Day 75: Hartman Creek Segment (Part 2), Portage County
Day 75: Monday, June 21st, 2021
Total Miles covered for the day: 2.3
Location: The Hartman Creek Segment in Portage County between Windfeldt Road to the north and Emmons Creek Road to the south.
Two years ago we hiked the northern half of the Hartman Creek segment, along with the southern bit of the Waupaca River Segment that goes along a trail north of Hwy 54. That hike included our daughter, and we always wanted to come back and finish the segment with her. So today we decided to pack up daughter and dog and take a late afternoon hike after work, taking advantage of the late sunsets. This was the very first full day of summer, and sunset didn't occur until almost 9:00, with daylight extending much longer.
Parking on Emmons Creek Road was a little spotty, and we ended up pulling mostly off the side of the gravel road and into the weeds. There is a much better and larger parking area a little further east up the road, but we didn't notice it until we were driving away. We picked what we thought was probably the best way to get to Hartman Creek State Park. It was a coin toss, and by the end of the day we had tried both routes and concluded that there is no easy way to get to the Park entrance for Hartman Creek State Park. That's probably why it's not as busy as some of the other parks.
Once we got there, though, it was no problem driving into the park and parking right next to the trail to start our hike at 5:54 pm, temperature a perfect 64 degrees. You need a State Park Sticker to do this, though, otherwise you can park on Sixth Ave a few tenths of a mile outside the park.
The trail through Hartman Creek State Park is every bit as wonderful as I remember the northern half of the segment to be. It's a gorgeous single-track trail designed for hiking and well-used by frequent visitors, keeping the trail clear of debris and excess vegetation.
Also, there are plenty of blazes to get you through the park, with only one notable exception. There is one spot still within the bounds of the State Park where a mountain bike trail crosses the IAT, and there is nothing anywhere to indicate where you should go. The trail goes straight across like you think it should, but we had to go a long, long way before we spotted another yellow mark to reassure us that we had made the right choice.
The canopy is a dense mix of hardwoods, with the majority being an almost perfect blend of white and red oak. Many other species were accounted for, but very few of the fast-growing varieties like poplar or birch were present. This was a very mature forest, and it was being beautifully maintained.
All of the early spring wildflowers had quit blooming for the year, but now the summer blooms were starting to strut their stuff.
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| Young Black-eyed Susan |
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| Virginia Spiderwort |
The trail remained idyllic, but did degrade a little bit after crossing into the Emmons Creek State Natural Area. Here, the area had a different 'feel' to it.
For one thing, the trail visibly shifted from dirt to sand. This happens a lot in the middle of the state, anywhere near the transition into "Sand Country". In the green part of the state below, and a dotted mosaic of locations nearby, sand is the dominant topmost soil layer, and the vegetation that grows there is significantly different than where organic topsoil is dominant. Sometimes that transition occurs literally under your feet as you're walking, and you will see a noticeable change in the tree cover as you move into those areas. This is what we saw here, giving the whole area a far more open feel.
As to trail conditions, this area also had a different feel to it, like the difference between two different authors writing parts of the same chapter in a book. There weren't too many hills, but where they existed the trail went needlessly straight up or down, sometimes creating erosion. In fact, one spot had eroded so badly that they had trundled in a whole bunch of round stones and built what was supposed to be stair steps. Sadly, this effort did little to prevent erosion and actually made the descent more treacherous as the small, rounded stones created something that would roll away under your feet when you stepped on them. As evidenced by the new trail that is developing on the side of the stairs, most hikers try to avoid them altogether.
"A" for effort, but the trail-builders would have been better served just rerouting the trail a little bit and putting in a switchback. Honestly, that probably would have been a lot less work.
The creek beds were all dry, despite having a lot of rain recently. There was a log walk put in at one point where it must get soupy once in a while, but you can see the trail typically just goes around that, too.
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| White Wild Indigo/White False Indigo |
After we crossed a fairly open area, we came across a kiosk telling a little but about the region we were hiking through, and informing us that state naturalists consider it to be an Oak Savanna, one of a dwindling number in the state, providing harbor and habitat for many species that survive nowhere else, including a number of wildflowers and a rare butterfly.
Even though the sign depicted Lupine, the blue flowers that were blooming close-by were actually Spiderwort.
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| Virginia Spiderwort |
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| The Oak Savanna |
We reached the end of our hike at 7:08 pm, with loads of sunlight left in the day, temperature still 64 degrees.
We saw very little poison ivy, really only at the parking area in the park, and we didn't pick up any ticks along the open manicured trail, thought the dog found a few off in the weeds.
We ended our day by driving the other way around to the state park and then down to the picnic area by Allen Lake. This really is a beautiful State Park, and the camping there looks fabulous. We had the picnic area by the lake to ourselves, except for some very lively birds I was never able to identify, and a pair of cedar waxwings that came to visit for a while.
It was a good day. Compared to the boot-sucking muck we've been walking through all spring west of Taylor County, getting into sand country is heavenly.
Running Total: 539.1 miles of trail covered; 60.8 miles 'extra' hiking/biking. End of Day 75.
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