Every time I visit my wife’s family near Kewaunee, WI, I am drawn to the nearby Lake Michigan shore.  On several occasions I have had the chance to hike the beaches in the area.  And I am always amazed by how much sandy shore is open to walkers.  In the past, I have been able to walk much of the shore between Sandy Bay Road and the Kewaunee Pier.  This is a distance of almost eight miles.

There are some complications to this hike.  First, the shore in this area is not a part of a public park.  Public access stems largely from the Northwest Ordinance, the document that ceded control of much of the Upper Midwest to the territories and, later, states like Michigan and Wisconsin.  A major point of the Ordinance is the idea that Great Lakes bottomland is publicly owned and cannot be ceded by state and local governments.

Of course, this public ownership is not as simple as it first appears.  Water levels ebb and flow.  Wind and weather might submerge a piece of land one week and uncover it the next.  Does wet sand constitute bottomland?  The question of bottomlands has been the subject of much case law, especially in Michigan and Ohio during the past few years.  Some of the Great Lakes states allow access up to the ordinary high water mark, essentially the area of visible wave impact on the beach.  Others require a hiker to keep his or her feet “wet” in the shallow surf or wet sand areas.  Even in areas with a restrictive legal interpretation local officials and residents often maintain an informal good-neighbor policy of open access.  Click on the link below for some information from the Indiana Law Blog:

http://indianalawblog.com/archives/2005/07/law_right_to_wa.html

Another challenging aspect of the Kewaunee beach hike is the presence of nuclear power plants in the area.  The Kewaunee nuclear power station and the Point Beach nuclear power plant are within five miles of each other about nine miles south of Kewaunee.  Given the post-911 situation, beach restrictions have closed access to some of the shoreline near the plants.  These closures can vary depending on the whims of power plant operators and local officials.

A third complication is the presence of several small streams between Sandy Beach Road and the Kewaunee pier.  At times of heavy rain, it may be difficult to cross some of these streams.  I have not, however, found them to be impossible to navigate.

Despite these complications, a Kewaunee area beach hike can be quite interesting.  Below is a hike report that I once posted on the Great Lakes Hikes Yahoo group about this beach hike area:

Kewaunee Beaches
06/23/03

“My girlfriend - now wife - grew up on a farm near Kewaunee, WI.  Every time I go to visit, I am impressed by the almost mythical presence of Lake Michigan as it meets an almost endless expanse of family farms.

When I mention how beautiful this area is, Kathy’s family says, “Oh, yeah, you can walk the beach all the way up to Kewaunee.” Whenever I’ve checked maps or hike books, however, it doesn’t appear that this hike is publicly protected in any way.

Basically, the farmlands in this shore area are on a bluff about 50 or 60 feet off the lake. This bluff is set back from the actual shore by about 20 yards of beach. The beach can’t be farmed, so it’s left in its natural state. There seem to be very few cottages in this area - mostly just farms. And the community ethic of the area seems to have made this into a de facto park for area residents.  Although it doesn’t seem public in any way, there is a well-maintained dirt parking area at the intersection of Sandy Bay and Lakeview Roads south of Kewaunee. There is also a garbage can at the beach that someone seems to empty. The trail entrance from the lot is posted “No Hunting.”

The start of the hike is perhaps the most challenging. The trail shoots down the bluff to the beach. Then a stream crossing is necessitated by a 2 or 3 foot deep stream.  A log has been placed across and we crossed with the help of a large branch. From here, it’s just a long, lonely beach hike.  Occasional rocks crop out from the water. Alewives were present in small batches. Most unusual were the cliff-dwelling birds who created hundreds of nests in the dirt at the top of the sandy bluffs. These birds appeared to be swallows and each had created a small hole for a nest. In some spots, several hundred birds had created nests in close proximity.  It had the look of an avian Mesa Verde. These birds darted back and forth. I wondered if the holes might be connected in some sort of subterranean bird colony.

Kathy and I hiked out about 2.5 miles, for a total hike in the neighborhood of 5 miles. However, if it is true that the beach goes to Kewaunee, then we could have hiked 7 or 8 miles one way. It seems possible that this hike once connected to Point Beach State Forest.  However, two small nuclear plants are now in the way. Their beach areas - once open to the public - are now closed to public access.  Osama stole my hike.

With a few visits, I might be able to ascertain if this type of informal beach park is present in other, nearby coastal areas.”

Here is the Microsoft Virtual Earth map of this 7.77 mile one-way hike route:

http://maps.live.com/?v=2&cid=628A87FDBE3AF2A!279&encType=1

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