New Book Details 100+ Day Trails in NW Wisconsin
OutdoorHub 05.06.13
Ah, “headin’ to the cabin” – those few words alone are enough to conjure images of a relaxing weekend by the lake, of a pleasant stroll through the woods or along a beach, of a place where one’s cell phone hopefully doesn’t work.
And what better way to experience all that “up north” has to offer than through a day hike?
Cabin-goers to Wisconsin’s Northwoods now have available the most complete listing of the region’s day hiking trails in the new book, “Headin’ to the Cabin: Day Hiking Trails of Northwest Wisconsin,” by Rob Bignell. The book was released this month.
Describing more than 100 trails, the book covers nine Wisconsin counties – Ashland, Barron, Bayfield, Burnett, Douglas, Polk, St. Croix, Sawyer and Washburn.
“In Northwest Wisconsin you can walk across 1.2 billion-year-old rock, dip your toes in the world’s largest freshwater lake, tramp along the same routes that the first European explorers bushwhacked during the 1600s, and see the fourth highest waterfall east of the Rockies,” said Bignell, an avid hiker and author of the popular and critically acclaimed “Hikes with Tykes” guidebooks. “I’ve hiked in more than 30 states now, and Northwest Wisconsin certainly ranks up there with the best.”
The book separates trails by communities that cabin-goers frequent. Each community entry includes at least one feature article about a great local trail and then includes snapshot descriptions of several other area day hiking trails as well as a list of neighboring communities for easy cross-referencing.
“Almost all trail guidebooks for the region fall into one of two categories: They’re either for backpackers making multi-day overnight trips or they cherry pick the region’s ‘best’ trails,” Bignell said. “But what if you’re spending a weekend up north and don’t have time to do a four- or five-day trip? Or what if you’re vacationing for a week, but the only trails listed in the guidebook all are a couple of hours drive from you?
“‘Headin’ to the Cabin’ in contrast focuses on day hiking trails that you can do in under a few hours and lists multiple trails in every major recreational community.”
A long-time hiker, editor and journalist, Bignell is uniquely qualified to discuss hiking. He and his son Kieran have hiked through old groves of redwood trees that soared 150 feet over their heads, peakbagged mountains, rambled along ocean coastlines, searched fossil and gem trails, and explored remote desert canyons, often all in the same month.
Those experiences led to Bignell’s previously published hiking books, “Hikes with Tykes” A Practical Guide to Day Hiking with Kids” (2011) and “Hikes with Tykes: Games and Activities” (2012). He’s also the author of three writing/self-publishing guidebooks, a novel, and a collection of poetry.
Bignell served as an infantryman in the Army National Guard and taught middle school students in New Mexico and Wisconsin. His newspaper work has won several journalism awards, from editorial writing to sports reporting. In 2001, The Prescott Journal, which he served as managing editor of, was named Wisconsin’s Weekly Newspaper of the Year.
A Wisconsin native, Bignell now lives with his son in Hudson, Wis.
“Headin’ to the Cabin” is available for purchase in paperback or ebook at http://hikeswithtykes.com/headintothecabin_orderabook.html.
Book specs:
n Publish date: April 5, 2013 (ebook); April 12, 2013 (paperback) n Publisher: Atiswinic Press n ISBN: 978-0-9858739-6-7 n Price: $9.95 (paper); $1.99 (ebook) n Pages: 168 (paper) n Cover: Paperback (paper) n Trim Size: 5.5 x 8.5 (paper) n Website: http://hikeswithtykes.com/headintothecabin_home.html
