 |
| Surrounded by fragrant cedars, Wren Falls tumbles 15 feet into a pool. |
 |
| North Country National Scenic Trail, Wren Falls segment topo map. Click for larger version. |
A 6.58-miles round trip hike on the North Country National Scenic Trail heads to the falls. Though Wren Falls drops just 12-15 feet, it does so with a dramatic flourish as a river flows through a deep gorge then spills into a wide, peaceful pool.
To reach the trailhead, from Mellen take Wis. Hwy. 77 east. Go left/north on the gravel Casey Sag Road. Look for the trail access, which is on both sides of the road at the Gold Mine Creek Bridge. Park along the road and head west on the trail.
About 100 feet in, the trail crosses a 34-foot bridge over an unnamed tributary of Gold Mine Creek then crosses yet another bridge.
Gold mine con
The route is a fairly new segment of the North Country Trail. Construction began in 2007 with many of the volunteers driving from the Milwaukee area some 5-6 hours away. The Student Conservation Association, made up of high school students, also spent a month working on 1.2 miles of the trail.
In little more than half-mile from the trailhead is a spur on the left/south side that heads to a campground.
At 0.6 miles, the trail reaches the “gold mine,” the site of a great con job. During the late 1800s, a con man made up a story of a mother lode being found there and then sold shares to investors. So that the investors and anyone else coming by would believe the story, he even had equipment set up there. Today, an old steam boiler and two mine shafts – now filled with water – can be seen on the hike.
After the trail crosses another bridge, it enters a rolling woodlands with glacial erratic boulders all about. These boulders actually are rock from northern Canada that glaciers sheared off and carried to Wisconsin as advancing during the last ice age. When the glaciers melted and retreated, the boulders dropped to the ground and remained behind.
Gogebic Range
There was money to be found in the ground there, through it came in the form of iron rather than gold. The trail heads through the famous Gogebic Range, which also is known as the Penokee Range.
About 2 billion years ago, iron-rich sediments eroded off the land and settled into a shallow seas that covered this region. At 1.7 billion years, a mountains rose in the area, raising the sediment out of the deep earth. Then about 1.1 billion year ago, volcanism morphed the rock to create iron ore. Between 1977 and 1967, miners removed an incredible 325 million tons of iron ore from about 40 individual mines in the range.
The trail next veers north toward a knoll. As reaching its base, the route curves west and approaches another knoll, which you’ll go over at about 2 miles in.
Then the trail briefly heads southwest to a third knoll. After going over it at about 2.75 miles, the trail heads northwest.
Wren Falls
The trail soon approaches Taylor Fork River, a tributary of the Bad River, which in turn flows into Lake Superior to the north. You’ll parallel the small river for about 300 feet.
Take a spur to a campground on a bluff overlooking Wren Falls. Below, the river narrows in a rocky gorge before spilling to a pool. Cedar trees grow in the rock while lichens cling to granite.
The water falling over the falls often is the color of root beer. Decaying leaves and roots spilling into the waterway caused the coloration.
After taking in the sight, head back to main trail and then retrace your steps back to the parking lot. Alternately, you can continue on left/north on the North Country Trail to the intersection of Casey Sag and Vogues roads and Sullivan Fire Lane for pickup; this shaves about a mile off the hike.
