalent during this year’s extremely wet spring and after the June 19th flood event. In the muddiest spots, volunteers installed heavy-duty landscape fabric to keep the gravel from sinking in. In addition, small berms and drainage ditches were added to divert water off of the trail and minimize potential erosion of the trail tread. Four boardwalks were moved from the Striped Skunk Trail and relocated to extend existing boardwalks in key locations. It was a huge team effort!
Although we hope that the 2024 very wet spring conditions and the June 19th flood event were relatively uncommon occurrences, we hope that these trail improvements will make the trails more usable under such conditions in the future.
Thanks go to the volunteers re-opening this trail: Fred Clark, John Ipsen, Kate Kitchell, and Jen Maytum, who worked under Mattson’s leadership.
Check out the trail. It’s easy walking. You’ll be refreshed by the tranquility of Pikes Creek which is just beginning to reflect this season’s famous fall hardwood colors. We are launching the Bayfield Area Trails Economic impact study trail user surveys. We need your help. Trails! Hiking, XC skiing, snowshoeing, biking …. presumably trails in the Bayfield Peninsula are valuable and attract people to the area to visit and live.
We need volunteers: If you’re not the type to run a chainsaw, swing an ax, or build rock steps, this is an excellent opportunity to support Bayfield Area Trails. We are looking for folks who are willing to sign up for 2-hour shifts at a trailhead where they will greet trail users, conduct a short interview, and enter interview results into a database via a personal tablet or phone. Volunteers will receive training and will be provided name tags and a Bayfield Area Trails ball cap to identify them as trail volunteers. Volunteers will have lots of flexibility to sign up when times are convenient for them; and they may choose to work with another person or alone. Timing: We plan to conduct the first volunteer training the week after Labor Day and to start trail surveys by September 15th. Sign up here: If you are interested in possibly volunteering, please sign up here. We will invite you to the training and give you a chance to give it a try! Please sign up via this link.
At 9 am on Friday August 16th, Nan Fey, Bob Feyen, Neil Howk, John Ipsen, Kate Kitchell, Ted May, and Kris Wegerson met at the Mount Ashwabay parking lot to work on the Upper Pileated Woodpecker connector trail between the Jolly Long Link and the Ashwabay parking lot. Kate, Neil, Nan, John and Kris removed rocks from a portion of the trail where Bayfield County plans to bring in machinery to mulch the trail surface in early September. This will be followed by Doug Olson’s handiwork to install rock in a drainage that crosses the trail and to elevate the trail surface and create drainage to make the trail fully passable prior to the end of the season. Ted and Bob worked on stabilizing a footbridge that was impacted by flooding earlier this summer. Neil, Nan, and Kate hauled rocks from the creek bed to armor the streambank around the bridge. Ted, Kate, Kris, John, and Bob also dug some water bars across the trail on the slope leading down to the bridge to prevent erosion from heavy runoff and foot traffic. Ted, John, Kris, and Neil returned on Saturday August 17th to install steps/water bars on the Pileated Woodpecker Trail just south of the spur trail to Chickadee Point. They installed 15 steps along the switchbacks on the steepest part of the trail. Additional steps are still needed, but these new ones should help divert water from running down the trail as well as create steps for trail users where the clay soils can create slippery conditions when wet or icy.
Although the trail remains closed at the Red Dam gate behind the Les Voigt Fish Hatchery, it can be accessed from Mount Ashwabay as it connects to the Jolly Long Trail that ultimately leads to the Jerry Jolly Trail network from Star Route. This work puts us several steps closer to having a full trail connection between the fish hatchery and Mt. Ashwabay. Stay tuned for more progress! Ten volunteers tackled several tasks in the Big Ravine on Friday August 2nd and Saturday August 3rd to repair damage after the June 19th flood and to make the trails more sustainable. On Friday August 2nd, volunteers took on three projects along the Gil Larsen and Pine Bluff Trails. The lower Gil Larsen Trail was widened and moved away from the edge where the creek was undercutting the bank. A timber was set along the trail to guide hikers away from the edge.
Bill Bieganek refurbished a section of rock armoring in the trail where runoff had destabilized the rocks and washed away the soil. His experience with building lots of mountain bike trails was especially helpful. Gene Lemmenes worked on the cable steps at the top of the trail by filling in rocks and dirt where the steps were starting to become unstable. Other finishing touches completed by the crew included resetting rock steps, stabilizing the trail edge with rocks, cutting the backslope in a few locations to reestablish a wider trail tread, and raking leaves off of the trail to enable hikers to use the entire trail width. Hemlock Heights looks almost new again! Thank you volunteers!
One BAT volunteer who chipped in on our recent wood chip project was Chris Nybo, a second-grade teacher in Ventura, California! Huh? How did Chris get to be a member of the Bayfield Area Trails wheel barrow brigade? Originally from Red Wing, Minnesota, and later Duluth and the North Shore, Chris is a kayaker and a skier, and has been familiar with the Bayfield area for a long time. When he bought property here in 2005, he became a regular visitor during summer vacations from school.
“Now I’m just a part-timer in Bayfield,” Chris said, “and living and working mostly in California. But I look forward to when I can be much more than a part-time observer, and support the good stuff that’s already been happening.”
Wow! We agree with everything you said, Chris! And we especially look forward to when you’re more than a part-timer in Bayfield—ready to spread chips with another wheelbarrow brigade!! The Brownstone Trail took several hits during our major rain event on June 18-19th between Blue Wing Bay Road and the Box Steps beside Wild Rice Retreat. Shortly after the storm, Sean Reagan used his tractor and front-end loader for a great initial repair to the washed-out gullies on the steep slope that meets with Blue Wing Bay Road. Next a group of us got together to plan further repairs and water diversions for this section of trail to lower the risk of future washouts.
Mark was especially helpful and provided his ATV and trailer to haul water and equipment, so that we could better compact the gravel we had re-shaped. We built nine gradual angled diversions and filled in gullies with scavenged gravel.
Chris Nybo, who had biked to the work site, gave the diversions his mountain bike seal of approval! By the box steps, we raked displaced gravel and weeded. We worked efficiently in a couple of teams, and what we budgeted for two mornings only required one, so Saturday became a play day. The trail is looking more resilient to precipitation events. We’ll see how the area fares in the next big storm or spring runoff. Thanks, all you great volunteers!
Standard work days will be scheduled on Friday & Saturday mornings, 9 am to noon, during the 1st, 3rd, and 5th weeks of each month:
More details on project locations & tasks will come soon; and will be posted the Monday prior via Facebook and Instagram. Come out and lend a hand!
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Blog | Bayfield Area TrailsArchives
October 2024
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