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R&R in Rhinelander

An unusual spa is home base for a north-woods Wisconsin getaway.

The hodag was born out of a hoax but now is Rhinelander's beloved mascot.

When we’re stressed out, a lot of us think: Gotta go to a spa.

Not a day spa, where you’re anointed, kneaded and tossed back into the cold. No, a destination spa, where you lounge around in white robes and relax until you’re half paralyzed.

Not many of us can afford that kind of spa . . . unless it’s in Paul Bunyan land.

Set deep in the woods outside the old logging town of Rhinelander, Woodwind Health Spa is a spa for the fleece-and-flannel set. Nothing is fussy – not the food, not the service and especially not the prices.

“We keep it affordable, so that the people who need it the most can come,’’ says owner Marj Champney.

Champney is a folksy, plain-spoken woman who found her way to Wisconsin after working as a hotel chef, corporate inventory specialist and carpenter from Maine to California.

The spa started to take shape the day she was driving along the Wisconsin River and a bald eagle swooped in front of her car. It led her down an overgrown driveway and began circling over the 40-acre property she now owns.

The appearance of an eagle was significant to Champney, whose ancestors include Pennacook Indians from her native New Hampshire. She figured it was time to share her gift for healing.

“I can put my hands on people to see stuff,’’ she says. “It’s an amazing, amazing thing that was gifted to me, taking away crappy energy to let the good stuff flow in.’’

One of the first people we met when we arrived at the spa in the woods was Elaine Stekler of Two Rivers, Wis., who had received the Eagle’s Touch massage and Integrative Flotation Discovery, a womblike water experience that combines massage and Reiki energy work.

“She’s very gifted, very gifted,’’ Stekler said over dinner. “After that, I was kind of wiped out emotionally.’’

Torsten and I had followed the Wisconsin River north to Rhinelander on a radiant late-fall day, stopping to hike at the Dells of the Eau Claire near Wausau and Council Grounds State Park in Merrill.

So when we sat down to dinner at Woodwind, we were happy to be served a hearty dinner that bore no resemblance to spa food: antipasto salad, chicken lemon orzo soup, ravioli with mushrooms in cream sauce, four-cheese manicotti, red velvet cake and caramel-apple cake.

Our fellow guests were quilters and scrapbookers, a lively group of mothers, daughters, sisters and friends who had assembled from points across Minnesota and Wisconsin. Career coach Susan Guarneri had come from Three Lakes, only half an hour away.

“Oh, I’m incredibly busy,’’ she said. “That’s why I had to come on this retreat, to regain my sanity.’’

From Eagle River, the Three Eagle Trail goes over bogs and wetlands and through woods.

After dinner, everyone piled into overstuffed sofas in the TV room and watched “The Proposal.’’ Our spa trip was starting to feel more like a slumber party.

The quilters were saving a lot of money staying in a big room with single beds, $30, as well as some of the five private rooms, $110 for two. They really were having a sleepover, and when we got up the next day, they already were chattering away over their sewing machines in the sunny work room.

After breakfast, some of the quilters went to a rummage sale up the road, and Torsten and I drove into town. We wanted to see Rhinelander’s famous hodag, a mythical beast born in the logging camps. Camp newcomers were first to be regaled with stories about it, supplemented by bloodcurdling wails from the nearby swamp.

Then, in 1896, timber cruiser Gene Shepard actually came up with a spiked, leathery carcass he said he'd found in the swamps. He managed to keep the hoax going for a week before confessing that he’d made it.

The locals didn't mind. By then, Rhinelander had acquired the nickname Hodag City and a mascot for its sports teams. A big hodag now crouches outside the visitors center year-round, and smaller, artist-decorated hodags stand around town in summer and are shown off in parades.

From Rhinelander, we drove 20 miles north with our bicycles to try out the new, 8½-mile Three Eagles Trail between Eagle River and Three Lakes. It was a beauty, starting out in a corridor of hardwoods and emerging to an open marsh, where fluffy white clouds mirrored lily pads, a swaying river of grass and a purplish fringe of maple trees.

Then it ducked into black spruce and tamaracks, with boardwalks crossing a cranberry marsh and a forest floor lumpy with mounds of moss.

On the Cranberry Boardwalk, I found Ruth Sproull and Vicki Reuling leaning over the railing, looking for wild cranberries.

“You can find every tree species in the north woods on this trail,’’ Reuling said. “My husband always says, 'Slow down for a wild ride.' Quite a few people have seen bears and porcupines.’’

Both she and Sproull are part of the coalition that got the trail built.

“It was an old logging road, owned by the paper companies,’’ Reuling said. “We knew we didn’t want it to be long and straight, so we tried to zigzag it around to make it fun.’’

After five miles, the crushed-limestone trail swings south, paralleling U.S. 45. In Three Lakes, it passes the Three Lakes Winery, which specializes in cranberry wine, and ends in Don Burnside Park.

We were due at Woodwind Spa for massages, so we hurried back to Rhinelander. My therapist was JoAnn Trein, who played Indian flute music and applied muscle ointment homemade by Champney.

“We’re working the muscles; it’s like exercising, except you don’t have to do anything,’’ she said.

Torsten’s massage was with Champney, who is renowned for her powerful hands. When he emerged, he looked groggy, as if he’d just woken up from a very long sleep.

“Boy, does she have a thumb,’’ he said. “I feel completely relaxed.’’

Woodwind Spa is tucked into the woods near the Wisconsin River.

Over dinner — cranberry-apple stuffed chicken, homemade mashed potatoes with gravy, triple chocolate cake — Champney told us her life story, prompted by the quilters, who urged her to write a cookbook/memoir.

Many of them had had massages, too. Having spent the entire day hunched over quilts and scrapbooks, they needed them.

By breakfast the next day, we’d become part of the slumber party, chatting with the quilters and admiring their work.

“This is so much nicer than those awkward B&B breakfasts,’’ Torsten said. “Everyone’s telling stories. If all girlfriend getaways are like that, I want to take part in one.’’

Woodwind Spa may not be for the Kohler Waters or Sundara crowd. But it’s a good kind of spa for Rhinelander.

Call it the people’s spa. In 2006, Budget Travel magazine called Woodwind one of "America's Top Spa Values.''

“People say, ‘Why don’t you cater to rich clients?’ ‘’ Champney says. “But we like to have all kinds of people. We have running groups, kayakers, bikers, cancer survivors, friends like this group, families. People come here to relax and let go.

“There’s energy in this place; it’s built with love,’’ she said. “Whatever you release here, stays here. You don’t carry it home.’’

Trip Tips: Rhinelander

Getting there: It’s an hour north of Wausau, in northeast Wisconsin.

2010 events: March 12-14, World Ice Fishing Championships in Hodag Park. May 21, Hodags on parade. June 12, Art Fair on the Courthouse Lawn. July 8-11, Hodag Country Music Festival. Aug. 5-8, Oneida County Fair.

Woodwind Health Spa & Wellness Center: The center, on a wooded acreage just west of town, rents five private rooms, $85 for one and $110 for two, and 11 dorm beds, $30 for one person and $50 for a double. Guests share two full baths with showers and six half-baths.

Breakfast is included, and guests can use the therapy whirlpool and sauna. The large, all-you-can-eat dinners are $15.

Spa services include an hour-long full-body massage, $65, and herbal wrap, $80. Founder Marj Champney specializes in healing services, such as the transformational flotation discovery and eagle's touch massage, both $110.

The spa also offers yoga classes, $8, and meditation classes, $4. A five- to six-hour Ultimate Pampering package is $325, including breakfast, lunch, tax and gratuity.

Three Eagle Trail: The 8½-mile trail from Three Lakes to Sundstein Road, four miles south of Eagle River, is finely crushed limestone; bicyclists can continue north on the lightly traveled, paved road to Eagle River. Terrain is wooded, and the trail passes lakes and bogs on two boardwalks and a steel bridge.

In winter, the prettiest section, from U.S. 45 to Sundstein Road, is groomed for classic and skate skiing.

Skiing and snowshoeing: Groomed ski trails around Rhinelander include the Northwoods Ski Trail, at Northwood Golf Course 2 ½ miles west of town off Wisconsin 8; and Nose Lake Trail, 12 miles west of town between Wisconsin 8 and County Road K.

Snowshoeing trails include those at Almon Park on Buck Lake, five miles south of Rhinelander.

A quilter sews in Woodwind's work room.

For more, pick up the Oneida County Area Trail Guide.

School of the Arts at Rhinelander: This week-long arts program for adults, sponsored by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Liberal Studies and the Arts, has been held in Rhinelander since 1964.

Classes/workshops are offered in art, computer skills, music, photography, writing, theatre and mind, body and spirit.

In 2010, it's July 25-30. Classes are held at James Williams Middle School, and students are responsible for their own lodgings. 608-263-2790.

Aqua Devils water-ski shows near Three Lakes. Shows are at 6:30 p.m. Wednesdays and Sundays from mid-June to mid-August. At Phyllis B. Felland Memorial Water Ski Park on Big Stone Lake, 3½ miles east of Three Lakes.

Wilderness Cruises on the Wisconsin River. The 76-foot Wilderness Queen gives cruises just south of town, and its route gives passengers many opportunities to see eagles, osprey and herons.

It offers 1½-hour sightseeing cruises, $14, $8 for children 3-10, and two-hour Sunday brunch cruises, $28 and $23, on a pontoon with an open top deck and a handsome, knotty-pine lower deck. There's a cruise nearly every day from late May through mid-October. 715-369-7500.

Accommodations: Holiday Acres Resort, on Lake Thompson just east of town, calls itself a "classic northwoods resort'' that offers water-skiing and trail-riding and rents lodge rooms, cabins and executive homes. There's an indoor pool, sauna and restaurant.

It's a Travel Green Wisconsin property and is open year-round. It has its own skiing and snowshoeing trails, 800-261-1500.

Dining: Three Coins restaurant at Holiday Acres Resort serves steaks and ribs as well as such dishes as chicken wild mushroom ravioli and Thai shrimp.

Fireside Supper Club overlooks Town Line Lake on County Road K west of town. It's non-smoking and offers such traditional fare as a fish fry and prime rib.

In town, Joe’s Pasty Shop on Randall Avenue serves traditional pasties and daily specials, such as chicken fajita, cheeseburger, Greek, veggie and, on Saturdays, a breakfast pasty.

Information: Rhinelander tourism, 800-236-4386.

Last updated on April 28, 2010

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R&R in Rhinelander

An unusual spa is home base for a north-woods Wisconsin getaway.

Trip Tips: Rhinelander

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