Blackjack Springs Wilderness hike report

“On TT we often talk about trips that don't go as planned. This can even happen on day hikes.

I finally managed to get away this afternoon for a quick trip up to the Blackjack Springs Wilderness (Nicolet National Forest) near Eagle River (WI), about a 40 minute drive from my house. It's about 5,800 acres of classic northwoods surrounding a series of four springs, Whispering Lake, and bordered by the Deerskin River. The main trail system angles in to the lake, forms a loop around it, with an out/back trail on the far side of the loop that goes back to the springs. Another access trail comes in from a forest road on the north perimeter. These are pretty short trails. The vast majority of the tract is trailess, though some old logging roads apparently can be found in places. Camping is allowed anywhere 50 feet off the trail.

It was a pretty nice day, temp around 70 with a breeze and partly cloudy. The first sign of concern was the only vehicle in the trailhead parking lot when I arrived: a minivan with a bike rack on the roof. Sure enough, bike tire tracks could be seen in the gravel and dirt of the lot. As a federal wilderness, of course, no mechanical travel is allowed and the signs specifically note what is banned, including bikes. The second bad sign, but helpful ultimately, was that the dips had put their registration card under a windshield wiper rather than in the registration box. So after I wrote down the license number, I looked at the card and got the driver's name, address and number in the party (6). This was not promising, the thought of running into six newbie mountain bikers poaching a wilderness trail (veteran poachers wouldn't have filled out the DANG CARD!).

The trail began through a blueberry patch and waist high ferns. The berries were ripe but BB sized and not worth picking, but since this is bear country and bears love berries, I put my bear bell on my waist belt and jingled on down the trail. Bike skid marks were all over the undulating singletrack trail, but after a quarter mile I came on three bikes laying off trail in the ferns among the pines, Two kids' BMXers and a cheap "mtn" bike. A steep drop followed, skidded up, with three more bikes at the bottom, the same mix of models. Great, two adults and kids. Then I came on two 6 or 7-year-olds headed toward me, then two 30-something guys with another tyke and a teen.

When I noted that they were on a wilderness trail that didn't allow biking, one of the guys got snarly, saying well they realized that and weren't biking anymore. So I noted that what they obviously had realized was that the trail was too tough for the kids to ride, otherwise they wouldn't have ridden past the sign at the trailhead forbidding bikes. More snarling.

The hike was pretty nice after that, until I got to what would have been a great campsite about a mile in. It was full of trash, most of it thrown on old campfire charcoal. I spent the rest of my hiking time picking up paper, plastic, glass, cigarette butts, pop cans & a 2-liter bottle, soggy sandwiches in a bag, then starting a fire to burn what I could, since the only plastic bag I had extra was a 1-quart ziplock, which held all the unburnables, barely. Then I had to douse my fire, using two pop cans, which required numerous trips to the lake 30 feet away, during which time I found someone had been washing up in the lake and had left a bar of soap on the shore, melting into the ground. Then, when I started to hike back out, since I didn't have time to continue on around, I spotted a pile of toilet paper just off trail. After snagging that with some sticks, I burned it too.

Then when I got back to the trail junction at the head of the lake, I spotted a canoe someone had stashed down along the shore, another wilderness area no-no. I started hiking faster on my way back to the car, kinda POed about all this crap. There's millions of recreation acres all around this wilderness, and these people still come in and crap it up.

On my drive home, I stopped at the Eagle River ranger office and gave them the name and license of the bikers, and the location of the canoe.

But it was still good to be hiking, and it was a beautiful day, and I feel like I did some good deeds for fellow hikers.”

“BTW, NO BUGS! At least not the biting kind. Saw a number of pretty butterflies, and some purposeful things buzzing along with no interest in me, but no skeeters, flies or no-see-ums. That was nice to hike in the Northwoods in summer without swatting at anything or getting bitten.”

“It stinks to have to play cop when you just want to enjoy your day. Negative feelings, instead fresh, clean feelings. It was good of you to pick up all that garbage, and to report the trespassers, even though it prolongs the time you spend feeling angry. Hope you have a better hike next time.”

“GOOD FOR YOU! I prolly wouldn't have turned in the canoe cause that doesn't affect the trail. The bikers are a different matter. Those kids need to see what happens when you break the law. It'll be a good lesson for their future.”

“WD, yeah, I might have skipped the canoe too if I hadn't had the bikers run-in and then the trashed campsite. On the other hand, I think the canoe might have been brought in by means other than over-the-head portaging. It was a chunky aluminum job with those cheap orange life jackets stuffed under it.”