Day 49: Parrish Hills Segment (Part 2), Langlade County

Day 49: Sunday April 4th, 2021

Total Miles covered for the day: 3.1

Location: Middle third of the Parrish Hills Segment between a remote intersection with a logging road north of Five Cent Rd to the west, and the intersection with Nelson Firelane to the east.
3.1 miles of trail covered

It’s a lovely day in Parrish, warm breezes in the air

There’s wildflowers, honey bees and beauty everywhere

If today was made of food it would be peanut butter fudge

Today is now the day against which all days must be judged

There’s children riding bicycles and not a cloud in sight

If I can trust the weatherman, it’ll be a lovely night

I’ve been around a long, long time; I’ve never seen the like

It’s a lovely day in Parrish for a hike

It’s a lovely day in Parrish, the lawns are lush and green

This day was made for butterflies and triple-dip ice cream

The windows are all open and there’s birdsong in the trees

The buds all burst like popcorn; you can watch them sprouting leaves

There are perfect little flowers bursting forth from perfect sod

The preacher’s in his pulpit preachin’ ‘bout the Hand of God

You’d think we’ve seen the rapture by the way that people talk

It’s a lovely day in Parrish for a walk

It’s a lovely day in Parrish, a day to fall in love

It’s not Iowa nor heaven, but for me it’s close enough

I see old folks out on porches, and people holding hands

This day is worth a million bucks, plus an extra hundred grand

I can hear the whispered welcome coming from the Ice Age Trail

For peace and restoration, yellow blazes never fail

There’s nowhere else I’d rather be than on some grassy knoll

It’s a lovely day in Parrish for a stroll

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Today was a great day. 

I'll admit, it wasn't quite as perfect as the idyllic scene painted above, but it was a darn nice day. Plus, we had our daughter with us, and her intrepid dog, Joplin, so that made it seem perfect. 

When we picked up our daughter to go hiking she asked why we only had one car with us. "We left the other one in the woods", we told her, and we had. If you read our blog from yesterday, you know that we dropped one vehicle in the woods at N 45 24.765, W 89 22.395. We decided we would just leave that car there overnight and start our day at the spot on Five Cent Road where the trail heads south towards Nelson Firelane, at about N 45 24.512, W 89 21.151 and walk the 0.2 miles of road westward until the trail leaves the road heading north into the woods. The time was 11:43 am, and it was 55 degrees, with partly cloudy skies and light breezes. It was indeed a lovely day in Parrish for a hike.

This first leg of the trail presented us with about 1.4 miles of hiking to the car, which was mostly level, easy hiking except for one notable climb up and over a logging road at N 45 24.901, W 89 21.734, where the trail led down into another large, open field that had a firepit in the middle. It's a giant kettle pock mark surrounded by hills, and it's kept open by fire, mowing, or some other artificial means. Cool feature if you know what you're looking at.

My recollection is that it would be another outstanding place to set up a tent, and I'm sure many people have. Funny thing is, I remember the trail cutting to the north here, but Google Maps shows it marching straight across the field. Close enough for Google, I guess. They get it right most of the time. 

The rest of this piece of trail was easy walking, and I have no memory of roots, rocks, mud, or anything else to diminish our joy, so I give it a thumbs up on the B&T hike-o-meter. When we met up with the troad (ignore Google Maps on this one - they don't have a clue where the trail is through here) we walked along that for a while, then stayed on it for the last 0.1 miles up to the waiting van where we ate our lunch. It was 1:30 pm, and 60 degrees. 

We were feeling so good we didn't take much of a break, then we drove down to the spot on Nelson Firelane where the trail crosses at N 45 23.831, W 89 20.527. The Firelane in this area is quite drivable, though there is an alarming drop and climb that would be absolutely impassable if the roads were muddy. However, because of the wide-open clear-cut the sun had baked the roadbed good and dry, and we had no trouble reaching our launching point.

We started on this next 1.5 mile piece at 2:09 pm and headed west. Looking at the IAT Resource Map, this little section appears to delight in taking hikers up and down the hills, for no particular reason. However, having walked it I can say there were few times I felt we needlessly hiked up just to hike down. The route mostly made sense.  

I remember clearly walking past the south end of the small kettle lake, with hemlock trees and very little mud. Without too much effort it would be possible to find a place for a pup tent, and I suppose this too would be a nice place to camp, as long as the deer flies weren't out. From here it's a relatively easy 3-4 tenths of a mile further until you reach a mildly wet crossing, followed by a steep uphill climb to a troad. 

The remaining 0.8 miles of trail ran along this road, winding generally north and providing for easy hiking through the hills. We reached the car in no time, arriving at 3:30 pm. The dog was starting to drag a little by this point, and we were happy to call it quits for the day. The temperature a warm, friendly 62 degrees. It was indeed a Lovely Day in Parrish for a Hike.

I would normally have ended the blog there, except our adventure wasn't quite over. After retrieving our launch vehicle, we now had two cars sitting on Nelson Firelane, out in the middle of the woods. There were three ways out of there. We could head South, continuing on the Firelane, until we reached Evergreen Drive, and eventually County Road T. This was only 2.1 miles of unknown road until we reached something we could be sure was drivable. Our second option was to go back north, then turn right on Five Cent Road, continuing all the way east to West Elcho Rd, a 4.2 mile journey across mostly unknown roads (an estimated 19 minute drive according to Google Maps). The third option was of course to go back the way we came, bumping our way along the 4.3 miles of Five Cent Road we had already covered, a known route, but known to be rugged. 

We decided our best option would be the short trip south, since Nelson Firelane had proven to be quite drivable so far. May I offer to any who reads this blog that there are three different types of 'roads' we're talking about here. One is properly referred to as a 'Road', that is, Five Cent Road. Another is also called a 'road', but anytime you see an unnamed white line on the map that says 'Logging Road' you know in advance you're taking your life in your hands trying to use it with a normal vehicle. Then there's the other option, the 'Firelane'. I have driven firelanes before, and typically they are no better than logging roads, having only the added benefit of being mostly straight, and usually a little better maintained. Usually. In this case, the townsfolk seem to have forgotten about our dear Mr. Nelson's legacy lane, because not too far south of where we started, the roadway became seriously unsuitable for a minivan and a Toyota Prius. Once again, we made it out with nothing broken (we think), but when we come back this way again, we will probably take the 4.3 miles of the devil we know, rather than Nelson Firelane, or the other half of Five Cent Road. 

And we'll NEVER come out here after it rains. Three weeks of dry weather, minimum , or forgettaboutit. There are other places to hike.

Running Total: 363.6 miles of trail covered; 36.8 miles ‘extra’ hiking/biking. End of Day 49.

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