Day 78: Connecting Route, Waupaca River Segment (Part 3), Waupaca County
Day 78: Sunday, July 4th, 2021
Total Miles covered for the day: 11.4
Location 1: The rest of the connecting route between the New Hope-Iola Ski Hill segment and the Skunk and Foster Lakes Segment, from the the intersection of State Hwy 161 and Trout Creek Road to the north to the trailhead for Skunk and Foster Lakes on N. Foley Road to the south.
9.4 miles of trail covered.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Men are wimps.
Yesterday, Theresa took a spill on her bike and hit the ground hard, bouncing once before coming to a grinding stop. Her flesh was torn. She left vital fluids behind. She was still finding grains of sand that hadn't been washed out of the wound the first time.
Today was going to be another insane day, temperature near or above 90 degrees and humid. Almost no cloud cover. And, of course, she wanted to go biking.
Perhaps I'm overstating that. I don't think she wanted to go biking. I think she wanted to complete another map or two. Which she figured out she could do if we went back down to Waupaca County and knocked off some more connecting route, picking up where we left off the day before.
I don't think I would have been so eager to test the knitting wounds and aching joints. She's an Ice Age Trail Warrior. There aught to be a medal.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Today we decided we would only take one vehicle, with the two bikes. There are many ways to do this, but we used the 'trailing vehicle' method, where one rider would go down the road with the other person trailing behind. When the rider needs a break from the heat and the road, they become the driver and the other person takes a turn on the bicycle. Eventually, both riders get to cover the whole distance, you just have to go both ways.
In this fashion we started out at the intersection of Trout Creek Road and State Hwy 161, with Theresa heading east, and then south on Rosholt road. The first hill was a walker for her, so she was off the bike as we crept up the hill and came upon a scene straight out of Michael Perry's book, Population 485. Two squad cars were slowing traffic on the road, keeping watch and protecting drivers from a young steer that had gotten through the fence and was standing in the ditch.
Now - we never got close enough to learn if this was indeed a young steer, or if it was a young bull. In case you're curious, there are two very important differences between bulls and steers, and they hang (or not) somewhere in the nether region. When a steer get old, it is called an ox, or 'oxen' if you're talking about the plural. A bullock is a term that means either a young bull, or a steer, depending on what part of the world you live in. 'Bollocks' is a semi-vulgar British term used to express annoyance, and Sandra Bullock is a popular American actress and Producer. But I digress.
We knew better than to walk past the steer, or bullock, or whatever it was, so we just waited it out until the farmer arrived to walk it home. You never know what you're going to encounter on the Ice Age Trail, but considering how much of Wisconsin is agriculture/farmland, your odds of encountering a stray bull somewhere along the way is probably at least 50/50.
Taking turns, Theresa ended up biking the route north to south, and I biked it south to north. The roadway was hilly, but nothing too Alpine, so we managed fairly well with not too much walking. Along the way we snapped a few photos.
Theresa took this great photo of one of Wisconsin's two native cacti, the Brittle Prickly Pear, in full bloom.
For those of you who didn't know Wisconsin had cacti, you're not alone. They are almost entirely restricted to the central part of the state known as 'Sand Country'.
Below are some Butterfly Milkweed, which are blazingly showy at this time of year, and you can spot them from a quarter mile away.
 |
| Butterfly Milkweed |
 |
| Wild Asparagus |
Along the roadside, Wisconsin is absolutely loaded with wild asparagus. It's the same thing you see in bunches in the store, and it grows wild along almost every country road. If you go out in early to mid-May, you can harvest it for yourself.
This showy purple guy below is a Nodding Plumeless Thistle.
 |
| Nodding Plumeless Thistle (Carduus nutans) |
 |
| Common Mullein |
And of course, Mullein is a common roadside flower that you recognize by the giant central stalk that grows several feet high and remains visible well into the second year.
By the time Theresa reached the trailhead for Skunk and Foster Lakes we were both a little fatigued from the heat. We had pulled into the farmer's access road directly across from the trail and were loading the bikes when a man pulled up and told us we couldn't park there. He tried really hard to be cranky and rude, but one look at Theresa's floppy straw hat and white pigtails and he couldn't help but soften up a little.
Word to the wise - don't park there.
Location 2: Roadway portion of the Waupaca River segment between Foley Road to the north and the trail intersection on Townline Road
2.0 miles of trail covered.
So having covered the last of the roadway on Map 46, we decided to bike the 2.0 miles we had waiting for us in the middle of the Waupaca River segment on Map 47. The Waupaca River segment is one of those that has some parts trail and some parts roadway. Either the trail access in the middle was lost at some point in the past, or it's part of some future grand plan, but whatever the reason, today was our day to complete the segment we first started back in May of 2015.
It's hard to decide if the road is in Waupaca County or Portage County. I guess it depends on which side of the road you're walking or biking on. I'm calling it Waupaca County because that's where the rest of it is.
Anyway, I dropped Theresa off at the south end, where she started riding south to north. I drove to the north end and rode south. We passed in the middle somewhere, and she came to pick me up when she was done with her leg.
Not much to say along here. It's a little hilly, but nothing that would rate a classification on the Tour de France. The only sighting worth mentioning is the prolific patch of poison ivy growing around the trail sign as the last bit of the segment leaves Townline Road and goes east and south to Hwy 54. There seemed to be no way to avoid it if one were trying to walk through there, so be aware if you're hiking through.
I'm not sure what time we ended our day. I do know that the temperature went as high as 92 today, a typical mark for the Fourth of July. We had finished our second map of the day, and it was time to go home. We were 0.8 miles of trail from reaching the halfway mark. Tomorrow would be the eight year anniversary of our first hike, and we would celebrate it by crossing that milestone.
Running Total: 564.0 miles of trail covered; 60.8 miles 'extra' hiking/biking. End of Day 78.
No comments:
Post a Comment