Hepatica at Brady's Rocks

Looking for an Ice Age Trail section to hike yesterday I decided to retry getting past Brady's Rocks on the Eagle Segment.  Remember last June when I was engulfed by mosquitoes when I attempted it?  I figured April was a good time to amble on through without becoming dinner for a horde of blood sucking insects.

Not only did I make it through alive, but right after I stopped filming I spotted Hepatica growing on the ground!  Spring has finally arrived in southeastern Wisconsin!

Not much else is growing yet, trust me, I looked hard.

Silurian dolomite

Once past the dolomite and the chorus of frog song the trail goes through a prairie which is probably stunning come summer.  I hiked all the way to where the trail intersects with Wilton Road before turning around.  It took me an hour going back without stopping to my car so I guess the portion I did at about 3 miles each way.

Even without fresh flowers and green grass it was a nice walk now that the birds are out and the sun was shining.

Sun!

I wasn't the only one who thought so, I met up with a couple and their very happy dog who was running around in circles and then she stopped and dragged her whole body along the ground before flopping down contentedly.

The couple told me to keep my eye out for some nesting cranes and I told them to keep their eye out for the Hepatica by Brady's Rocks.  When I met them again going the other direction we compared notes and while I didn't see the cranes I did tell them I saw turtles and they headed off to look for those down by the creek that cut across the prairie.

As if that wasn't enough for one day I had about 3/4 mile of the Scuppernong Segment I hadn't completed so I drove down the road a couple of miles to knock that off my list too.  The DNR was busy cutting down trees as I wandered through.

Don't worry, I checked to see which way they were falling before moving on past them!

It was a happy day on the trail now that spring has definitely arrived and I guess I'm not the only one who thinks so!

Wayne and I have reservations to camp at Ottawa Lake in a week and a half and I'm hoping things will be a little greener by then and a few more wildflowers out too.  I think it will be a good time to start the Lapham Peak segment a bit to the north if I bring my car along.  It's a little over 7 miles long so I don't really want to walk that one both ways if I don't have to!