Rainbow Lake Wilderness is the most protected stretch of trail near Grand View. It covers 6,583 acres about four miles north of Drummond. Under the Forest Service's wilderness rules, no bicycles are allowed, and volunteers clearing blowdowns there have to use hand saws. It also allows deer hunting. The Forest Service says Wisconsin hunting regulations apply inside the wilderness. The one extra rule there bans permanent hunting stands and ground blinds.
That one fact changes how November works in the forest north and south of town. Wilderness rules limit machines, not hunting seasons. So the quietest trail on the map runs on the same Wisconsin DNR calendar as every other piece of the Chequamegon-Nicolet. Once you know that calendar, picking a trailhead gets easy. This year's volunteer work also gives you a few new places worth walking to.
The calendar that sets the woods, November through mid-December
The Forest Service treats hunting as a seasonal use of the whole Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest, under state rules and state licenses. Here are the 2026 dates the Wisconsin DNR lists, counted from a walk you might take this weekend:
- Archery and crossbow: already open since Sept. 12 and running to Jan. 3, 2027, so there are bowhunters in the woods on every November walk.
- Nine-day gun deer season: Saturday, Nov. 21 through Sunday, Nov. 29, about three weeks after this post goes up.
- Muzzleloader: Nov. 30 through Dec. 9.
- Antlerless-only hunt: Dec. 10 through Dec. 13. The DNR lists this one as statewide with all weapon types allowed, so it covers the Northern Forest units around Grand View too.
The Christmas-week antlerless holiday hunt is open only in select Farmland Zone counties, which leaves out Bayfield County's Northern Forest units. The DNR notes that all dates can change through rulemaking, so check its page before you plan around a particular weekend.
The blaze orange rule is narrower than many people think. The DNR requires hunters to wear at least 50 percent blaze orange or fluorescent pink above the waist during a firearm deer season, and at least 50 percent on any head covering. No rule requires it of hikers. During the 2025 gun season, though, the DNR encouraged nonhunters and their pets to wear those colors on public land open to hunting. Bayfield County's hiking trails guide goes further and suggests high-visibility clothing like blaze orange for hiking in general. For dogs, the Chequamegon-Nicolet's forest rules require pets to be restrained or leashed in developed recreation sites. The Rainbow Lake Wilderness page lists no separate leash rule.
We're reporting these rules, not interpreting them. This is general information, not legal advice, so check the DNR and Forest Service directly for anything that applies to you.
The trailheads closest to town, and what each one is like in November
Grand View sits between several North Country Trail access points. The trail runs 61.4 miles through the national forest. That's 27.5 miles on the Washburn Ranger District and 33.9 on the Great Divide district. These are the access points within a short drive of town:
| Access point | How to reach it | What you walk through |
|---|---|---|
| County Road D trailhead | 3.9 miles south of Grand View on County D | Long Mile Lookout. The chapter's Oct. 1 hike made it a 5.5-mile round trip |
| Lake Owen Picnic Grounds | Off FR 213 | About two miles along Lake Owen's north shore, plus the Drummond Recreation Trails |
| Rainbow Lake Wilderness | Delta Drummond Road, FR 392/Reynard Lake Road, FR 228/North Delta Road | Wishbone, Reynard, Bufo, Rainbow and Tower lakes |
| Drummond Woods Trail | FR 403 in Grand View | An easy 1.5 miles, not on the NCT |
| Penokee Overlook | South on County D to FR 377, east to FR 202 | NCT access three miles west of Mellen |
Each stretch behaves differently once the leaves are down. Rainbow Lake Wilderness is the one to plan for. The Forest Service notes that the wilderness section has no reassurance blazes, only directional signs at some intersections. A trail you can follow easily in July is harder to read under fresh leaf litter or an early snow. The Rainbow Lake Wilderness rules prohibit camping within 200 feet of water or the NCT and set a 14-day limit.
The stretch south of Delta Drummond Road is the one the Chequamegon Chapter picked for its first group hike of 2026, on May 16. Hikers walked to Long Lake Branch Creek with views of Mirror, Esox and Overby lakes, and the newsletter photos show a beaver lodge on Esox Lake. By the chapter's mileage sheet, Delta Drummond Road sits at trail mile 15.0 from County A, with Mirror Lake at 15.7, the Esox Lake overlook at 16.1 and Overby Lake at 16.5. That puts three lakes within about a mile and a half of the road, which is a good fit for a short November afternoon.
What volunteers changed on the trail in 2026
The wilderness rules explain why some of the trail is slow to fix. After spring storms, the chapter's NCT Navigators cleared their adopted Rainbow Lake Wilderness section on May 1 using folding Silky saws, because power tools aren't allowed there. The chapter newsletter notes that wilderness sections take longer for that reason. On May 14, trail adopters cleared the section from Long Mile Lookout to County Road D with chainsaws and hand tools and reported it "in good shape for now."
The biggest change near Grand View is on Lake Owen. The Forest Service approved a designated backpacker campsite there for 2026, and the Chequamegon Chapter's June newsletter reports it was finished on May 23. Volunteers cleared an old road into the site and built three tent pads. They also added four benches, a fire pit with a grill, and a trail register box at the junction. That same weekend, crews partly built a second site above Nelson Lake, with three tent sites, a fire ring and a new sign. The newsletter said a trail to it and some finishing work were still to come. Between Wisco Road and Old Grade Road, a temporary fix over a wet spot had become hazardous at times. Volunteers replaced it with a single-plank puncheon.
Farther east, the chapter's main project this year was the Canthook Lake reroute. The Oct. 10 season-finale hike page says volunteers had built about 3.4 miles of new trail around Steelhead and Canthook lakes, reached from Canthook Lake off FR 412. The agenda for the chapter's Nov. 7 fall meeting in Drummond lists "four campsites constructed" and the 3½-mile reroute as "nearly completed." The event page lists doors at 8:30 a.m. and a guest speaker at 11:00. It's the next place to hear whether the reroute is finished.
Matching the walk to the week
Put the calendar and the trail map together and the month breaks into four stretches:
- Now through Nov. 20. Bowhunters are out, but there's no firearm season. This is the best window for the longer, harder-to-follow walks, like the Rainbow Lake Wilderness lakes or County Road D to Long Mile Lookout and back.
- Nov. 21 to 29. The gun season covers the national forest, wilderness included. The DNR's 2025 encouragement for nonhunters to wear blaze orange or pink fits these nine days most directly. Thanksgiving falls in the middle of the gun season this year, on Nov. 26.
- Nov. 30 to Dec. 13. Muzzleloader season, then the statewide four-day antlerless hunt. Both are firearm seasons on the DNR calendar.
- After Dec. 13. Only archery and crossbow remain, through Jan. 3, 2027.
Weather, blowdowns and road conditions can change what you find at the trailhead in any of these windows. The Forest Service says access varies by season and weather. It points visitors to its live conditions and closures map and the ranger district offices before a trip.
If you've been looking at land or a cabin near the County Road D trailhead or the Lake Owen picnic grounds, call Stacey or Scott at McKinney Realty. We'll show you which parcels border the forest roads you already drive to the trail.