Before the Rain

Yesterday storms were forecasted to move in to the area and I was so busy lounging around the house enjoying my day off that I almost waited too long to go for a walk.

A five minute drive to the Hebron Trail provided me with a quiet place to stretch my legs and put in 3 miles before the rain came in.  I brought my umbrella just in case but got lucky and spent an hour walking between the farms that line the trail from Genoa City, Wisconsin to Hebron, Illinois.

The rain started not long after I was done and this morning everything is glistening and green.  I ordered some fertilizer for my neglected perennial bed on Gardens Alive! and got it all distributed yesterday before my walk.  My plants seemed a little starved for attention last year so this year I'll make sure they get it.

Bleeding Heart - 40mm+12mm extension tube

Today I'm heading out to Avon Bottoms State Natural Area, a place I've been wanting to check out for a couple of years now.  I wonder what I'll find as I wade around in my rubber boots?

Wild Geranium - 40mm+12mm extension tube

Erratics, Jacks and Trillium on the Kewaskum Segment

You can find the 2.1 mile Kewaskum segment of the Ice Age Trail near the intersection of Ridge Road and Prospect Avenue.  On Ridge Road you eventually arrive at the large well marked parking lot at the top of a large hill.  The segment route then traverses downhill again on a fairly gentle slope toward Sunburst Winter Sports Park on Prospect Ave.

Once on the trail I entered a young forest that was carpeted in Spring Beauty and Mayapple.

Spring Beauty's tiny pink flowers carpet the slope

Clumps of Wood Anemone also popped up along the trail.  Its leaves are different from the Rue Anemone that I saw in Janesville on the Arbor Ridge segment.

If you're hiking in the Midwest no doubt you've seen big piles of rocks and wondered how they came to be there.  Look around for evidence of farming, most likely that's where the farmer threw all the rocks they found while plowing.  Lots of rocks to be found in the area with most of those hills being formed by rocks and sand deposited by the glaciers.

rock pile being overtaken by the woods

This trail segment runs through rolling farmland broken up by sections of forest.  It was nice going in and out of the different sections, first being secluded in the woods and then popping out to nice views.

One short bit even cut right through the middle of a field, probably soybean last year and corn before that by the evidence I found on the ground.

There were a few erratics along the trail, big rocks deposited by the glacier that do not originate from the region.  Easier to leave it there and plant around it than move it or just coincidence?

The Bloodroot are fading already, making way for other flowers to bloom.

pretty petals fall to the ground

Flowers like the Trillium that I kept eyeing, hoping to see some that were open.

And eventually I found a few that were!

The butterflies are arriving to check out the blooms.  One even held still long enough to get its picture taken.  It was my only companion, looking for flowers as hard as I was.

One flower it probably wasn't interested in was the Jack-in-the-Pulpit, but I'm always happy to see Jack again in the spring especially the purple ones.

The trail emerges from the woods at the parking lot for Sunburst and then continues a little further as it follows alongside the roadside on Prospect Avenue and then goes under the main highway before connecting to the Milwaukee River segment.  Not being OCD about completing every tenth of a mile of the trail I bypassed the asphalt and turned around to go back up the way I came.

The climb uphill was not bad at all compared to other segments I've recently been on and only took me 45 minutes with just a few short stops.

Campbellsport Drumlins in the distance? A mystery for another day.

Just half a mile from the trailhead parking lot was a dispersed camping site which I wish I saw more of along the trail.  One of the reasons I keep doing short bits is the lack of camping facilities near or along the trail.

Wayne came home from Alabama on Monday night and now we're looking forward to our trip to Two Harbors, Minnesota.  As much as I'm enjoying the Ice Age Trail it'll be nice to get out of Wisconsin with my hubby and see something new!

Do You Hear What I Hear?

When you're alone you hear more than when you have a companion along.  When I was at my campsite at Mauthe Lake I heard a nearby drunk couple arguing for awhile...and then I heard them making up quite noisily as well.  Usually what I hear is passing cars, singing campers or sometimes owls, woodpeckers or coyotes.

site 310 was small but farther away from other campers and their fires -
I only found two ticks on my tent when I took it down, but another on my pants!

If you're considering a stay at Mauthe Lake you'll likely hear the whine of mosquitoes in another few weeks.  Loops 1 and 2 are built right on top of marsh with Marsh Marigold and Skunk Cabbage growing between sites.  I'll limit my stays here to early spring and early fall, there are other things I'd rather hear than folks slapping mosquitoes while I hide from them in my tent.  The shower building is fairly new there though and the water was so hot I had a hard time staying underneath it, that sure doesn't happen often.

While getting photographic evidence of the marshy campground I noticed some Toothwort growing there, too.  Hopefully I'll see more over the next week or two when I'm out.

tiny white toothwort hiding in the "cabbage patch"

While out this weekend I also heard the wind as it picked up again on Sunday.  It was sunny and in the 70's so I was grateful for the wind to help keep me cool as I hiked.  I left the forest and headed over to the edge of the nearby town of Kewaskum to hike the 2.1 mile Kewaskum segment.  The village of Kewaskum was named after a local Potawatomi chief.  Growth was spurred by the coming of the railroad in the late 1800's but it's also a farming community and this past week you could hear tractors in the region, mostly applying herbicide for the coming season.

John Deere inspired mailbox on Ridge Road in Kewaskum

Know what else I heard?  I was almost done with my hike when I heard a tree come crashing down not that far behind me.  If I had lingered anywhere in my hike just a minute of two longer it might have come down in front of me instead of behind me!  I'll tell you about what I saw on my hike tomorrow, but for now I'm wondering what you heard this weekend?

Slinde

Another mural in Stoughton.  Not sure what it means. There is a business in town by that name so perhaps a last name of the owner?  Help, anyone?

Taking part in Monday Mural.  More about my experiences on the Ice Age Trail tomorrow.

Teaching Myself to Walk

I've got PFS (patella-femoral syndrome) which occasionally leads to my left knee feeling inflamed and sometimes "locking up" due to the kneecap not gliding correctly.  The thing that aggravates it the most is sitting, such as lengthy drives or hours spent behind the desk at work.  The last few weeks my knee is acting up and before the end of a hike I end up with a stabbing/locked up feeling and have to start babying it.  Today it started towards the beginning of my hike so I decided it was time I taught myself another way to walk on those hills if I was going to be able to continue.

Grass can be pretty - 40mm lens + extension tube

I suspect I may walk incorrectly, being short with short legs has caused me to be in the habit of trying to lengthen my stride and walk more quickly to keep up (or pass!) everyone else.  Placing my leg too far in front may be causing it to be too straight, almost hyper-extended.  Not to mention the extra "toe-off" that results and then aggravates my sesamoiditis. (I'm a hot mess, throw in my high arches and it's a wonder I hike at all!)

So today I focused on shortening my stride, taking it a little slower.  When Wayne and I recently hiked at Lapham Peak he kept stopping because I was falling behind and now I'm trying to go even slower!  Today's hike started at County SS, just over the Sheboygan County line on the Parnell segment.

The first mile was mostly easy, but on those hills I kept my steps short and close together, focusing on straight posture and pushing off with my hips and thighs instead of leaning in to the hill and "digging in".

patches of violets just past Division Road

 At the first road crossing (Division Road) things start to get more strenuous.  This is true glacier country!

Kellings Lake from the top of the esker, just past Division Road

Hey, look what I found!  According to the WI DNR the portion of the segment I walked today was about 3.5 miles.  On my way back I tried to figure it out by timing my walk, but I was estimating 4 miles.  Guess I think my pace is faster than it really is, even accounting for the slower pace I was tying to set.  It took me an hour and a half, but those steep spots can really slow you down.

40mm lens with two extension tubes combined together, hand held

Kellings Lakes was my favorite spot on the trail today by far.  Even though those steep spots were a challenge the views were pretty special.

That esker was packed with Spring Beauty, Hepatica and Bellwort too.

I saw a large group of hikers heading out from Shelter #3 and going all the way to Greenbush with a dog wearing a pack in the lead.  It sounded impressive until I looked up the distance. It's probably in the range of 10 miles depending on where they are stopping and they were loaded up with gear to stay overnight by the looks of it.  What do you do with the rest of your day when you're in this kind of landscape after walking only 5 miles?  Maybe the dog was carrying beer in its pack.

I was on the trail a total of 4 hours myself with all the photography stops and since I got an early start at 7:30 I had the whole afternoon to fill.  I went to MOWA in West Bend since I already had that overpriced membership and they had a photography exhibit I wanted to see.  "There's a Place" was supposed to be about Wisconsin...but except for the pictures of the teenagers with their cows it seemed to me to be more about the artists dressed up weird and posing in rural locations.  I guess I just didn't get it.

The State Forest map is much more helpful than the IAT Guidebook one.
Your eyes aren't deceiving you, I got so sweaty I changed shirts on the trail.

When I approached Kellings Lake the first time I startled a few ducks in a side pond so I was ready for them on my return trip.  I had the zoom lens ready, the camera on and high continuous shooting mode set.

Good thing I wasn't shooting bullets because I think my aim was pretty good today.

Steep!

After my five minute stop at the MOWA I had nothing else to do but go shopping at Boston Store and then head over to Starbucks to steal some wifi.  Girls in long, poofy taffeta prom dresses kept coming in, can you believe it?  Remember when we were young and we went to fancy restaurants before a dance?  I guess nowadays an iced mocha is all you need to make the day special!

The Esker Workout

After working about 35 hours in four days I couldn't wait to hit the road this morning and head north to Mauthe Lake Recreation Area to camp and do some hiking on the Ice Age Trail.  I was here late fall last year, and it was nice to experience it on a warm spring day instead of a frosty fall one!

Mauthe Lake is one place you'll have no trouble finding the IAT, the trailhead can be accessed from the parking area by the little ranger check-in station.  When I arrived around 1:00 a handful of folks were arriving and filling out their self-register forms like I was.  After picking out a site and setting my tent up quickly I drove back over to the lot and got on the trail.

Last time I was here I headed towards New Fane on the Milwaukee River segment, so this time I went the other way and started the 13.9 mile Parnell segment.  Immediately the trail climbs up a huge esker, but as I made my way down the other side I finally spotted Spring Beauty.  I was afraid I was going to miss the tiny striped bloom since it's an early bloomer and May has arrived.

The Hepatica is going strong too.  Hope you're not sick of pictures of it because it's purple color was too fun for me to resist shooting again!

It wasn't long before I was crossing County Hwy GG, waiting my turn as the tractor went slowly by.

The hills were more gentle on the other side, and pine trees made their appearance in clusters as I hiked past Crooked Lake.

A horse trail intersected with the IAT for a short while, hoof prints sunk deep in the marshy ground.  I scared up a couple of ducks when I crossed a stream, and couldn't resist the Marsh Marigold even though it meant kneeling in the brush.  I checked often for ticks and am happy to report that somehow I escaped unscathed today!

My 40mm lens for the camera arrived yesterday so a lot of the shots I took today were with that lens to give it a test run.  I liked it a lot and will probably keep it, it worked well for trail shots/landscapes, and functioned as a macro lens well too when I added an extension tube.  All the close up flower shots were done that way and all were hand held, no tripod needed.

tripod needed for this uphill shot, the squirrels didn't want to help me out they just chattered and ran

Every now and then a cluster of Bloodroot would show up, and even though I've seen lots of it over the past few weeks I still enjoy not only the flower but the shape and texture of its leaf as well.

group shot, everybody say cheese!

time for your close-up

I'm so tired from the hills and the pollen that I'm having trouble coming up with anything to say for this post.  Don't you hate that?  We all want to be interesting, but sometimes it's just too much work, right?

When I reached my end point at County Hwy SS and turned around I almost tripped over a patch of emerging Trillium.  I suppose there's no way they'll be blooming before I leave on Sunday.  Only one was sending up a flower.

As has become my custom I timed my return trip and tried to set an even pace so I could gauge how many miles I hiked and I guess the portion of the Parnell segment I did at a little less than four miles one way which means I only have 10 more to go so maybe I'll do the whole thing this weekend.  All these extra work hours has meant more calories and less exercise so I'm eager to put some hard miles in and shed another couple of winter pounds.  I'm sure Wayne and his buddies aren't thinking about pounds and calories at Talladega today, beer and burgers are most likely on their menu!

eskers burn calories