Helping to Make a Hiking Dream Come True

Our friends at the MN Driftless Hiking Trail, which is being developed in southeast MN, have more news! They are looking for volunteers to help make the dream come true. Read on:

Let’s Build This Trail Together!

We Need Your Help! Join the Volunteer Team for the MN Driftless Hiking Trail

Building a trail takes a community, and we’re looking for volunteers to help bring this project to life! As an independent, volunteer-driven effort, we rely on passionate people like you to make this vision a reality.

Starting in summer 2025, we’ll need volunteers to assist with trail designation, signage, and building. We’re also looking for those with skilled expertise—graphic design, mapping, events, outreach, and more—to support our work behind the scenes

Want to get involved?

Simply visit our website and send us a message asking to be added to our open call volunteer list! If you have special skills you'd like to contribute, let us know in your message.

Together, we can create something truly special for our community. Let’s build this trail together!

Contact Us And a reminder of the MDHT's upcoming Community Forum : Minnesota Driftless Hiking Trail  Community Forum Monday, March 10, 5:00 - 7:00 p.m. City of Caledonia Municipal Auditorium, 219 E. Main St "Join us for an engaging evening to discuss the future of the Minnesota Driftless Hiking Trail! We’ll share updates on the trail’s development and provide an open space for your ideas, questions, and feedback. Whether you’re a passionate hiker, a local resident, or simply curious, your voice matters in shaping this exciting project. Refreshments will be served, and no registration is needed! This event is designed for residents of Caledonia and the surrounding communities. Whether you are a landowner, outdoor enthusiast, local business owner, involved in tourism, or simply interested in learning more and sharing your perspective, we warmly invite you to attend. Feel free to bring a friend or colleague—everyone is welcome! This project is supported by University of Minnesota's Empowering Small Minnesota Communities program, a statewide initiative aimed at strengthening small communities' projects and plans for resilient physical, social, and economic infrastructure through UMN partnerships. This is the second event in a 3-part series—a perfect opportunity to connect with trail staff, dedicated volunteers, and other outdoor enthusiasts. Stay tuned for details about our upcoming session in Whalen! Don’t miss this chance to be part of the conversation and help bring the Minnesota Driftless Hiking Trail to life. See you there!” If you are interested in this effort to create a 100+ mile hiking/backpacking trail across the Driftless region of MN, you can subscribe to the Minnesota Hiking Trails' newsletter here. These occasional newsletters are info packed and keep you in the know. Minnesota Driftless Hiking Trail Introduction 10/18/23 Minnesota Driftless Trail Development Update 5/1/24 Minnesota Driftless Hiking Trail Update  2/7/25

Why is That Bluffside Black?

Have you ever headed up La Crosse's Bliss Road towards Grandad's Bluff and glimpsed a blackened bluffside across the valley to your left? 

Hixon Forest's Zoerb Prairie after late January 2025 prescribed burn
Image - Jonathan Rigdon

If you have, then you've been seeing one part of the dedicated work of the Friends of the Blufflands and Coulee Region Chapter of The Prairie Enthusiasts burn crews and volunteers in Hixon Forest. Members of these two groups of volunteers are responsible for the cleared and healthy prairie remnants that these blackened areas represent. 

Our Driftless areas have many small remnant prairies dotted here and there. 

Prairies need fire to do well. Without them, woody invasives easily take over. The deep-rooted prairie plants can't compete with taller plants and some of the seeds need the fire for germination as well. A prairie that is regularly burned during a prescribed burn is healthier.

Zoerb prairie burn in progress
Image - Justin Nooker

It takes a burn crew to do this work of a prescribed burn. A recent Friends of the Blufflands blog post by Jonathan Rigdon, Anatomy of a Prairie Burn, has a great explanation about how these burns are conducted. 

The results of a burn are nothing short of extraordinary. As spring begins, the flowers and grasses return and within a few weeks, you can't even tell an area was burned. When you see these beautiful prairies in their warm weather glory, it's easy to take for granted their flower and grass-filled vistas. 

A healthy prairie at Hixon
Image - Marge Loch-Wouters

Beyond fires, it takes real and consistent prairie management by dedicated Friends of the Blufflands/The Prairie Enthusiasts volunteers to keep the Hixon Forest (and other nearby) bluff prairies open and healthy. Their work includes removing woody invasives (trees and brush), gathering and broadcasting seed, grant writing, collaboration with surrounding communities and organizations and monitoring a host of Driftless prairies. 

This recent Friends of the Blufflands blog post Restoration Begins on Birch Point Prairie! discussing the work on the Birch Prairie restoration project gives a great peek into the work involved, the history and importance of our prairies and how many prairies these groups maintain.

When you take a hike sometime in upper Hixon Forest's Bicentennial trail (across the road from the weatherball) onto the Birch Trail and then on to Vista, you can see the changes coming and in progress on the Birch, Zoerb and Lookout prairies. I blogged about this three prairies hike here.

While you may not be able to participate in the preparation work, you can still support these two organizations through your memberships or donations at The Prairie Enthusiasts and Friends of the Blufflands.

Great work, my friends.

I Spy on the Trails - February 2025

A view of La Crescent from Eagle Bluff prairie
Image - Nola Larson

Again, this month has been a mix of winter weather:

• a welcome 3-4" inches of snow here. Barely enough to snowshoe in but I did anyway! It was especially nice for all the candlelit snowshoe hikes scheduled in February. But the Birkie cross country ski race up north in WI finally had decent snow again this year.

• plenty of serious sub-zero weather with a polar vortex dipping even further south below us. My temp limit for hiking outside is -10 with windchill so I caught up on lots of blogging and reading on the coldest days.

• a higher sun - we are now in the lovely eight months until November when it is reliably light at 5pm. Those longer days are great.

• a bodacious thaw to end our month and remind us that the spring equinox is almost upon us.

Trumpeter swans migrating on the Mississippi flyway

My time outdoors centered around favorite spots that had interesting features: rivers, creeks, quarry walls and rock formations, ice caves and other nature eye candy to keep me alert in a brown, partially snowless month.  Once we had snow, many animal tracks and deer beds were revealed. 

Woodpeckers, chickadees, nuthatches, eagles and hawks were spotted in abundance and the deer were active on the quietest hikes and in the ravine woods next to us. During the last week, I saw many flocks of trumpeter swans migrating through on their way north to their nesting grounds.

Ice caving
Image - Steve Dawson

As we enter sloppier weather in March, I will be turning my gaze away from some of the woodland hikes to preserve those dirt trails. This is a list of spots you can try if you're looking to conserve trails in the Driftless area as they hit their peak spring thaw time.

I look forward to longer days, spring bird migrations, skunk cabbage and the beginning of the greening season ahead!

Turkey tail takeover

What are YOU seeing on your hikes?

A month of hikes

Hikes below in colored, bold type or underlined have links to previous posts OR descriptions/location of the trails found online

Eagles Bluff Park, La Crescent MN (2); Pine Creek Campground trails, Fort McCoy WI (2); Hixon Forest, La Crosse WI; Stoney Point, Park La Crescent MN; Veteran’s Park Ravine Trail, La Crescent MN; Halfway Creek, Holmen WI; Mathy Quarry, La Crosse WI; Kickapoo Valley Reserve, La Farge WI; Wildcat Mountain State Park, Ontario WI; Riverside Park, La Crosse WI (2); Wagon Wheel Trail, La Crescent MN

Finally, a bit of snow for snowshoeing
Image - Lloyd Lorenz

Images, unless noted - Marge Loch-Wouters