Two friends make a successful team, again, in finding La Crosse’s Oktoberfest medallion

A pair of veteran medallion-hunting friends in La Crosse captured the Oktoberfest medallion for the second time in just over a decade.

Willie Bittner and Kerry Pischke claimed the $500 prize Monday, a day after finding the medallion after seven clues.

Bittner and Pischke also found the medallion in 2013, atop Grandad Bluff.

Bittner said this second time finding the medallion with Pischke beats the first time, because in the years since then, they both have started families, and the kids have to be part of the hunt. He says the kids are “the next generation” of medallion searchers.

After looking Sunday at Badger Hickey Park, along with many other searchers, Bittner decided to try a different spot.

“We went to the Eagle Watch area,” he said, “and my kids and Kerry were shortly there behind.”

Bittner added that when he got to the Eagle Watch site, “underneath the eagle, on that tree that they did, I just found it sticking out underneath a bush in the ground.”

Pischke said they get support from their spouses and kids at home. She thought she and Bittner will find the prize again in the future, noting the two of them bring different skills to their detective work.

“So, Willie is definitely the physical hunter, ” Pischke said, “and I’m more of the cerebral hunter, I think.”

“Willie just has fantastic instincts,” she added.

Last year, La Crosse’s Oktoberfest medallion was found by a mother and daughter team, who had been past winners of the search contest.