Our Splorin’ adventures last week were changed by the weather and the impending snow and, while the snow didn’t actually happen, we were glad to have stayed close to home “just in case.” We had originally planned to go up to Copper Falls State Park then, but didn’t want to have to drive 2.5 hours home in the snow. Well, the weather for this #SplorinSaturday was afternoon/evening snow too, so what did we do? Threw caution to the wind and said “Splor’ it!” — off to Copper Falls.
The day started out good — we left 4 minutes earlier than planned — and it just kept getting better. Our breakfast spot for the day was, appropriately enough, in Winter, WI. The Lakewood Cafe is a very cute little place right on Main St. in Winter. You have to turn off of Highway 8 to get there, but Winter has small town Wisconsin plastered all over it. The cafe is a very neat little typical diner for Wisconsin — a counter with stools, lots of tables and a very nice looking patio out front that would be awesome to sit at when it was not completely covered in snow. Most of our breakfast places do not server alcohol, but this one did. We chose not to partake in the bloody marys as we had our own packed away in the car for later in the day. The only disappointment we had about this place was there were no elderly gentleman’s coffee klatch going on. When we arrived there were two older guys at a table, but official #SplorinSaturday coffee klatch rules state there needs to be 3 or more to be considered a coffee klatch. We had our typical breakfast and it was very good — Tammy was even able to get a salad! No time to dilly dally though, we had Splorin’ to do. We were ahead of schedule and not wanting to waste a minute of this beautiful winter day.
The drive to Copper Falls State Park wound it’s way through the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest (it is pronounced exactly as it is spelled). Mike gets excited every time we drive through here because they have an elk herd that is around 200 animals. But alas, it was not to be, no elk were seen. When we arrived at the park, we headed to the area that we knew would receive the most traffic hoping to beat any crowds (if there were any). Even though we were arriving kind of late, 10AM (due to a 3 hour drive and breakfast) we were the first car in the lot!! Awesome! The plan called for taking in part of the Doughboys Trail around the falls first, then striking out on the North Country Trail for a bit. Having been here in the middle of summer last time, we were excited to see the park decked out in all its winter glory — and it did not disappoint!!
But first a little history lesson — why is it called the “Doughboys Trail”? Back in the 1920s, a power company owned all the land around the falls. They were going to dam the river and turn it into a hydroelectric power plant. A local group of World War I veterans led the charge to stop that and lobbied to get the local people behind them and the state to purchase the property for a state park. The original trail was built by the Doughboys returning from World War I.
We headed down to the main bridge to get to the other side of the falls and one thing that really stuck out to us was all the steps were covered in snow. You may laugh and say “of course they were silly”, but what we mean is that the steps really just became a hill because they were so packed with snow and ice. We sure were glad that we had our lovely new crampons on again — it would have been a nightmare getting up and down the these steps without them!
We finally made it through the trails and down the steps to the river. Last time we were here there were a lot of people swimming and wading in the river — today, not so much! Since there was no one else around, we explored down by the river. It was kind of eerie seeing it completely covered in snow. You just didn’t know how close you could get without going out onto an ice shelf, so we stayed a respectable distance back from where we thought the edge was. The bridge over the river was awesome and afforded an tantalizing view.
After drinking in the beauty of the river, we had work to do — we had to climb back up out of the river valley. While the steps coming down to the river on the one side were real steps, the ones on the other side were stone steps placed by the CCC many, many years ago. As such there has been a lot of settling and deterioration so some of those steps are very big and there are stretches of trail in between the steps that are quite steep. We made it to the top in no time however, our crampons doing a lot of the work for us. We then made it to where the North Country Trail veers off of the main Doughboys Trail.
Having already hiked about 1 mile and about another 1 mile back to the car, we decided that we would hike about 1.5 miles up the trail, turn around and come back to get us right around 5 miles for the first hike of the day. As we made our way along the trail the hiking was pretty easy. Even though it had snowed the previous weekend, it seemed like quite a few people had made there way along this trail, including some with snowshoes that really packed the trail down. That is until we came to the point where the state park trail wound its way back into the park and the North Country Trail kept heading north. There was a sign pointing out the the backpack camping site was just up the trail a little ways. Mike decided that this should be the our destination and turn-around point on this hike. The hiking became a little more difficult as this portion of the trail had not been hiked since the last snowfall, but it was still packed down a little as some people had been along it.
About a mile up the trail we came to the sign for the backpack camping site. Mike originally thought it was going to be on a bluff above the river (based on looking at the map), but it quickly became apparent that it was right down on the river. Tammy being the trooper that she is said this was fine and that we could make our way down. Earlier in the week she tweaked her knee after slipping and falling on an icy driveway on our daily Henry walk- but she was doing much better today. Now this trail to the backpack campsite was even LESS traveled than the North Country Trail. It looked like only one set of tracks and maybe some cross country skis had gone down sometime since the first snow had fallen, but certainly not recently. Mike had his All Trails app going and looking at where we were on the map vs where the trail was supposed to be — well, we were kind of staying on the trail. For the first couple tenths of a mile, it was pretty easy to follow the trail — it was a nice wide area along the creek. However, very soon that nice, obvious, trail turned down to the creek and this is what we saw:
While the picture is a gorgeous winter wonderland, if you look in the middle you will see a nice flat platform. That is apparently the remains of the bridge that was supposed to take us over the creek to continue down the trail to the backpack campsite. Mike was flummoxed. Standing by the creek it was obvious the trail was supposed to cross the creek, but without the bridge you would have had to either go across on the ice or balance your way across the log in the top right of the picture. If it were the middle of summer, no problemo! We would have forded the stream (getting our feet wet) but nonetheless headed down the trail. But in winter? No way. It was ice and snow covered and you could hear the creek flowing below. You would not know if your next step was going to send you through the ice into the creek or just onto your next step. Looking around, the footprints and ski tracks that we had been following continued down the same side of the creek. Mike thought maybe they led down to another place to cross the creek, so, once again, down the “trail” we went. It got kind of difficult in a couple places where you were walking very side hill — instead of a nice flat trail, but we persevered and kept going. The side hill was made even more difficult due to the snow, some spots the snow was a couple inches deep, some it was a foot — weird. Tammy wanted to stop and turn around thinking that we were going to get nowhere, but Mike went ahead and found that the terrain once again became pretty flat and looked easy to hike (and this was where the other tracks went after all). We finally got down to a spot where Mike thought he could see where we could cross the stream, but by the time we got there we saw it was a straight downhill descent to the stream (and we saw that the other tracks we were following went no further either). So, we turned around and had to hike back up the “trail” to get back to the North Country Trail. It was an awesome hike and a great adventure but on the way back up, Mike remarked that maybe he remembered reading that the backpack camping site was temporarily closed. Sure enough, it was closed due to “safety issues”. Still an awesome hike nonetheless. Now we left two sets of tracks down that trail — my only hope if someone else gets to that point and decides to follow our tracks that they have the same sense of adventure that we do!
Making our way back to the Doughboys Trail and the car there are numerous overlooks and one more bridge across the Tyler river that has an awesome view down into the gorge. It really is breathtakingly beautiful in the winter. You can see all the rushing water and the ice and air bubbles moving under it all and just thank God for the beauty of His creation.
We passed several other people along the trail and it was obvious that our time was just about done because now after COVID, any time we see more than just a couple people we have decided that it is time to go somewhere else. Back in the parking lot our van was joined by about 10 other cars. One of the cars had a couple camp chairs set up and were grilling some food. HOLY COW! The lightbulb went on –we were about to have our happy hour, but we could bring our chairs and little grill and have happy hour with hot dogs on the grill!!! Noted for some time in the future!!!
We hoped our next destination within the park would not be so crowded. We were going to do the Red Granite Falls trail and maybe a little of the North Country Trail at the other end of the park. When we arrived at the parking lot there were only two other cars there — yes! Three cars spread out over a 2.5 mile trail — we most likely would never see anyone! We put all of our now sweaty clothing on — hats, gloves, jackets and headed on down the trail. Mike had called ahead a couple weeks ago about this trail. It shows up on both the skiing trails map and the hiking/snowshoeing trails map. Being very conscientious about not hiking on groomed ski trails we wanted to make sure that we did not commit that cardinal sin. This trail is “groomed corduroy.” It is a “multi-use” trail so can be used by hikers/snowshoes/skate skiing. It was pretty nice to have the snow packed down for us to hike on, but Tammy kept saying that it was kind of like walking in sand – not her favorite hiking surface. Her knee was starting to get to her a bit. You wouldn’t sink down in as far as if the trail were not groomed, but you sunk down in with every step you took. We didn’t let that deter us — it was a gorgeous hike back out to Red Granite Falls.
We will not kid you — on the way back, both of us really started dragging. Although we had only hiked about 8 miles-ish our legs were really starting to feel it. Walking in snow, even if on a groomed trail is NOT the same as hiking on a regular dirt trail in summer. As we got closer to the parking lot, we came across the sign pointing the way to the lot. Mike had to snap this picture of a little…Dinosaur? Alien? Chupacabra? perched on top of the sign.
We did a little more hiking back by the van to get some more miles in, but we were ready for #SupperClubSaturday!!!! This week’s supper club was the one that we tried to go to last time we went to Copper Falls — the Northwoods Supper Club in Fifield, WI. We say “tried” because the last time we were here the Saturday night was a “Smoke House Saturday” where they were not serving their normal menu and only serving BBQ, ribs, chicken, etc. Once again, Mike called to ensure that Smoke House Saturday was a thing of the past and they would have a regular supper club menu. It turns out that they had just opened back up to indoor dining a week before we were there — so GREAT timing!
The food, service and drinks were excellent!! It was also nice to see a restaurant taking COVID seriously. They had very big signs stating that masks were mandatory and and we had to snap a picture of this sign hanging on on the wall by the door:
It was a LONG 2.5 hour drive home after dinner. We only encountered a couple of light flurries here and there on the way. We actually arrived at home 30 minutes ahead of the plan!! Imagine that, we left early and arrived home early, can’t let that happen again…
Splorin' Saturday 