Day 74: Connecting Route, Langlade County
Day 74: Sunday, June 20th, 2021
Total Miles covered for the day: 6.6
Location: The Connecting Route in Langlade County between State Hwy 45 to the northeast and the Plover River Segment to the southwest.
Today was Father's Day, and what else would a father want to do with his family but go for a bike ride on one of the connecting routes on the Ice Age Trail? 😀
Actually, we had no plans whatsoever to go hiking or biking today. My schedule at work had me up all night, and I didn't get to bed until after 7:00 am, so when I woke up at 10:00 and told Theresa I wanted to go up and bike the last 6.6 miles of the connecting route we started the day before it came as a bit of a surprise to both of us.
Of course, seeing as it was Father's Day we also needed to include our daughter Nicole and her wonder dog Joplin, too. They couldn't go biking with us, of course, but they could hang out on the Plover River Segment while Theresa and I biked the 6.6 miles, so we threw together some supplies, made some sandwiches for a picnic and left for the trail.
Today I didn't spend much time taking pictures. In fact, I only got two. One of the concerns we had was that there was substantial rain in the forecast and we were pushing our luck just doing the biking.
But - for your viewing pleasure - here are two pictures I took along the way.
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| Roadside Daisies |
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| Northern Maidenhair Ferns |
The road was paved the whole distance, not very hilly, and more downhill than uphill as we rode south to north. The biggest hill was probably the first one on County HH, and that was the busiest road on the route, too, except for Hwy 45 which we had to cross later.
Also - Elmhurst isn't a town. It's not even a ghost town. It's a label on the map that gives a place to name when someone asks where Bear Lake is. 'Bear Lake? That's over by Elmhurst.' That's how the conversation would go. Then - 'Elmhurst? Never heard of it..." And the conversation would devolve from there. Eventually, someone would say it's about 3 or 4 miles south of Antigo on Old 26. You can't miss it," and the cows within earshot would all roll their eyes.
Just as we were arriving at Hwy 45/47/52 (what happened to 26 anyway?) we were feeling the very first hints of the first few raindrops. Crossing Hwy 45 isn't any picnic, either, since there is a steady stream of traffic on that road in both directions, but we eventually did find a gap and walked across to the car, completing our day.
It was 2:35 pm, temperature still a very pleasant 70 degrees under cloudy and brooding skies. Between yesterday and today we had crossed off maps 37, 38, and 39, leaving us with 44.7 miles in our 'Langlade Gap'.
Running Total: 536.8 miles of trail covered; 60.8 miles 'extra' hiking/biking. End of Day 74.
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