Walk quiet woods in historic logging site

Lakeshore Trail (marked in yellow), Eau Claire, Wis.

Day hikers can walk a tranquil, wooded path that at one time was a hub of Wisconsin’s bustling logging industry.

The Lakeshore Trail at Eau Claire’s Carson Park runs about a mile one-way. A side trail of the Chippewa River State Trail, it’s less of a wilderness route than an urban walking path.

To access the trail, from U.S. Hwy 12/Clairemont Avenue in Eau Claire, turn east onto Menomonie Street then left/north onto Carson Park Drive. Use the parking lot next to the baseball stadium. From there, cross Carson Park Drive and go southwest or northeast on the trail.

The 134-acre park sits on a “peninsula” surrounded by an oxbow lake, Half Moon Lake, which once marked the course of the Chippewa River. Today, the river runs east and south of the lake.

Despite hugging Carson Park Drive, the path is quiet with the rustling of leaves in the wind far more common than passing vehicles. That wasn’t the case during the last 1800s, though, when Half Moon Lake was a holding pond for logs awaiting their turn at the sawmill. In 1884, more than 989 million board feet of logs came down the Chippewa River to Eau Claire’s sawmills. At the time, the Daniel Shaw Lumber Company owned what is now the park.

When the trees from up north were all felled, the lumber companies moved on, and for a while the land sat empty and unused. Proposals included building a resort and a race-track there.

Then in 1914 the heirs of millionaire lumberman William Carson purchased the land and gave it to the city on condition that it be used as public park. The following year, the park was named for their father, the former president of Valley Lumber Company.

In the 1930s, a baseball stadium went up in the park. This was soon followed by the Paul Bunyan Logging Camp Museum, another museum for the county’s history, and several other park facilities.

Learn more about nearby day hiking trails in my Day Hiking Trails of the Chippewa Valley guidebook.

Great hiking trails of Bayfield, Wis. – Part II

Hiking trail near Bayfield, Wis. Photo courtesy of Bayfield County Tourism.

Certainly among the most trail-friendly areas in northwest Wisconsin is Bayfield. A number of great day hiking trails can be found in town and the wider Bayfield Peninsula. Among them:
g Lakeshore Trail – Cabin-goers don’t have to leave the mainland to experience the beauty of the famous Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. A fairly new route, the Lakeshore Trail, runs through a Lake Superior forest, an impressive sandstone cave formation, and along a windswept beach.
g Lost Creek Falls Walking Trail – Located south of Cornucopia on the peninsula’s west side, the trail heads for less than mile one way through pine barrens to Lost Creek. The trailhead is at the end of Trail Road off of County Road C.
g Mt. Ashwabay Ski Area hiking trails – Several ski trails in winter turn to day hiking trails of varying lengths in summer. The ski area is located on Ski Hill Road south of Bayfield.
g Raspberry River Walking Trail – Northwest of Red Cliff, the trail heads through pine barrens to the Raspberry River, which ultimately flows into Lake Superior. The trailhead is at the intersection of Old County Highway K Road and Rowley Road.
g Spring Creek walking trails – About 3.5 miles south of Cornucopia on County Road C, a set of trails run through the pine barrens near the Siskiwit River and lakes. Look on the road’s east side for the trailhead.
g Sioux River Flats Beach Trail – For a great beach walk, try this 1.9-mile stretch south of Bayfield. From Wis. Hwy. 13, take Bayview Park Road to a parking area and follow the beach to the Sioux River.

Read more about day hiking Bayfield County, Wisconsin, in my Day Hiking Trails of Bayfield County guidebook.

Sea caves, sandy beach await on lake hike

Mawikwe Bay sea caves

Mainland trail in Wisconsin part
of Apostle Islands National Lakeshore

Day hikers don’t have to leave the mainland to experience the beauty of the famous Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. A fairly new route, the Lakeshore Trail, runs through a Lake Superior forest, an impressive sandstone cave formation, and along a windswept beach.

To reach Lakeshore Trail, take Wis. Hwy. 13 north from Bayfield, Wisconsin. At Park Road, turn toward Meyers Beach. A large paved parking lot sits 0.4 miles away at the road’s end.

Look for trail signs on parking lot’s northeast side. You’ll head east through aspen, birch, several maple varieties, and a few pines. Given the mix of trees and their different fall leaf colors, early September is an ideal time for the hike; mosquitoes also will be few at that time of the year.

A few hundred yards from the parking lot, the trail goes up and down a gully, which in spring and early summer can boast running water. Stepping stones make for easy fording, though.

Sea caves
When you cross a sand road, you’re about 0.8 miles along the trail. Continue that same distance again, and you’ll glimpse the lake and the trail’s highlight: the Mawikwe Bay sea caves.

The lakes’ crashing deep waves and millennia of winter ice carved out honeycombed caves and a 50-foot chasm that runs more than 200 feet long. A natural bridge runs over the formation. The tinted sandstone and rainbows from the spray gives the formation a magical feel.

The caves can’t be accessed from the trail except during winter when the lake freezes (You may see kayakers at other times of the year clambering about the caves, however.). During winter, icicles hanging from the sandstone roofs are otherworldly.

The trail skirts the chasm. If children are with you, make sure they stay away from the cliff edges and off the natural bridge. All are unstable due to constant erosion.

Extending the trail
This marks a good place to turn back for a round-trip hike that is slightly more than 3 miles long. For a more ambitious hike, however, continue onward. After more than a mile on the bluff overlooking the sea caves, follow the trail inland through the forest. The flat trail winds through more hardwoods in a peaceful setting.

Be forewarned that once in the forest, the trail can be difficult to follow. Fortunately, it soon meets a dirt road. Turn left onto the road, which drops about 80 feet in elevation, until reaching a sandy beach.

Seagulls are numerous here. The clump of trees across the lake’s horizon is Eagle Island.

Keep walking east and north along the shoreline for about a half mile or once it turns to cobble. Return the way you came for a roughly 10-mile round trip.

Lakeshore Trail is managed by the National Park Service. There is no fee for hikers to enter or park.

Read more about day hiking Bayfield County, Wisconsin, in my Day Hiking Trails of Bayfield County guidebook.