Day 115: Sauk Point Segment, Sauk County, Cross Plains Segment (Part 2), Dane County

Day 115: Saturday, November 6th, 2021

Total Miles covered for the day: 4.7   

Location 1: The Sauk Point Segment

3.9 miles of trail covered

The October Mammoth Hike Challenge is over, thank goodness. We went a little crazy jumping all over the state, looking for places to hike. This month, we're going to try to take it a little easier (maybe). 

Last weekend we completed the astonishing year-long goal of completing all miles north and west of Devil's Lake State Park that were previously unhiked, all the way back to the St. Croix River. That left us staring at map 60 all week, and thinking that maybe we could knock off a few miles of the tough hiking in the hills before the snow fell. 

We still plan on about one mile of trail covered per hour. There have been times recently where we covered more, as much as 1.5 miles per hour, but on average we're pretty comfortable with 1.0. If gives us time to rest, eat, dawdle, and take lots of pictures. I get to do a little geocaching along the way, and we get to appreciate some of the beauty as we stroll by. 

Today was no different. We wanted to hike the Sauk Point Segment, and we figured it would take us about 4 hours. In reality it only took 3 hours and 45 minutes, probably because we walked the whole thing downhill. 

Our plans were simple. Get up. Drink Coffee. Drive to Devil's Lake and start hiking. Of course, it was a little more complicated than that, because the first thing we needed to do was figure out where we were going to spend the night. 

The forecast for this evening was absolutely beautiful, considering it was November. Taking advantage of that, we were planning on van-camping, so we needed to locate a spot that we could sleep overnight without being disturbed. Without giving too much away, we found a nearby parking lot on public hunting land, but it took us a good couple of hours scouting out less-than-ideal locations before we came upon this one and deemed it sleep-worthy. 

Having now determined where we would be sleeping, we drove to Parfrey's Glen to drop off our target vehicle. Holy hoards of humanity, Batman! There were a LOT of people who decided Parfrey's Glen was exactly where they wanted to be that morning, and it was only by sheer luck that we arrived just as another car was pulling out. 

Then we drove up to our starting point at the top of the hill on Solum Lane. There is a small IAT parking area there, and a quarter-mile blue spur trail that leads up the hill to the intersection with the trail. We started our hike at precisely 1:00, and it was a glorious 57 degrees. What an outstanding day for hiking in November. 

By the way - don't think you're going to be just walking past a gate and up the road on Solum Lane all the way to the trail. If there's still roadway there, I didn't see it. Instead, you'll be hiking almost due north on the spur trail, like we did.

After hiking the spur trail, we found a sign marking our location. We found ourselves at the top of the hill, in the middle of the segment, and looking downhill in both directions. Just where we wanted to be. 

Which way do we go?

There isn't much about about this hike to not like, especially if you choose to do it going downhill. At first, we simply wandered along the crest of the hill, not really gaining or losing much altitude. Then, just as we were passing what must have once been the end of that fictitious road leading to the top, we passed an old abandoned tin shed and a long-suffering radio tower of some kind. Apparently there was a pond up there, too, though I didn't see it as we passed. 

We had topped out at 1540 feet in elevation. It was then that we started the long descent. It was slow at first, as we dropped the first 40 feet to the end of a small knoll. Then the real plunge started. Without wasting too much effort on switchbacks, the trail fell steadily before us. It was nearly cleared of all deadfalls, and there weren't too many rocks, though I did have to cut away a large vine that had fallen across the trail and was blocking the way. And, as we dropped, the going got a little rockier and a little more hazardous. 

We passed a surprising number of hikers going the other way, all of them making a challenge of climbing the big hill. We passed at least 32 people and a half a dozen dogs as we descended. The largest group was18 people from the Get Off The Couch hiking group, and when we started chatting with the last few stragglers, one of them recognized us.

His name was Bruce Davis, and he had recently completed his own thousand-miler hike. He was out hiking with his wife Jen and a bunch of people in the GOTC group, and he told us how much they had hoped to run into us as they were on the trail but never did. Then here, when it was utterly unexpected, we crossed paths. 

Jen was lagging a little ways back, and was super-excited to hear that they found The Snails so they could get their patches. If she could have sewn it on her T-shirt that minute she would have done it. She managed to get it to hang there long enough for the photo. 

The four recipients, pictured below, are Tanya Rodrigues-Diaz, Bruce Davis, Jen Davis and Lee Augustine. 

There was a fifth patch given out, too. Just as Theresa was handing out patches to these four, a fifth person just happened to be walking through on his way down the hill, and Theresa handed him a patch because he was there. He grabbed it, looked at it, then kept walking. 

It took Theresa nearly 30 seconds to realize that this fifth person wasn't part of the group.

Down, down, down we went. 1400 feet. 1300 feet. 1200 feet in elevation. 

One thing absent from the route - benches. Fortunately, today was the day we were testing out our brand new trail chair, a small, sturdy beast from Drive Medical Equipment. We plopped it down on the trail, and Voila! Theresa had a comfortable place to sit and ease the pain in her weary feet. 

1100 feet. then we passed the random fifth guy who we gave a patch to coming back up the trail from below. The patch was tucked into the roll on his knit cap, right in the front. 

His name was Dave Groth, and once we told him about us and the meaning of the patches, he was a little more talkative and seemed to think it was pretty cool. He said he was more of a runner than a hiker, but he does some of both. We even swapped trail stories for a few minutes before we each went our own way. 

We hit a very short level spot at about 1000 feet in elevation, then it was down some more. 960 feet. We could see the end. 900 feet. Almost there. Finally, at 880 feet in elevation, we hit the bottom and strolled out to the parking lot. After a 660 foot drop, we touched the Parfrey's Glen sign, extending the river just a bit further. It was 2:50 pm. 

What's more, at some point as we walked down that long, long hill to Parfrey's Glen, we crossed the 800 mile mark on our Journey. 

As I think back on the east half of this trail, there was lots of downhill, and there were a bunch of rocks, but the west half of the segment would be much harder.

800 Miles!!

To cover the second half of the segment we did exactly the same thing. (Why mess with success?) We dropped a vehicle at the end, this time on State Road 113, then drove right back up to Solum Lane to do it all over again, but this time going west. 

We started this leg at 3:25 pm, and it was all the way up to 62 degrees. November 6th. Ridiculous. 

Which way this time?

The second part of the walk ran along the top of the ridge for quite a ways, and I picked up some geocaches as I went. 

Then the terrain got a little rockier, and then a lot rockier. Then it got really rocky and full of roots, and pretty steep, too. This was about a 3.5 to 4.0 on the rugged footing scale. The rocks weren't loose underfoot like they were on the Greenbush Segment in Kettle Moraine, but they were plentiful and uneven. 

Finally we reached the bottom of the hill right near a farm and a couple of fields. We paused there again for another break, and while we were there were were passed by three more groups of dog walkers. 

The last little bit is a very nice walk around the edge of a field, though the trail is actually in the woods. It's level, and the footing is good. 

There are a number of rocks along the trail with clear signs of glaciation, like this one showing ridges from water. 

Finally, the trail eased out onto the roadway, and we had to walk only a short distance on the road to the waiting car. 

We finished the segment at 4:47 pm.

Location 2: The tiny road portion of the Cross Plains Segment that I had covered previously in October. 

0.8 miles of trail covered

On a wild hair, Theresa got it in her mind that we should drive down to Cross Plains so she could walk off that silly eight tenths of a mile that I've been calling "half-covered". 

After several stops and a not inconsequential drive, we got there at 6:45 pm. I dropped Theresa off on the new parking area on Stagecoach, and she started walking the roadway east. 

In the meantime, I drove down to the corner and parked. I walked back a bit to meet her on the road, but I did it for love, not for the miles, so I can't count it as 'extra'. We finished up together a few minutes later. 

We drove back to Durwards Glen, where we had stashed the van while we made our trip to Cross Plains. Then we drove to our quiet little place we scoped out earlier to park overnight and van camp. We were in bed and sleeping by 9:00 pm, which was much later than usual. 

It was worth it to knock off that silly piece of roadway in Cross Plains. 

Running Total: 802.5 miles of trail covered, 139.3 miles 'extra' hiking/biking. End of Day 115.

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