Great Headwaters Trails
Building family-friendly biking and walking trails near the source of a Great River
River Trail - A high-value, priority project!
THE RIVER TRAIL will connect Eagle River into the 55-mile Heart of Vilas System and extend the system by 10 miles. St. Germain will become a system hub and the new River Trail will, we predict, become one of the most popular parts of the whole system!
At the place shown in the photo to the right, the 10-foot wide asphalt trail will pass between the pines and the river. That would be the Wisconsin River, This spot is only about 20 miles from the river's headwaters at Lac Vieux Desert, one of our county's 1,300 lakes!
The "River Trail team" includes the River Trail Commission (St Germain, Cloverland and Eagle River) and Great Headwaters Trails. Momentum and support are the keys to helping the team get this complex trail built. How complex? Click HERE to see the detailed design information the Commission considered when it did a site tour of the route in October of 2021. Will donations help? Yep!! Click HERE! For a one-page overview of the project click HERE!
We thank all of you who wrote letters in early June to the Eagle River City Council and all 284 of you who signed the recent online petition supporting the project and applauding Eagle River and its two partner municipalities for pursuing the trail. You may have heard of the puzzling, route-truncating motion passed by the Eagle River City Council on June 13. It overlooked that the River Trail will increase safety for all walkers and bike riders in the STH 70 corridor that connects the Commission members, and has slowed down progress on the project.
To doublecheck the advantages of the proposed route for the River Trail, GHT volunteers studied and issued a report on that route as well as a northern option and a southern option. You can see the findings of that study HERE. At their Nov. meeting, the River Trail Commission unanimously passed this motion, "The River Trail Commission supports the original 'Central Trail Route' and will be asking for the same support from the three municipalities involved in the Commission."
The safety that River Trail will provide is undeniable. You can get details on that by clicking HERE.
You can write to the Eagle River mayor and council members to ask them to revisit their June 13 vote to truncate the River Trail route. Point out the benefits and safety of the proposed Central Route . Send letters to Mayor Jeff Hyslop and members of the Eagle River Common Council, 525 E. Maple Street, PO Box 1269, Eagle River, WI 54521, or email them by clicking HERE.
Trail info to share, people to meet, raffle tickets to sell!
HELP US GET OUT THE WORD about GHT's work. Watch for our booths at various events in Eagle River, Conover, Phelps and Land O' Lakes. Sign up to help us staff our booths. - CLICK HERE.
Since its founding in 2010, the Great Headwaters Trails Foundation has been closing in on its goal to build 40 miles of biking and walking trails in eastern Vilas County. The system we envision will expand the Heart of Vilas Trail System and connect the towns of Eagle River, Conover, Phelps and Land O' Lakes, resulting in a connected, family-friendly, hard surface trail system over 110 miles long.
The first leg of the system, the Conover-Phelps Trail, was completed in 2021. The next leg, the River Trail, will connect St. Germain to Eagle River. There are a lot of people that need to be clued in to this important project! Want to know more? Contact us at ghtrails@gmail.org.
Help us develop more biking and walking trails in eastern Vilas County!

Great Headwaters Trails Foundation Names New President, Four Directors
By Gary Ridderbusch The Great Headwaters Trails (GHT) Foundation named four new board members and a new president at its board meeting earlier this month. Cheryl Todea, Cheryl Adams and Diane Gunderson are new directors at large and John Gustavson will be serving as the organization’s treasurer. The board members…
Read MoreFat Tire Biking on the Conover Phelps Trail
The C-P trail is currently open and accessible for fat tire biking. Please be aware that the section from Hwy 45 to the power lines is a shared use trail for snowmobiles. While the trail hasn’t been opened for the snowmobile season yet, we encourage cyclists to exercise caution when…
Read MoreVilas County News-Review Editorial: River Trail Project Deserves Another Chance to Succeed
By Kurt Krueger The River Trail Commission gave preliminary endorsement recently to a Highway 45 multi-use crossing that could be billed as the initial phase of the proposed River Trail between Eagle River and St. Germain. We think that’s a big deal because the River Trail would connect Eagle River…
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