Northeast Trailhead:  at the Highland Town Hall off County Highway S, about five miles west of Wisconsin Highway 27, and about two miles south of Stone's Bridge Canoe Landing on the Brule River.  Look for a NCT destination sign along the highway, and a sign reading "To North Country Trail" along the town hall drive.

Southwest Trailhead: at the boat landing and picnic area off County Highway A, about four miles northeast of Solon Springs, Wisconsin.  Locally this is called "Palmer's Landing."  Watch for signs about the historic portage.

Campsite: Jerseth Creek, 2.7 miles southwest of Highway S and 4.5 miles northeast of Highway A, has two tent sites and latrine.  Water from the creek - filter or boil.

Length of Segment: 7.2 miles

Leaving the Highland Town Hall, you'll hike through red pine plantations and popple groves.  As you approach the lip of the Brule Valley, you'll enter bigger woods, with overlooks of the Brule River Bog.

As you pass the campsite,  you'll enter and cross the valley of Jerseth Creek, a fast-flowing stream surrounded by towering red pines.  Lake Superior salmon spawn here in the fall.  Short boardwalks take you across an ash bog on the north side of the creek.  The trail then follows a woods road for two miles along the edge of the Brule River Bog.

After five miles, you come to the Brule-St. Croix Portage, perhaps the oldest trail in Wisconsin, in use since prehistoric times to cross the watershed from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River.  Watch for a side trail that leads out into the marshy area to the canoe landing at the Brule end of the portage.  Then return to the trail and read the metal markers on stones along the trail, each naming a European explorer who used the trail.  Some of the more familiar names are Duluth, Carver, and Schoolcraft.  The terrain rises as you approach a high point overlooking St. Croix Lake.  After descending the hill, follow the portage trail straight ahead and across County A to the trailhead; be sure to read the historical marker and the plaque noting that local Daughters of the American Revolution provided the explorer's markers in 1936.

Just a few feet before you reach Highway A, the North Country Trail leaves the portage route, turns west and north, curving around the base of the fluff you've just descended.  After about 1/3 mile, you'll reach the first section of the boardwalk which carries the trail across the bog and St. Croix Creek, the source of the St. Croix River.  You'll turn right on a hunter walking trail for 1/4 mile, then cross another section of boardwalk to reach Highway P.

Next Trail Segment West: Solon Springs & Lucius Woods Park

Next Trail Segment East: Jackpine Barrens