State Corridor 39 – Shell Lake To Minong, Washburn County, WI

The OHV Trails of Washburn County are great to drive, with almost unlimited access to communities and attractions, this trail system is one to experience.

First off, I want to mention, these trails are well taken care of! These are some of the smoothest trails I have ever driven! Traveling north on Corridor 39 through Spooner and on to Minong, The trail was amazing, hilly, twisting and turning. Washburn County is very desolate and there are few places to stop. Once in Minong, I was able to get fuel, which I was beginning to run low on, While traveling on Corridor 8 I noticed my gauge was starting to get low, Luckily everything worked out and I was able to get fuel. That would be a recommendation, stop for fuel, when you can!

I drove from Shell Lake To Minong On Corridor 39 to Corridor 8, overall around 76 miles. An absolutely beautiful day trip!

Spooner, Wisconsin…

Traveling Through Spooner, Wisconsin.

Take a left at this second stop sign in Spooner. You will see railroad equipment, on the left.

Once in Spooner, Wisconsin, Continue traveling north, pass Hwy 70 & the very next stop sign, take a left, that will take you into Downtown Spooner, When you leave the trail, you will immediately be able to see the Downtown area and attractions along the trails.

Downtown Spooner, across the street from public parking area.

Spooner is a smaller community within Washburn County, but it offers a ton of great things to do. For instance, There is a interesting Railroad Museum and the Wisconsin Canoe Heritage Museum…

I will have more details in separate articles.

Wisconsin Canoe Heritage Museum

Free Public Parking Just A Block Off The Trail…

Meat Lovers Skillet At Nick’s Cafe, Spooner, WI

I would recommend on spending at least a couple hours here in Spooner, there is so much to see and great food!

I walked a few blocks south of the parking area and ate at Nick’s Diner, what a great skillet, hard to find around the Milwaukee Metro (Where I’m from) and the coffee is off the charts good!

Trails… Well Taken Care Of…

While out obtaining content for this article, I came across our friends at the Rolling Hills ATV Club of Washburn County. The crew was our cutting back the vegetation along the trails near Spooner, Wisconsin.

In this instance, you can see the machinery is cutting the vegetation from around a corner allowing everyone to see oncoming or stopped OHV traffic further ahead!

I have been seeing more and more of this type of maintenance, while out on the trail and it’s impressive to see it. After years of neglect and no funding, to see actual maintenance being done is great news!

Again, This was a weekend and I wanted to Thank the crews out and about for working through their weekend to help the off-roading community pass through the area safer!

Trails north of Spooner…

I did find it odd that there are parked train cars along the trails north of Spooner, You can see that in some of the videos. Not a big deal, but I have never seen that before, anywhere and you do feel a bit boxed in and with no views to the west on the trail, you kinda feel cheated in a way. I’m not sure why they have all of these rail cars parked there but it could be a temporary noise reduction project in and around Spooner, or the economy is just that bad that the rail cars are sitting. Whatever the reason, I didn’t enjoy that aspect.

Eventually, you separate from the railroad and Hwy 63 and get back to beautiful nature as the trail, Corridor 39, turns more north-east.

Further up in the Washburn County Forest, following Corridor 39 you get really desolate and the trail is very fun, wide, with twisting and turning and hilly for Wisconsin standards.

Just a fun trail!

Along The Trails…

Most of the things along the trails in Washburn County are within the communities. There is a rail yard full of restored trains that are in use to offer rides to those interested.

Very interesting to see along the trails. You can see one of the trains on this video as I was passing.

I will share more about things along the trails in separate articles.

Shelter and restrooms available along the trails as a rest stop, Corridor 8.

I thoroughly enjoyed the Washburn County Trails, I will have a separate articles about Corridor 8 within Washburn County as I ended up having a slightly different experience with that trail. The communities are open and offer some fantastic stops from attractions to dinning, it’s tough to beat!