Mile 3.3 – 17: Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin
First visit: Dec. 29, 2022 Public trail? Mostly Private land? A smidge Distance walked: 8.5 miles
When I was 18, the drinking age in Wisconsin was 18. In Illinois, where I lived, the drinking age was 19. Astute readers can infer the significance of this, but can only imagine the startling Wisconsin-grade debauchery this led to among my friends and me, as we became weekend pilgrims to a now-defunct bar called the Top Deck in Lake Geneva. This was the summer of 1977, right after high school graduation, and our ill-advised return drives often included a visit to the legendary Brat Stop, located on Wisconsin Route 50 at I-94, where we imagined that baskets of brats and fries would soak up the alcohol pooling stupidly in our stomachs.
I can report to my younger self that the Brat Stop is still in business and is possibly even more popular now. And I am lucky and grateful to have survived those youthful kamikaze runs so that I could explore the Des Plaines River in my dotage… and then go have lunch there.
Conveniently, the Jean McGraw Memorial Nature Preserve is less than two miles south of the Brat Stop, off the frontage road immediately west of I-94, and offers the first public trail on the Des Plaines River. It’s a small preserve with a short loop trail system on the west bank, with a view of where the Root River flows into the Des Plaines from the north – the first tributary of any size that feeds the river. On the frosty December day I first came here I was able to walk off trail and into the frozen marsh, through which the Des Plaines flows towards the town of Pleasant Prairie. As I stepped gingerly onto and around the unpredictable ice shelves I couldn’t help but hear my mom threatening so help her God to beat me within an inch of my life.
Like a snake in the grass
This twisting country stream widens considerably here, and looks deceptively shallow because of the surrounding wetlands. In fact it can be suddenly and surprisingly deep here, underscoring one of the dangers in going off trail (mom, duh); thankfully the water was very clear this day and I could see the deep spots I wanted to avoid. I imagine there have been others who weren’t as lucky.
Directly across I-94 is another preserve called the Coker Property, through which the Des Plaines River continues on its southerly course towards Illinois, and both are managed by a land trust called the Seno K/RLT Conservancy, a non-profit “dedicated to sustainable forestry, natural resources education, conservation, and land preservation”, according to its website. Hiking and cross country skiing are allowed both places, as are fishing, trapping and bow hunting, per a posted sign. I’ve been told that large northern pike can be caught here, and that it’s a good spot to put in a canoe or kayak, though there is no formal launch.
As with most points along the Des Plaines, visitors here are only barely removed from civilization. I could hear and see traffic from I-94 from virtually everywhere I went, not to mention the backside of a massive car dealership just north of the river. The park nonetheless presents a pastoral view of both rivers, and is a credit to the Conservancy, whose mission is to preserve land and restore habitat across its holdings on 1,266 acres in Kenosha and Racine counties. The marsh here is naturally beautiful and appears to be very healthy.
The river was mostly frozen when I first visited in December, though water was moving both where the Root River entered and where the Des Plaines flowed towards the interstate. I went back to the Kenosha area during the second week in January, on an unseasonably warm and sunny day, and tried to walk the Coker Property. I wasn’t sure if this was considered publicly accessible land, but by then I’d had a few run-ins with “Keep Out” signs in other locations and there didn’t appear to be any here. So I walked as far as I could along the river’s west bank, from which I could see where another small tributary feeds the Des Plaines – in this case something called the Kilbourn Road Ditch. From there I was almost able to get to Wilmot Rd., but was stymied by an especially swampy patch more hospitable to frogs than people.
Fairly wild even by my evolving standards, there are plans to create more formal hiking trails here sometime in the future. As they would link the Conservancy land with that of Pleasant Prairie, the project will involve both entities, and as yet there is no official timeline.
Pleasant Prairie: the first river community
Pleasant Prairie, which is a kind of exurb or bedroom hamlet for Milwaukee and/or Chicago, is the first community on the Des Plaines River, and had I been able to continue walking the river’s west bank from the Coker Property, I would have ended up across the river from the homes on 113th Ave. in the River Oaks development.
A classic post-war subdivision, the houses that back up to the Des Plaines River there look more rustic than their neighbors, maybe even a little wild. That’s in part because they’re on land considered to be a riparian zone, defined by the U.S. National Park Service as land that occurs along the edges of rivers, streams, lakes, and other water bodies. In Pleasant Prairie there are a couple of residential streets that fall under this definition: 113th and 114th Avenues, the latter of which is also called River Road – the first of many so-called from here to Channahon. From coast to coast, in fact, and probably all over the world.
Pleasant Prairie is the northernmost of the numerous residential communities established along the banks of the Des Plaines River and is the only one in Wisconsin. It’s noteworthy first because it’s first, and second because it shows the least obvious evidence of encroachment on the river, existing more as neighbors to the river than property extensions. (Read more about riparian zones on the Des Plaines in my Libertyville section.) The water here was very clear on the cold but sunny day I visited in early January, clear enough that I could see bottom from the pedestrian bridge on Wilmot Road.
Besides the river’s passage beneath Wilmot Road, there are two public trails in Pleasant Prairie with access to the river, and both have trailheads at Lake Andrea, a local park and recreation facility. During my first visit, at the end of December, I hadn’t known about the second trail, so my destination was the Jerome Creek Nature Preserve, which I reached using the Donald Hackbarth Trail. Though only a small length of the Des Plaines is visible and publicly accessible here, this is a beautiful little park and wetland preserve, with street parking at the northern end of the Donald Hackbarth trail, off 114th Street, which is where I parked.
From here it’s an easy hike on a groomed, gravel trail to a wooden boardwalk that spans the point where Jerome Creek flows into the Des Plaines River. The trail then skirts a beautiful wetland preserve and winds through the forest towards Lake Andrea, but doesn’t afford any more views of the Des Plaines — although you can see the new gargantuan Haribo facility in the distance.
Fairly nearby is the Prairie Farms Trail, and though it has sections that get near the river, you can’t really see it because of the dense forest bordering the trail. That’s a good thing, in that it insulates the river and its wildlife from the disruptive incursions of interlopers like me. Or it should. On this day, however, I was not to be deterred – I had, after all, just walked about a half-mile in thick brush back at the Coker Property – so I exited the official trail where I thought it was closest to the river and stumbled oafishly through the overgrowth
About going off trail…
I didn’t set out to walk the entirety of the Des Plaines River – or even those portions that are publicly accessible – which explains why there appears to be a randomness to my wanderings. As it happened, by the time I was getting around to tying up loose ends in Wisconsin I’d already been all over the place downriver, and going off trail had by that point become fairly routine – even considering the unique obstacles and challenges encountered with each detour. Every time I went off trail I did so in order to get closer to the river, to see something not visible from the trail, and I frequently found other trails in the process – some probably just deer trails, some more clearly used by humans, but all pursuing the river, like I was. Sometimes, though, it was me who was being the trailblazer, and if we’ve learned nothing else from this life, we should have learned there’s always risk in trailblazing. The Des Plaines River basin may not be the Amazon, but the same off trail cautions apply. Or should.
The dense woods and marsh I stepped into on the Prairie Farms Trail weren’t totally alien to me, as the Des Plaines riparian zone doesn’t really change along its short 133-mile journey. That sense of familiarity may be why I was a little lax at times, especially when distracted by sight of the river, and accounts for the spill I took when I wandered off the Prairie Farms Trail and got taken down by a fallen tree covered in undergrowth. I was, thankfully, able to get up and brush myself off, but if I’d landed just a degree or two away from where I had, I’m pretty sure I could have broken something. Leg, ankle, arm, wrist. All of the above would be an option for an old guy like me. As it was, I jammed one of my toes and bruised it badly enough that the toenail eventually came off.
You’ll hear me describe a few other falls I took during my walks, and collectively they should serve as a cautionary tale whose moral is about prudence and common sense and rule-following, and it isn’t like I disagree with the overall sentiment. Going off trail like I’ve been doing… it isn’t what normal people do. Ten-year-old boys maybe, but they aren’t normal people. In any case, just because I did it doesn’t mean I condone or encourage it. It can be dangerous, no matter how tame it may look to you, no matter your age or physical condition, and especially when hiking alone. That’s why those nice, safe trails exist. Sane and sensible people keep to the trails, and if the Des Plaines River is so darned important to see, well, go see it at Jean McGraw or Jerome Creek.