The Best of the Outdoors 2022: Hiking, Biking, Camping, and More

We asked about the best spots to be active in the Chippewa Valley. Here’s what you said

Each year for the past 15 years, we’ve asked readers to vote on their favorite things, people, and places in the Chippewa Valley. Here are the winners in the outdoor-related parts of our most recent Best of the ...

WHAT A CATCH: Fishhead Custom Rods & Tackle Crafts Specialized Equipment

E.C.’s Mike Konzen creates 50-60 custom fishing rods every year for local anglers

Mike Konzen and his family were on a fishing trip in Belize a few years back, and everything seemed fairly normal. Beautiful weather on the water, wholesome family vibes all around, and fish were biting at increasing regularity when suddenly a 70-pound greater amberjack bit down on his youngest daughter’s fishing rod – and a battle began. After wrestling with ...

Hiking? Biking? Camping? Here Are Our Readers’ Favorite Outdoor Spots

We asked about the best places to be active in the Chippewa Valley. Here’s what you said.

When we create Volume One's annual Best of the Chippewa Valley Reader Poll, we not only ask our readers (that’s you!) to vote for their favorite bands, bars, cheese curds but also their favorite bodies of water, hiking trails, and beaches ...

7 Hidden Hiking Gems in the Chippewa Valley

see if you can spot these seven secret wonders of the area

Sunlit trails wind through upland woods and young pines in this 80 acre preserve, part of the 630-acre Hallie Marsh Wildlife Area ...

Friends Indeed

preservation a priority for newly formed Friends of Putnam Park

In 1909, lumber baron and local philanthropist Henry Cleveland Putnam donated a 230-acre parcel of land to the City of Eau Claire, hoping the low-lying stretch would be preserved as a botanical laboratory ...

Expanding Your Boundaries

craving a canoe trip? here’s what you need to know about dipping a paddle into Minnesota’s Boundary Waters

If you’ve never been camping in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, it may seem a little daunting – even more so if you’re not much of a camper or outdoorsperson ...

Early Season, Later Life

reflections on trout fishing with a son – then and now

It was futile. A stinging April wind gusting across Timber Coulee Creek and my cataract-clouded eyes made threading a hair-thin tippet into the eye of a trout fly no larger than a peppercorn practically impossible ...