Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
MARTHA PIERPONT, left, snowshoes across the wooden bridge at the Schomberg Park trail in Oma, Wis., on Saturday, while Hedda Patzke and John Bates follow. All three are from the Mercer area.
By RALPH ANSAMI
OMA, Wis. - A gem of a snowshoe trail marked with blue diamonds is available to the public on Iron County land just south of Schomberg Park in Oma.
John Bates and a handful of members of Iron County Outdoor Recreation Enthusiasts trekked the 1.7-mile trail on a perfect Saturday, as the county forest shielded the wind and the temperature was around 20 degrees.
Bates, a naturalist, offered observations along the way and was impressed with the quality of the trail.
"Here's a porcupine den," he said, not far from the start of the trail, which begins by taking a wooden bridge over Layman's Creek, a class III trout stream that featured open water on the first Saturday in February.
The porcupine has made its home in the hollow base of a giant cedar tree.
Bates knows nature and his explanation of the porcupine's woody diet explains why the quilled critters have been known to eat the wood from outhouse seats. Their systems need the salt.
Numerous old-growth cedars show the signs of woodpeckers at work along the way. Grouse and rabbit tracks transect the trail.
The trail is well marked and was walkable by a reporter in tennis shoes on this day.
The parking lot is big enough to accommodate around 100 vehicles, and it is plowed out well.
The Iron County forest terrain along the trail is considered "easy," but even moving along at a good pace, it will take more than an hour to hike the two loops.
While the nearby county park is closed for the winter, the end stretch of the trail winds through the edge of it and concludes at the wooden bridge.
Schomberg Park is about eight miles south of Hurley and 13 miles north of Mercer. The parking lot is on the west side of U.S. 51.
