Day 97: Greenbush Segment (Part 1), Sheboygan County
Day 97: Saturday, September 18th, 2021
Total Miles covered for the day: 5.3 plus 0.3 miles extra hiking
Location: The southern 5.3 miles of the Greenbush Segment between State Road 67 and the Old Plank Road Trail near Hwy 23.
5.3 miles of trail covered
Last night we drove down to Sheboygan County in preparation to host the Inaugural SnOTT Walk.
A while back, Theresa authored a bunch of posts on Facebook and put them all over the Ice Age Trail group pages with the general theme of, 'I don't like hiking'. There was a point to the posts, and if you go back to look for them you'll be able to glean that for yourself.
So after gaining Facebook fame, and later conquering print and online media (yes, there were news stories) she became 'The Woman Who Hates Hiking'. Well - she wore that moniker for a while with grace, but it didn't feel quite right to her.
Then some while later, while discussing how slow she hikes (again on Facebook), someone told her that they were exactly the same, and used the expression "Snail on the Trail". Theresa grabbed ahold of that one instantly, and literally laughed right out loud. "Ha! We're the SnOTT sisters!" she wrote. "Snails On The Trail!"
Thus was born the legend of Snottie - the Snail on the Trail. (Editor's note: I am voting for Snottie's full name to be Montgomery Snott, but the voting isn't in yet from all precincts.)
I don't know if I've ever shared this sentiment in this particular blog, but Theresa does nothing in a small way. Once she determined she was the new 'Mrs. Snail on the Trail', she got right to work. Within 72 hours - this is not an exaggeration - she had contacted two different graphics art shops to design SnOTT logos and received camera-ready renderings (one of which is the photo above), contacted several different companies to get quotes on fully embroidered patches using the self-same artwork, and organized a two-day hike on the Greenbush Segment in Sheboygan County, complete with shuttle ride service. The only thing missing was a catered meal and a dancing hippo.
So, because the hike started at 9:00 am, we had to drive down here last night and camp out. We did van camping, which we're getting pretty good at. That gave us a quick start in the morning, and I had to be at the north end of our planned hike at 8:30 to shuttle other people to the start of the hike, and at another location at 8:45 am for the same purpose.
To make a very long story short - no one came.
There was lots of enthusiasm online. Lot's of people indicating how fun it would be to go on a SnOTT Walk with Mrs. I Don't Like Hiking herself. A few people saying they were definitely planning on going. One who offered to help us shuttle people around. But at 8:30 am in the designated shuttle spot, there was no one waiting. At 8:45, no one was at shuttle point 2. at 9:00 as we were pulling into the parking lot at the start of the hike we saw cars! But no - there was only empty cars belonging to horseback riders and people who were already on the trail, and not a part of our group at all.
We waited around for a bit, and a car finally pulled into the parking area. It was obvious very quickly they weren't there to walk with us. It was a group of about 6 people all planning to hike south on the Parnell Segment. We chatted with them a bit, but the waiting was over.
The inaugural Snail on the Trail hike had a total of two walkers: yours truly and the Mrs.
So we said goodbye to the hikers headed south, and we started north from the Hwy 67 parking area at 9:25 am, with the temperature a glorious 60 degrees. What a spectacular day for hiking.
The trail conditions for the first half-mile were basically wide, easy, and straight. Trees on the left - trees on the right - path in the middle.
Turning a corner to the west, we started getting into the kettles and kames zone, with out first obvious kame coming in about 15 minutes into the hike.
At least, I think it was a kame. It looked like a kame. I'm calling it a kame.
It was actually pretty interesting looking down into those deep kettles, since we weren't being forced to hike down to the bottom and back out again. There were dips and swales as we went, but nothing too onerous.
Along the way, I spotted this mushroom, which was a first for me. These are purple-gilled Laccaria mushrooms, and my research indicates they are an edible species.
 |
| Purple-Gilled Laccaria |
The footing was still pretty good through here, with very few obstacles. After walking up and over one small hill to bypass a rather deep kettle (I wholeheartedly approve of the route choice here), we came across the fabulous Shelter 5, exactly one mile from the start.
Shelter 5 is a place you can stay in, as long as you reserve it in advance. Reservations are made by phone, and this DNR Website tells more about it.
We decided to hang around a bit at Shelter 5 and check out the amenities, which included a fire pit and a vault toilet (which can be seen in the distance in the first photo). I decided while we were languishing I would set a fire for the pit, and I went about building a fire that, if properly lit in the tinder pile, would easily ignite with a single match. By now, I'm sure someone has had the opportunity to appreciate that small gesture.
About two tents of a mile further we encountered the water pump - a good old-fashioned hand pump that will provide water in all seasons.
These used to be a staple feature at all parks around the state, but one-by-one they were removed and replaced with 'running water'. Running water is great and all, but it requires electricity, and they have to be shut down six months out of the year. These old beauties? No electricity, and you can get clear, fresh water when it's 25 below. Sometimes older is definitely better.
Another thing I saw here that brought me some joy was shagbark hickory trees. I didn't know just how much I missed hickories until I saw one here and realized they don't grow in our part of the state, up in Wausau.
Then we passed the KMSF Parking Area, so yes, you can definitely get to the trail from here, and from there the footing changed from mild with widely scattered rocks to mostly rocky with occasional roots. We had to hike up a pretty good hill before then going over, around and through the kettle-pocked landscape and up to the Picnic Area, a mere four tenths of a mile further. To our surprise, here was another set of his and hers facilities. Add in the picnic tables, and this was another delightful stop.
We didn't linger long, though, because there was always the outside chance that people might be waiting for us at the scheduled lunch point, the Group campsite. So we kept moving, and from here the footing got decidedly worse, with golf ball and baseball-sized rounded rocks covering much of the trail, especially going up and down hills, leading to a 50% chance of slipping and falling.
When we got to the group campsite, it was 11:30, and it was 70 degrees. Again - this was a spectacular day for hiking, but alas, no one came to join us on our inaugural SnOTT Walk. Thinking back on the first 2.2 miles I realized that there were no blazes at all on the trees. None. And there were plenty of crisscrossing trails that could lead you astray. The only trail markings they had were 4x4 signposts and the (very) occasional carsonite sign. I can't imagine digging a hole in this rocky soil deep enough to plant a 4x4, so I can't imaging why they didn't use paint on the trees. Fortunately, we didn't get lost.
Anyone hiking this segment as their first experience on the IAT will be sorely disappointed when they learn that pit toilets aren't usually placed every mile or so along the trail.
One thing I haven't mentioned yet is how many people we were seeing on the trails. Starting at 6:00 am, this parking lot started filling with mountain bikers who were using the biking trails in the park. We also saw hikers, and runners. Over the lunch hour we met two women who were there training for a 24-hour race the next weekend, where teams would run perpetually over the same course for 24 hours straight (tag-team, I guess) and see how many laps they could make.
I'd rather walk.
Because we were alone and never had to give out any rides, our vehicles were not set up to do the second half of the hike. Consequently we needed to spend time shuttling a car to the end so we would have a vehicle waiting for us, and ended up not leaving for the afternoon hike until about 1:00 pm.
It was still pretty rocky through here, and we started encountering trees across the trail. The first couple I cleared with my camp saw, but the third one just turned into a photo opportunity.
Rocks and roots made it a 2.5 out of 5 for footing, and that's when the real kames and kettles started to appear. The trail threaded along through the deep tree-filled depressions atop an esker that made for relatively easy walking, unless there were hills involved. The ground was filled with so much glacial till that anywhere there was a climb or a descent, there was a lot of erosion and the footing was really poor. Seeing as this half of the day was a lot more downhill than up, that meant falling on out butts if our feet went out from under us.
This also meant that while there was relatively beautiful scenery to the left and to the right, neither Theresa nor I spent a lot of time looking at it, because we both had to be careful where we stepped. And once again, there were no blazes at all on the trees. Not a single one. Only occasional posts to guide the way, and lots of places to make wrong turns.
Much of the trail through here was very downhill, and often too steep. Lots of erosion, and loose, rolling rocks and gravel were the norm. The footing devolved to about a 4 to 5 out of 5 rating (5 is bad). Also, there were more small and large trees down across the trail than I could keep track of, perhaps 10 or 12. When there were branches in the way I removed them, but I left the logs in place.
After a climb up to County Road A, we got more of the same on the other side. The eskers were wonderful, and the kettles glorious. But the footing was treacherous, the blazes were few and far between, and there was not a single bench along this entire stretch. After getting three great areas along the first two miles or so, this was a real disappointment. There was nowhere to sit down, but for the logs that occasionally lay across the trail.
At long last, we reached Old Plank Road, or I should say we reached the sign at the top of the hill. The path straight down from this small cliff was so steep and terrible that someone did an unofficial 'Reroute' to take hikers down at a more sane pace. Unfortunately, it's not obvious from the top that the 'reroute' trail actually goes down the hill, so we, like most hikers, scrambled down that eroded embankment to reach the bike path below.
Once onto the bike path, we finally - finally - found a bench to sit on. We sat there just because we could, not even that we needed it. Then we walked the three tenths of a mile west to the car waiting for us at the parking area. We ended our day at 4:00 pm temperature 73 degrees. It was a perfect day for a group hike, and though it was a very small group, the two of us enjoyed it very much.
Running Total: 718.5 miles of trail covered; 89.1 miles 'extra' hiking/biking. End of Day 97.
No comments:
Post a Comment