The Beautiful Pine Bluff Trail is in! Check it out!

Bayfield residents and visitors are now able to get on the Gil Larsen Trail on Washington Avenue and hike up the Big Ravine—via the brand-new Pine Bluff Tail and the East Rim Trail—all the way to Meyers-Olson Road.

Pine Bluff Sign

Tess the dog helps build steps!

Will Krift of Trails Anonymous started work Friday morning, October 30 and, over the course of a week, led a crew of 15 volunteers on the project which connects the Gil Larsen Trail in the bottom of the ravine to the East Rim Trail at the top. Will’s dog, Tess, provided moral support.

​Will said, “It was helpful that we weren’t fighting a foot of snow! The first day was rainy and we were working in clay. But then, thankfully, we got beautiful weather and we ‘turned and burned’ and roughed-in the trail to the bottom in two and a half days. We had to move tons of earth. It was pretty cool the way this came together.”

​The work mainly consisted of building the trail and a series of switchbacks from the top of the ravine to the bottom, an elevation difference of 160 feet. Will and the crew also built several stone stairways along the trail.

Top of the Pine Bluff trail.

Will Krift of Trails Anonymous

Pine Bluff near top.

Pine Bluff Steps

Volunteers who worked on the Pine Bluff Trail include: Nan Fey, Neil Howk, John Ipsen, Genevieve Johnson, Mike Kinnee, Pete Kulenkamp, Gene Lemmenes, Ted and Tracy May, Scott Nesvold, Mark Peterson, Keith Ray, Patrick Skelly, Jim Steffenson, and Kris Wegerson. The volunteers put in over 70 hours of volunteer time.

Bayfield Area Trail Stewards have completed other work on the trails recently including a partial clean-up on the Finn Loop on the East Rim Trail, and the installation of four-by-four sign posts before the ground freezes. Maps and signs will be coming soon.

Genevieve Johnson with trail gear.