Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Food
The casual brewpub
LC Wilmarth Deepwater Grille and Southshore Brewery
(808 W.
Main St., 715/682-4200, 11am-10pm daily, $6-18) has great views and good food. Peruse
themenuwithoneofsixhomebrewsandthensamplethefood:walleye(Fridaysit'samust)
or one of the creative takes—perhaps a wild duck quesadilla?
Tucked away just outside of town is the wonderful
Platter
(315 Turner Rd., 715/
682-2626, 4:30pm-10pm daily, $5-30), the region's most established restaurant, housed in
a graceful 19th-century house.
Oh,andthebestjava(organic)andhealthfulfoodseeminglycraftedwiththoughtbehind
it after the long highway journey from down south is at the
M
Black Cat
(211 Chapple
Ave., 715/682-3680, 6:30am-9pm Mon.-Fri., 7am-7pm Sat., 8am-7pm Sun.) coffeehouse;
God, I love this place.
Getting There
Ashland is the southern terminus for
Bay Area Rural Transit
(BART, 715/682-9664),
which stretches north to Bayfield and beyond. Driving to Ashland from Bayfield (via WIS
13 and U.S. 2, 23 miles) takes 32 minutes.
The Mauvaise (“Bad”) River was aptly named by the French, disgusted at its treacherous
navigation. The Treaty of 1854 allowed The Loon Clan of Lake Superior Ojibwa to settle
herealongtheriver,whichtheyrenamedMushkeezeebi,orMarshRiver,alongwithasmall
contingent on Madeline Island. The 1,800 descendants of the clan live on the largest Indi-
an reservation (123,000 acres) in Wisconsin. It stretches for 17 miles along Lake Superior
and more than 100 miles inland, including the superb Kakagon Sloughs, a 7,000-acre wet-
landofvirginalwildricebeds,notedasaNationalNaturalLandmarkforits
manomin
(wild
rice) and its waterfowl population. Some have called it “Wisconsin's Everglades,” and the
moniker isn't much of a stretch.
If the Bayfield peninsula in the north is Wisconsin's crown, then the jewels of that crown
(acliché,butbefitting)arethenearlytwodozenpastel-huedsandstoneislandsofoneofthe
nation's few national lakeshores. This coastal treasure, misnamed by overzealous or per-
