West Bend to La Crosse

[LDove]

Was wondering if anyone has any suggested caches to do on the way to La Crosse? Perhaps a route? We also were wondering if there are any recommended caches in La Crosse? We are hoping to do the bike trail, but I am also wanting to cache on the way there. Thanks!

Also, I am not seeing many on the Bike trail, maybe I am just not looking correctly. Anyone done the bike trail out there?

[Team Black-Cat]

I have only one cache found in La Crosse, and it was a crappy one on a stop sign in front of someone’s house. 🙂
I’m sure Trekin’ and Birdin’ will have a few suggestions in the area.

[Astro_D]

We weren’t too impressed with the few caches we did in LaCrosse (towards Onalaska) that were on the trail. If we were on the bike trail, we had to hike up towards the road to get the cache. If we were on the road, we had to hike down to the bike trail to get the cache. There wasn’t a lot of easy access to get up or down (some places to get to the cache required pretty bad bushwack so we skipped them). The coords for the caches seemed right on though. So that helped! Of course, if it wasn’t so hot and humid and we weren’t so tired when we were there, our perspective might be different.Other caches within the parks, were nice enough though. And the few going into Trempeleau and along the river road towards Minnesota were neat! Don’t know about the caches in downtown LaCrosse or area to the east or south.

[LDove]

Well crud, I don’t want to drive four hours if the caches suk? 😥 Anybody know if there is a nice place to go for a 3 day weekend with a nice bike trail and caches to get?

[TheBalks]

as a greater La Crosse area resident, I would say if you want to come here to do caches, spend a day on goose island but bring bucket fulls of deet for the bugs, if you want to bike, the bike trail on the mississippi isnt that great for caches, the la crosse to sparta trail has better caches on it but it is not a power trail by any means, check out west salem while you are on that trail. If you like hiking, Hixton Forest and the Human powered trails above have beautiful hiking and enough caches to keep you busy for a day. A night cache that got nominated for cache of the month GC27031 it is mine but it needs more visitors 🙂

Trekkin and Birdin I am sure can make more suggestions.

[Trekkin and Birdin]

The Omaha trail series near Camp Douglas is a great way to spend a day biking and caching. Not all the caches in the LaCrosse area suck, either. For some good up and down the hill hiking, look at the ones placed in Hixon Forest. Some are easy, some more challenging, but the area is fairly well loaded down. There are some nice park and grabs along the River Road to the north, and on the back roads near Dodge, east of Winona.

Kat is correct that the bike trail here has limited pedestrian access, unlike some on the other side of the state. We’ve placed a few, but I don’t have the desire to place and maintain a big string of them and it doesn’t seem like anyone else around here does, either. We’re having enough trouble with a couple we have there already.

The things in Wildcat Mountain and the Kickapoo Reserve near Ontario are all great hiking caches, but not easy. We’ve done all the stuff in town and most of it is just that….stuff in town. If we didn’t live here, some of it might be stuff we’d pass on doing.

TBC is right, skip that crappy cache just off I-90 in West Salem. I hear the homeowners have a screw loose! 😉

[Team Black-Cat]

@Trekkin’ and Birdin’ wrote:

TBC is right, skip that crappy cache just off I-90 in West Salem. I hear the homeowners have a screw loose! 😉

…And I hear the the homeowners come out and harrass the cachers trying to find it. 😛

[zuma]

@LDove wrote:

Was wondering if anyone has any suggested caches to do on the way to La Crosse? Perhaps a route? We also were wondering if there are any recommended caches in La Crosse? We are hoping to do the bike trail, but I am also wanting to cache on the way there. Thanks!

Also, I am not seeing many on the Bike trail, maybe I am just not looking correctly. Anyone done the bike trail out there?

Well, it depends on which bike trail you mean. The Elroy Sparta Trail is Wisconsin’s original rails to trails bike trail and still one of the best, with its rolling farm land and tunnels. The Great River Trail goes north from La Crosse towards Perot and has great views of the river and lots of wildlife to see. The La Crosse River Trail is a connector trail and not a particulary scenic trail compared to the other two, but does have some caches along it.

If you go to La Crosse, there are 2 must see destinations: Pettibone and Granddad Bluff.

GCR5YZ (Discover La Crosse) takes you to both places so my suggestion would be to do that and pick up a bunch of traditionals along the way. It is a multi that will take you 90 – 120 minutes, but as I say it takes you to several other caches along the way.

If you just want to go to Pettibone, there are many caches to chose from. The most visited cache in La Crosse is probably GCQDVF (Pettibone Gazebo), and is essentially an old quick PNG in a great spot. Great veiws of the river, the city, and I saw a bald eagle here.

If you just want to go Granddad’s Bluff, you have several choices, but again I would suggest the oldest cache there, GCNHAV (Granddad Quarry Bluff). There are several other choices, including an easy EC (GC1MTXP).

It looks like you are looking for caches along bike trails, so I can suggest these 2 as being favorites along bike trails in the general area:

GC1GKFC Log or No Log, this one is a scenic spot on the La Crosse River Trail.

GC20DF Tunnel Trail. One of the few caches on this part of the Sparta to Elroy trail and a real interesting place to explore.

If you want to get a bunch of caches with a fairly short ride, you can get a bunch of the ones on the Great River Trail by parking at GC11Y2H (Risk:Asia) and riding south. These are the ones that Astro-D did not like, but if you are riding you can get several here. The 2 on top of the hill can be gotten by car either before or after your ride or skipped as they are just parking lot PNGs.

The best parking area for biking from West Salem towards La Crosse would be GC15CA2 (Birdin’ on the Bike Trail: Take a Rest!) Several caches along the trail, some of which I have not done yet, but in general the bike path is not very scenic here.

And if you want to cache and not bike, there are 3 really great places to cache near La Crosse: Perot State Park, Goose Island, and the Hixon Forest Park. All 3 are loaded with caches and are very nice places to explore. Hixon and Perot have bluffs and will require some significant exertion. Goose Island is flat and easy.

Anyway, that is my thumbnail guide to caching in La Crosse. Certainly enough to keep you busy for a few days. La Crosse is a beautful place to visit if you like wide river vistas and bluffs.

One word of warning: La Crosse has the worse highway system in the state. Once on the south side, plan on staying on the south side for awhile, and once on the north side plan on staying on the north side for awhile. Because there are essentially only 2 roads going north and south between the bluff and the river, it can be a slow crawl to get to the other side of town.

zuma

[LDove]

Great information, thank you all soooo much! We actually booked a hotel in Onalaska and will do all the caches you were kind enough to recommend. We are bringing the bikes, but are definitely not against doing some caching the old fashioned way on foot! LOL! For some reason, I just had it in my head that there was a bunch out there on the Sparta Trail. Again, thanks for the tips and keep ’em coming if anybody else has suggestions on other things to do as well as caching. I am going to research the riverboat, perhaps we could do that also. I have just never seen the western part of my own state and I have heard that it is very pretty so I am looking forward to seeing it.

[grandpa_r]

I don’t know how to do the fancy boxes that other do, but I agree with the (TheBalks) I love Goose Island County Park – if I remember correctly it also covers 2 counties… Never camped there, but the camp ground looks great! After a day of caching I would suggest pizza at Edwardo’s Pizza Wagon…

[zuma]

BTW, if you want to get several caches along a nice bike trail on the way to LAX from WB. consider the Omaha. Best parking is at GC1BPEX (Hustler History Omaha and Main) and ride south or GC11PAG (Park and Cache) and ride north. Either way you get to bike thru a tunnel, and there is a cache near the tunnel.

z

[LDove]

@zuma wrote:

BTW, if you want to get several caches along a nice bike trail on the way to LAX from WB. consider the Omaha. Best parking is at GC1BPEX (Hustler History Omaha and Main) and ride south or GC11PAG (Park and Cache) and ride north. Either way you get to bike thru a tunnel, and there is a cache near the tunnel.

z

Cool! We would love to do that. I will check it out!

[Trekkin and Birdin]

The riverboat is a lot of fun. The LaCrosse Queen is the more popular one. In the evenings, at least this used to be the case, they had jazz tours. Daytime is just a cruise. The Julia Belle Swain has various cruises, more expensive but sometimes brunch ones aren’t too badly priced if they’re in port here. It’s a real beauty and a true steamer, not a pretend one. John Hartford even sang about it.

And ditto on Granddad’s. You just have to go there. Be prepared for bugs. With all the rain and standing water, it’s been really bad, even with the mosquito guys spraying. The mayflies have been hatching as well. I won’t spoil that “surprise” for you, you just have to see it for yourself. Maybe the worst will be past by that time.

Also, I know quite a few folks have posted various food recommendations in the area, all great. One of my favorites is the Trempealeau Hotel. Very relaxed dining on the river. You can show up in caching clothes. It’s at the gateway to Perrot Park, and there’s even a virtual right at the hotel.

I don’t know if we’ll be around or not, but pm us and we can share
numbers. We might be around. We were last weekend. We’ve barely been out, but hopefully that will change next week.

[Lions Fan]

I’ve only done a couple of caches in the LaCrosse area but I can recommend “You Have To Want It” (GC1AWTZ). It’s a short walk to a unique container.

[Trekkin and Birdin]

Wear long pants. Our hands were featured on that cache in a local newsmagazine article about a year ago. It’s definitely a great one.

[Author]

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