Trail Conditions

Good news! Northern Wisconsin's Blue Hills Trail has a new hill. On September 17th, a heavy downpour triggered flooding that created a washout of one of the bridges on the core loop of the Blue Hills Trail. This bridge is located about 1 km northeast of the warming house. Due to the nature and location of the washout, bridge repair appeared unmanageable. After brainstorming to find a fix, and looking at multiple options, a bypass trail (200 meters in length) was discovered through an area previously unexplored. This bypass seemed especially desirable because not only would it avoid a meandering creek and bypass the damaged bridge - it also would bypass a gradually failing culvert, and another bridge susceptible to high water. Here's a description of the work accomplished the past two weeks:

• Flagged the trail revision.
• Installed silt fence.
• Dozed the new route.
• Raked, shoveled, and leveled the rough spots.
• Removed rocks and tree roots.
• Spread grass seed (annuals and perennials).

The section of revised trail replaces a straight section of trail and "flows" nicely to avoid the oxbow of the nearby creek. It even adds another small hill to the Blue Hills Trail. Pictures show installation of silt fence prior to dozing; then the newly dozed trail on the day the grass seed was spread. Many thanks to our silt fence crew: Steve Gest, Pete Grassmann, Kent Meng, Gale Otterholt, Tom Paulsen, Steve Schleppegrell, and Jonathan Stanley. And thanks to the raking and grass spreading crew: Ron Jasperson, Jan Paulsen, and Tom Paulsen.