Official’s mission an endless road

For county Planning and Parks Director Andrew Struck, the road goes ever on and on when it comes to raising funds to improve beach access to Lake Michigan in Ozaukee County.

Having biked along Lake Superior and Lake Huron and around Lake Michigan, Struck recently checked another Great Lake off his list by biking the length of the U.S. side of Lake Ontario.

The 425-mile ride over seven and a half days went from the Canadian border on the St. Lawrence River to Buffalo, N.Y., along the Great Lakes Seaway Trail, which he also followed when he biked the U.S. coast of Lake Superior.

“This year’s ride along Lake Ontario is my fourth Great Lake and I’m hoping to do Lake Erie next year to be able to ride the US coast of all our wonderful Great Lakes, promoting public access and restoration of them,” he said.

In 2022, he rode around Lake Michigan to raise money for the Clay Bluffs Cedar Gorge Nature Preserve, which is expected to partially open to the public later this year or in early 2027.

The next year, Struck biked along the western shore of Lake Huron in Michigan to benefit the Wisconsin Shipwreck Coast National Marine Sanctuary, created in 2021 and operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

The sanctuary spans four counties and covers 962 square miles, from Port Washington north to Two Rivers, and includes 36 “nationally significant historic shipwrecks” and about 60 suspected wrecks, according to a facility study published in 2023.

Then last year, he biked 625 miles on the southern shore of Lake Superior in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

The funds raised by this year’s ride and last year’s are going to support the same three projects: beach access at Clay Bluffs Cedar Gorge Nature Preserve in Port Washington, Virmond County Park in Mequon and the Ozaukee Interurban Trail, particularly the repaving of the stretch north of Port Washington.

Plans call for starting construction of a stairway and bridge at Clay Bluffs in the coming months to provide access to the beach and Lake Michigan.

At Virmond Park a large wetland restoration is underway, as well as improving public access at the park.

“I’m also hoping to direct some funding to reconstructing the damaged bridge at Lion’s Den Gorge Nature Preserve,” he said.

These “critical projects will create and conserve public access to Lake Michigan,” he said on his fundraising website.

“They all need your help to get them over the finish line, though. Each project is at a critical juncture, a make-or-break situation,” he wrote.

The Clay Bluffs nature preserve is a 134-acre parcel along three-quarters of a mile of Lake Michigan bluffs on Port Washington’s south side and north of Lion’s Den Gorge Nature Preserve.

Struck’s GoFundMe page is at www.gofundme.com/f/conserving-public-access-to-lake-michigan.

Struck has set up a GoFundMe page for the cause and as of Tuesday had raised $7,761 of the $10,000 goal.

Donations may also be made payable to: Ozaukee County Historical Society, Inc., Lake Michigan Ride, c/o Andrew Struck, 121 W. Main St., P.O. Box 994, Port Washington, WI 53074.