A Beautiful Fall Drive Became An Exciting 4X4 Adventure

A Beautiful Fall Drive Became An Exciting 4X4 Adventure.

 

What started out as a leisurely day trip to see bright Fall colors led to a startling change. Here’s how our beautiful Fall drive became an exciting 4X4 adventure.

 

A Beautiful Fall Drive To The Lakes

 

Since we were taking backroads, we started our Fall leaf peeping day trip as the sun was coming up. Our first stop, like always, was at Kwik Trip because they have top tier gasoline. Well, since we were there, we had to get donuts too!

 

 

Do you get your gas from a Top Tier station? Check here to see if your gas station is on the list.

 

 

It seems, Kwik Trip has very good quality with just about everything they do. For this reason, we shop there often. It’s a great place to stop when you’re out exploring, for instance, snacks on a day trip. Although, we haven’t been paid in any shape or form from Kwik Trip, we like to share great places.

 

Have you been looking for fun, but different road trip ideas? Check this out!

 

Next, we’re finally on our way. From Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin we took Highway 29 a few miles to Cadott. Even though its a four lane highway, the drive is nice with plenty of farms to look at.

 

At Cadott, we went North on Highway 27. This two lane highway is where trees were really starting to change colors.

 

In Northern Wisconsin, maple trees make up a large part of forests, whereas aspen and birch come in a close second. With this in mind, imagine how these forests explode with a spectacular bright yellow, red and orange landscape. The colors were perfectly at their peak. Because of this, we’ll never forget this years Fall colors.

 

These Forests and Farmlands Are Relaxing

 

We kept driving through nature’s dramatic forest and peaceful farmlands, while at the same time, watching out for wild turkeys. They were everywhere! Highway 27 took us north through Ladysmith and on to Ojibwa. Then, we turned west on highway 70. That took us to Radisson where we then went north on County Road H.

 

Next, we turned right on County Road CC and on to New Post. Now, this is where the drive starts to change. Hayward and your lake area here we come! Little did we know how our beautiful Fall drive would become an exciting 4X4 adventure.

 

A Beautiful Fall Drive Through The Chippewa Flowage

 

Folks, hold on to your hats because this is the start of one cool Fall drive. At New Post, the road turns north and you will find a plethora of lake activities and scenery on this chain of lakes. This road flows through islands and over lakes with plenty of places to experience lake life Up North.

 

For us, this area is so appealing because of the thick forests and abundance of lakes. We enjoy being in natural areas like this.

 

Look for wildlife too. We saw a bobcat, deer, bald eagles, chipmunks, swans, ducks, fox, fish, turtles, a sleeping Shih Tzu in the back seat, loons, and of course, plenty of wild turkeys.

 

Even though black bears are plentiful, we didn’t see any this time. However, we did see bear scat on a trail. Just to be sure, we looked up photos and we all agreed it was bear scat.

 

Additionally, we saw a porcupine waddling from a distance. It would have been nice to see it closer, but not too close.

 

 

About The Flowage

 

Sometimes referred to as the “Big Chip”, the Chippewa Foliage is over 15,000 acres of lakes. It also contains about two hundred islands within its boundaries.

 

But, what is a flowage? It is like a reservoir where a dam backs up a river to create a lake. As a matter of fact, there were some lakes already here before the river was blocked. As a result of the dam, these lakes are all connected to form one large lake. This is also a term found mostly in Wisconsin.

 

 

Fishing, Boating and Camping

 

This is where you want to go for your outdoor activities. Here, you can have fun with a group, or all alone and still have your space. This is a fishing and boater’s paradise.

 

Here, you will find excellent fishing that’s similar to great fishing lakes in Canada. For this reason, it is known for premier walleye and musky fishing. In fact, we saw many people fishing for musky with huge lures.

 

Did you know the world record Musky was caught here? It was a monster at 63 1/4 inches long and over 67 pounds. Speaking of monsters, these are scary looking fish. They have a long body with an enormous head and gigantic teeth.

 

Each boat ramp had a DNR station with life jackets, including child sizes. You can borrow one and then return it when you’re done. We really like this. Where have you seen this before?

 

Does camping on your own private island sound enjoyable? There are 18 remote island campsites for you to enjoy. But, each one is only accessible by water. They come with a fire ring, picnic table and a pit toilet. How fun would this be! We think kids would have great memories of this forever. Do you agree?

Handicap Accessible Fishing Dock

 

The Wisconsin DNR has an accessible island campsite for any persons with disabilities. Just call the Hayward DNR Office: (715) 634-7433 to reserve it. Look here for the Cedar Tops campsite.

 

In addition, they have made a nice accessible fishing pier at the CC North boat landing. Paved accessible parking is just feet from the pier. Here, you can relax in peace and enjoy the scenery.

 

We were enjoying our beautiful Fall drive unaware it was getting ready become an exciting 4X4 adventure.

These Backroads Were Taking Us Closer To A 4X4 Adventure

 

After driving through the lakes, we drove north above Highway 77 on small backroads. Most of the way, colorful trees hung over the road with a bright welcome. Each curve invited us to probe deeper into the forest mile after mile.

 

We drove on North Murphy Blvd, past lake roads, which had white traditional “up north” lodge signs pointing their direction. Also, supper clubs and camps go hand in hand on these roads.

 

We turned left on Preston Road, and then left again on Lake Helane Road. On Lake Helane Road, we were in for a nice surprise.

Lake Helane State Natural Area

 

Mainly looking for wildlife, we drove slow on this small gravel road. This one lane road was smooth and well taken care of. Simply, this is a nice peaceful drive.

 

All of the sudden, a glimpse of a beautiful lake came into sight. The calm lake, with its reflection of the colorful trees, looked like an image in a mirror. We stopped to look around where the edge of the road united with the water. The road is so close you can fish from your car! We noticed small fish, turtles and frogs around here, along with a few logs and lily pads.

 

Something is here that makes you stop and get out. This is one of those places where your mind slowly starts to relax. Life’s worries and stress begin to gently float away. In other words, it’s just a great place to think and reflect.

 

This is also a first-class lake for canoeing and kayaking. Other activities include fishing, wildlife viewing and bird watching.

 

A local person shared with us a secret. As they dropped their voice and slightly looked away, they said ” this is a quiet and secluded lake. Skinny dipping happens here, if that’s what you’re in to, but nobody says anything”.

 

Although this may be true, we found it amusing.

 

In the winter, Cross country skiing, snow shoeing and ice fishing would be nice.

 

Could this be a place where young poets come for inspiration?

 

Obviously, this was one of our favorite places.

 

Read here for another inspirational place that well love.

 

After Lake Helane, Smaller Roads Lead To An Exciting 4X4 Adventure

 

 

Soon after lake Helane, we stayed on smaller gravel forest roads hoping to find a fire tower lookout. The bright colors from the thick forest still amazed us. The maze of forest roads in this area went on forever, and so could we! This Fall color year has been one of the best that we can remember for a long time.

 

We had to slow down since this section had become very rocky and filled with deep pot holes. We found an old deserted road bed that we could back into so we could stop and look around a little more.

 

This turned into a great place to watch traffic go by. Even though we had hardly seen any traffic all day, it started to pick up on this road. We must have been on a good road for vehicles, ATV’s and UTV’s since they started to come by more and more.

 

Funny, at the same time, here comes a retired couple in a Toyota Prius. This just shows that anyone can get out there if you’re careful.

 

 

After our break, we started on the road again. Soon, the road became narrow and more bumpy with bigger rocks from Glacial Till. This small section started becoming unusually hilly. We were choosing our track carefully to go around bigger rocks sticking up. Curves started to have banks and become very sharp.

 

We soon noticed trees were growing right on the side of the trail. So close that on some sections we had to watch our mirrors.

 

Where The Forest Road Turns Into An ATV Trail

 

After we went around a high banking sharp curve, we started to question if we were still on a forest road or ATV trail. Here, it is common for ATV trails to partly share a forest road. But, there are also hundreds of miles of connecting ATV trails in the Wisconsin Northwoods.

 

We had been on this road for a hour without a place to turn around. The trees from this thick forest created a dark and dreary canopy. And, we were still following fresh muddy tracks from a full size vehicle, probably a truck. Since we couldn’t turn around, we kept going. Besides, we were having a blast.

 

Eventually, some ATV’s started to come towards us. Luckily, they had just enough room to pull over so we could keep going. We came across more and more ATV’s. Since we couldn’t see their smiles under their helmets, we got a lot of thumbs ups.

 

That is, except for one UTV side by side. They were not wearing helmets so we could easily see their face. They just stared at us without any expression. But, this was a different stare that we haven’t seen for a long time.

 

The last time we saw a stare like this was in Eastern Europe. We went to a grocery store in a small village. Everything in this village was drab, including houses and clothing. Houses were heated with diesel fuel but, the rich fumes clung to the air like fog. People would stare through us, not at us. Their eyes pierced our souls. Just like these two men.

 

This Intersection Answered Our Question About How Our Drive Became An Exciting 4X4 Adventure

After two hours on this road, or trail, we came upon an intersection. We stopped to look at the ATV trail signs. These signs are miniature versions of road signs attached to a brown square post. This confirmed our suspicions, we were indeed on trail designed just for ATV’s and snowmobiles. Fortunately, this intersection was at a gravel primary forest road.

 

Even though these roads and trails are well maintained, somehow, the ATV road sign was missing when the road changed. But, this wasn’t a rookie mistake. Our family knows maps, period. After all, we have all kinds of maps. The road started like just about any other forest road would. Too, we followed another vehicles tire tracks in the mud the whole way.

 

Not knowing where we were at, we took a right turn. This brought us to an intersection with a large map of the forest roads and ATV trails on a post. Still on forest roads, we continued viewing the Fall colors on our way towards Hayward.

 

 

Then, we followed a team of bike riders for a few miles on the gravel roads. We didn’t pass since the road had hills and curves but they turned soon after.

 

 

Eventually, we made it to Hayward where we found this monster musky at the Freshwater Fishing Hall Of Fame. We’ll have to go back though since they closed ten minutes before we got there.

 

So, this is how our beautiful Fall drive became an exciting 4X4 adventure. Where are some of your favorite drives?

 

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