Free Bark Chips

You haul. Located down the Brownstone Trail off the intersection of Manypenny x 3rd Street in Bayfield. Drive through lumberyard storage area and fill your trailer or bags. Please watch out for lumberyard workers.

We will use some of these for mulch on July 11 for the Knotweed Knockout (removing the Japanese Knotweed "Elephant Ears Bamboo", but can't possibly use all that were given to us. Please help yourself!

Spring migration

We are starting to see and hear the neo-tropical birds which have made the journey from Mexico, Central America and other southerly places to northern Wisconsin. This week I have heard:
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Palm Warbler
Black and White Warbler
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Black-throated green Warbler
Ovenbird
White-throated sparrow
Chipping Sparrow
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Northern Oriole
Ruby-throated Hummingbird

The first-ever Chequamegon Bay Birding & Nature Festival is this coming weekend (May 18-20). There are hundreds of field trips and talks. The birding should be excellent!

Big Ravine Trail Maps Installed

Gene Lemmenes and Grandon Harris dug post holes and installed three trail maps at intersections on the Big Ravine Trail system today. Thanks guys!

Grandon is also re-planting the nice kiosks that Rich Ryan built last year. The kiosks can be found at the trail heads at the Bayfield School, the soccer field and the end of Martin Road.

You can download a map here, click on Trails & Maps and Big Ravine Trail Map.

The Country Commute

I have lived in Cornucopia for almost eleven years now. Friends and family still ask me if I get sick of driving all over for work or to different events for our kids. If any of them could just take a week to travel with me, they would understand that what I encounter on my drives is nothing like the traffic endured by living in a city.
Last Tuesday on my way into the office, I had the opportunity to stop and meet a great gray owl through the lens of my camera. What an amazing creature. Great Grays are so huge when you see them from 20 feet away with their yellow eyes piercing into your own.
Yesterday on our way to soccer registration and Kindermusik, my sons and I saw a bobcat eating on a road killed deer. Unfortunately, we only caught a quick glimpse as it dashed away from the kill and into the woods.
Maybe some folks don't mind looking at bumper to bumper traffic on their way to work. As for me, I will take the wildlife.

Iron Bridge Trail

Grandon Harris has brought to our attention that the Iron Bridge Trail in the City of Bayfield is in need of some care. BRC met with the City Park's Commission last fall to request some money for materials with the hopes that a volunteer work party could provide the labor.

It's quite a beautiful trail with boardwalks and benches built by Bobby Nelson's WCC Crew in 1984.

The trail leads up the bottom of the Big Ravine to a beautiful 4 ft waterfall. (This is directly below the Bayfield School.)

There's lots of work to be done, including rebuilding the trail where water runoff has created deep gullies.

As you walk back down the trail to the parking lot on Washington Ave in Bayfield, you can see Lake Superior.

Anyone interested in volunteering to help make repairs and spruce up this beauty spot?

Walking Group Explores Brownstone Trail

Linda Webster has organized a walking group through Wisconsin Indianhead Technical College this summer. Here is the description:



Spring mornings call! Slip on those walking shoes and trek the length of the BrownstoneTrail with friends and neighbors (2+ miles). Walk at your own pace and take in the scenic vistas and returning migratory birds. In case of inclement weather, meet at the Egg Toss Restaurant to discuss "A Northwoods Companion - Spring and Summer" (John Bates author). Class will meet 8:30-10:30 am on June 4, 20, July 11, 18. No class July 4.

To register click here.

Sand Bars at Pike's Creek

View of Pike's Creek from Highway 13 looking north to Port Superior and Pike's Bay Marina.

Marie Strum, an assistant chief for the Army Corps of Engineers based in Detroit estimates the lake will still be 14" down by mid-September.

Unfortunately, this season, there will be some northern pike seeking to migrate up rivers to spawn who will find estuaries too low to be of any use, according to Steve Schram, director of the hatchery at Bayfield.