Where the Ice Age Trail Begins - Potawatomi State Park

When Katrina and I left Algoma we moved up Hwy 42 to Sturgeon Bay.  She only hung out with me for the day, but I stayed the night at Potawatomi State Park.  Wayne and I stayed here and you can check the link if you want to know what sites will work for bigger rigs, but we did our exploring in the car and not on foot like I did this time.

Limestone cliffs of the Niagara Escarpment 

I was in site #3 which was about a city block from access to the Ice Age Trail...you know how I love me some Ice Age Trail!  After I got set up I sprayed up with Bug Me Not and headed down there.  I explored the shoreline a bit first before hitting the trail.

Lichen on limestone - combination of Sulphur Firedot and Common Goldspeck?

I learned that the park is named in honor of the tribe that inhabited Green Bay’s shores and islands when Europeans first settled the area. The tribe called themselves Bo-De-Wad-Me which means "keeper of the fire." Eventually the spelling and pronunciation were changed to Potawatomi.

Jewelweed on the shoreline

I didn't get far before I had to turn back, but I enjoyed searching the limestone cliffs of the Niagara Escarpment looking for new lichens.  If you're unfamiliar with the Escarpment here's a definition I got from the Niagara Escarpment Resource website.

The Niagara Escarpment is a prominent rock ridge that spans nearly 1,000 miles in an arc across the Great Lakes region, forming the ancient “backbone” of North America. It runs from eastern Wisconsin to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, through southern Ontario to western New York State, where Niagara Falls cascades over it, giving the escarpment its name. 

Kinda fun to think the Niagara Falls starts in Wisconsin in a way. Here's a map from their website also.  The red line on this map shows the path of the Niagara Escarpment.

When I ran out of shoreline I headed back up to the Ice Age trail.  Lots of Dolls Eyes lined the shaded path.

Every now and then I'd get a peek out into the bay.

The trees are kind of young here, but don't appear to have been planted purposely like they are in Kettle Moraine due to harvesting.

In some areas there was a lot of birch, mostly farther from shore.  There was also a lot of interesting fungi, but I'll save that for a separate post.

Sundown was coming but I had to try to keep moving or the mosquitoes would find me.  I just had to stop for the rainbow though.  

Crazy, right?  It literally took my breath away for a second.  When the trail crossed the road I switched to the pavement so I could go down to the boat landing instead of up the Escarpment.  Light was fading fast and I was in need of a potty break and a water bottle refill.

Of course instead of heading back right away I lingered watching the clouds do their thing.

I will admit to having to walk about a mile and half back in the dark, but I was on the road and all I encountered was a startled deer who took off too fast for me to see in the woods beside me.   Back at camp I was tired but satisfied with my first exploration of this part of the trail.  I'll explore the cliff on my next visit, right?