Bates talks best canoes, hikes

By RICHARD JENKINS

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MERCER, Wis. - With summer here, residents of the Northwoods are beginning to plan their activities for the coming months.

For those who are into canoeing or hiking, John Bates discussed his top 10 paddles and hikes in Northern Wisconsin at the Mercer Community Center Tuesday.

As the talk was sponsored by Nicolet College, Bates said he kept the list to the counties the college serves - Forest, Vilas, Oneida, Iron, Price, Langlade and Lincoln counties.

Acknowledging a list of the top 10 hikes or paddles was far from definitive and others would likely have differing opinions, Bates said he used several criteria when developing his rankings.

"Here's the top 10 paddles I came up with, highly arguable," Bates said. "But these I think are representative anyways of some of the best places."

Among his criteria were requirements the places be relatively undeveloped and "as wild as possible," have diverse plants and animals, have some historical significance, be accessible but not overly crowded and be large or connected to other public lands.

Given Mercer's location in the southern part of Iron County, the list included a number of recommendations in Vilas and Oneida counties.

While he didn't spend time on every entry on the list, Bates explained in detail what he likes about several of the paddles on his list.

One of those he praised was the Turtle Flambeau Flowage, which many in the audience had previously explored - some had even gotten lost on.

"It's a really easy place to get really turned around on, and it's probably the closest we have to some large Canadian body of water," Bates said. "I can't think of a bigger body of water in all of Wisconsin that has a wilder feel to it.

"And it's just four or five miles away."

Bates' top 10 paddles consisted of:

-The Bear River in Vilas and Iron counties.

-The Deerskin River in Vilas County.

-The North Fork of the Flambeau.

-Seven Long-Term Ecological Research lakes around the Boulder Junction area.

-The Manitowish River in Vilas and Iron counties.

-The Pelican River in Oneida County.

-Rice Creek, between Round Lake and Big Lake, in Vilas County.

-The Trout River in Vilas County.

-The Turtle Flambeau Flowage in Iron County.

-The Wisconsin River in Vilas and Oneida counties.

After discussing his favorite paddles, Bates touched on two areas that could be explored by either land or water. These included the area around Palmer and Tenderfoot Lakes in Vilas County, along with the nearby Guido Rahr Sr. trail system; along with the area around the Escanaba, Pallette and Lost Canoe lakes and nearby Escanaba Trail.

When talking about the hiking opportunities in the region, Bates praised the chance to explore old-growth forests and relatively unspoiled wilderness. One of the hikes he singled out was the Catherine Wolter Wilderness Area in Vilas County, which he said contained a number of old-growth lakes between the hiking trails.

"They're all old-growth lakes in the sense there are no invasive species, either in the water or along the shoreline," Bates said. "So these lakes are benchmark lakes for us in northern Wisconsin to know what lakes are supposed to look like, versus what most look like today because all the invasive species we have."

His list of hikes were:

-The Anvil Lake Trail Natural Area.

-The Butternut-Franklin State Nature Area Trail, or Hidden Lakes Trail.

-The Escanaba Trail.

-The Fallison Lake Trail.

-The Uller Trail and hike to Corrigan's Lookout in the Penokees near Upson.

-The Raven Trail.

-The Trampers Trails and Plum Lake Hemlocks State Nature Area.

-The Tucker Lake/Round Lake Trail.

-The Van Vliet Hemlocks State Nature Area.

-The Wolter Wilderness Area.