Day 146: Waterville Segment (Part 2), Connecting Route, Merton (Part 3), Waukesha County
Holy Hill Segment (Part 2), Washington County
Day 146: Friday, March 18th, 2022
Total Miles covered for the day: 9.0 plus 0.8 miles Extra hiking
Location 1: The Waterville Segment
3.4 miles of trail covered plus 0.8 miles extra hiking
Today was another scheduled Snail hike, and we were looking forward to revisiting the Waterville Segment. We had previously (and accidentally) hiked half a mile of the Waterville Segment when we were doing the Lapham Peak Segment, but today it worked out best just hiking it again. That meant that despite the fact we were walking the whole 3.9 miles of the Waterville Segment we could only claim 3.4 of it as 'trail covered'. But then everything we covered twice became 'extra', and it all counts for our feet.
We decided we'd play a new game today called 'Catch the Snail'. In other words, I dropped Theresa off at the trailhead about 10 minutes before the rest of the group was supposed to meet us, and I went to the meeting place to organize shuttles.
I met the group at the large parking area at the Waterville Field Station. Not, by the way, at the large, beautiful parking area in front of the Wildlife in Need Center, but rather further back up the driveway a bit. Apparently that's where they want large groups of cars to park. Basically, if you're not going to the Wildlife in Need Center, they want you to use the extra lot in back.
I laid out one rule for the hike. No one gets a patch until you Catch the Snail.
Which was not set up to be difficult.
So with a couple of vehicles in tow, we headed to the South end of the Waterville Segment, a 3.9 mile walk through late winter Wisconsin.
We gathered around the trail sign for the mandatory Group Shot and headed into the woods. It was 9:47 am, and it was a damp 37 degrees. It was cold, but there was no rain (yet).
Now that's what I call trail maintenance.
I took my time getting started, letting all the trail runners take the lead. In fact, if they had not eventually caught up to Theresa and slowed down long enough for a patch I might never have seen some of them again.
The hike started out past a giant oak tree, then down into a marshy area with a series of boardwalks. The person I was walking with, Kevin, is one of the volunteers who take care of this segment and he proudly talked about all the improvements they had made over the last year or so.
In addition to the boardwalks, for which I was quite grateful, the marsh offered a lot of birdsong. I didn't hear anything particularly exotic, but I was happy to hear birds singing. Perhaps spring wasn't that far away after all.
There were a couple of benches along the trail, which was nice. Eventually we crossed the creek we had been walking along.
As we were starting the only real climb for the segment, I heard voices and laughter ahead. Most of the group had caught the snail. It was a merry group, Theresa holding court on her bench (what a beautiful bench that was!) and all the people gathered around.
Here is:
Melanie in teal
Pam in purple
Ann in blue
Kevin in green
Cindy in gray
and Theresa, who was inexplicably holding up six trail patches.
Mary Siekmann was there as well, but she managed to stay out of the photo somehow. She was the one who had hiked with us before, on our Holy Hill hike.
There she is! She's the one in the middle with the green hat.
Making our way uphill, we picked up about 100 feet in elevation, and had to take a another very small hike uphill to climb up to the Dispersed Camping Area. It was actually a really great campsite as far as that goes, but like many of the DCAs there was a total ban on fires. Even so there was lots of room to pitch a tent, and a nice bench to sit on.
And through all of this there was the continuous annoyance of the birds. Not that we were annoyed - we loved hearing them. But some of the birds were clearly annoyed, giving out warning and guard calls as we passed.
Theresa and the group had pushed on ahead while I brought up the rear with Kevin. We walked into the woods a bit and around a corner before coming to the second DCA on the Segment. This time we had a short downhill hike to get to the DCA, and this site was even bigger, offering room for a large number of tents.
We started hiking through a greenspace between a number of homes, but they weren't very noticeable. Just before getting to the Tallgrass Court road crossing, we went through a red cedar/juniper section that was much more open than the other wooded parts we were walking through.
The portion of the trail actually ON Waterville Road is only 0.7 miles. We spent it picking up garbage with our new friend Ann.
The final leg, about 0.4 miles, was nothing like I remembered it. But then the last time I went through it was practically at a jog, and I was going the other way. Still, I was amazed at how unfamiliar it was. It was mostly level, and walked along the edge of a wooded section, the edge artificially created by an enormous amount of clearing to keep the field section open.
We then took the blue spur trail back up to the vehicles and made sure everyone who needed it got a ride. Mary had been waiting there for us, bless her heart, though she had finished long before. She also wanted to make sure people had a way to get to their cars.
Here, in the mud and gathering wet, we spotted an interesting track. Five toes, so not canine or feline. Too big for skunk. We determined it was probably a raccoon.
The Holy Hill Segment at the north has almost no hills at all. It runs in straight lines across or along fields, soldiering a path as efficiently as possible through the landscape.
But because of the wind, the rain and the cold, every hill felt just a little harder than it really was.
And then we hit the great boardwalk of Holy Hill. Someone asked us if we had hiked past the boardwalk on Holy Hill yet.
Across the boardwalk we started up a small hill where the trail had been moved out of the trees, effectively shifting it about 15 to 20 feet to the west of its previous position. Again, I'm not sure why they moved it, but it made this rather unusual-looking tree much harder to miss.
To be honest, I don't remember a whole lot about the rest of the hike.
This actually turned out to be a really pretty walk along the Bark River. I took this shot at about 6:30 pm. There wasn't as much light left in the sky as this photo might indicate.
At times it was wooded, but mostly it was fairly open.
A lot of hard work has been done over time to keep the dogwoods, willows and alder from taking over the trail.
And far off we heard cranes and geese, each making their presence known to the other, while we hiked up some nice, new switchbacks on a wide dirt tread.
Cresting the hill we came out into the open, where there was another commemorative bench next to this small tree, that offered a great view of the field.
But still no fires allowed. I don't know about you, but when I go camping I like to have a campfire. Camping just isn't the same without one, you know?
The crossing at Tallgrass Court was nice enough, but there is absolutely, positively no parking there.
The road crossing was followed by a nice, wooded section. In short order we came across the final boardwalk before getting to Waterville Road, and it's a beauty.
After that, the trail goes just off-road to the east, along the front edge of several properties.
Then we shot north for the last little push through the woods before reaching the sign marking the end of the Segment. The time was 11:54 am. It was up to 39 degrees, and the predicted wind was almost non-existent.
Kevin was done, but Ann decided to join Theresa and I for the connecting route between Waterville and the Scuppernong Segment to the south. Mary wasn't going to join us at first, but when we told her we would help get her shuttled and she could just race off to her car, she got a twinkle in her eye and decided she had time for just one more mile.
Location 2: The Connecting Route between the Scuppernong Segment and the Waterville Segment
1.1 miles of trail covered
I wasn't sure what to call this one, as far as distance goes. The Hiker's Resource Map says it's a total of 1.0 miles. The Trail Atlas shows a total of 1.1 miles. As near as I can tell, Google Maps indicates somewhere in the middle. But heck - with all the extra walking we did on this roadway I'm taking credit for the 1.1.
Ann, you see, is an enthusiastic trash picker. And since I am prone to picking up a little garbage myself I had no problem with it and we all ended up getting into the spirit of the thing, filling up plastic bag after plastic bag as we went.
Plastic bottles were the big offender, but there was no shortage of aluminum cans and bottles, as well as other human detritus, to make the walk more challenging. Eventually, after filling not less than six bags, I called it quits. Theresa and I made our way forward, leaving Ann to her pastime. We are accustomed to being slow, but we were really hoping to finish this up and get in just a little more hiking before the end of the day. This garbage clean-up bit was bringing snail to a whole new level.
We did eventually reach the end, at about 12:55 pm. Maybe it was only an hour's walk, but it definitely felt longer.
Location 3: The portion of the Holy Hill Segment from the north Trailhead to the intersection with Pleasant Hill Road
2.9 miles of trail covered
We were able to shuttle ourselves back to our car, and we said goodbye to our last hiker. With an entire afternoon left, we felt like we could make the run up to Holy Hill and finish off the last 2.9 miles up there.
We made a brief stop at the Lapham Peak parking area to use the facilities, and ran into Kevin from today's hike who was there hanging around, though just leaving. We chatted very briefly and headed north.
We dropped a car off at the parking spot on Pleasant Hill Road where we had ended just five days earlier, then drove up to start our hike at County Trunk E. It certainly would have been possible to cut the segment in half, parking and hiking from Waterford Road, but Theresa was feeling uncharacteristically trail-hardy.
"Let's just do it", she said.
She parked her red Prius in the parking area at the intersection of County Trunk E and Glassgo Road, and it seemed a little iffy. She parked up close to the road just in case.
We started hiking at 2:30 pm. The last time we were here it was 7 degrees and we were all alone. This time we were alone again, but it was a comparatively balmy 36 degrees.
Leaving the parking lot headed south, the trail crosses the road and climbs brutally and inexplicably straight up a rather steep hill, before dipping almost immediately back down the other side onto Glassgo Road. This is followed by a brief road walk, so there is literally no reason to force hikers to walk up that ridiculous hill.
The road walk lasts about a quarter mile before heading off into the fields. Moments after leaving the road, the rain started. There was a wet, cold, driving wind from the northwest carrying with it a sleety rain. Fortunately, we planned our hike north to south so it was tolerable for short distances. Funny how 2.9 miles seems more and more like a 'short distance'.
.
And there were even a few glacial features sprinkled about. We walked past one kettle that was so steep and so deep that the sun wasn't getting to the bottom, and there was still ice down there.
This was the last stretch of heavy woods before we crossed East Waterford Road. After that we broke into open field again.
"We're not sure", we said.
"Then you haven't", came the reply.
Indeed, once you reach the boardwalk it is quite a marvelous structure, with full side rails on both sides. I'm not completely sure why there needed to be such an elaborate construction here, but for the three or four hundred feet of passage we felt very, very safe.
This tree has a story, and I wish I knew what it was.
There was one spot where we saw a flock of turkeys. I also remember that we had a turkey vulture that seemed to be following us as we walked.
We were wet, cold, and trail-weary. Still - I think the buzzard was counting his snails before they, uh.. what do snails do? Hatch? I don't know. But we weren't buzzard bait just yet. UPDATE: Snails do hatch from eggs. Now you know.
We finished the Holy Hill Segment at 4:39 pm. It was 36 degrees, and it was still raining. This was not the most fun we had ever had, but we have long since reached the point where we take the trail as it comes to us. We also managed to finish map 84 in the process, so that was a bonus. Now - how far is it to Merton?
Before I get to the story of the Merton Segment, I have to describe what we had to go through retrieving our car at the north end of Holy Hill on County Road E. We were suspicious of the lot when we first saw it. Fields like this are notoriously slick in springtime, especially when it has been raining.
When Theresa got into the car to drive out of there, the tires just spun in place. She couldn't get back up the small grade to reach the road. There was longer grass just a little further down the hill. I thought maybe if she just backed onto the firm ground with the long grass, maybe she could just make a run for it.
This was not the solution.
There is an expression that exploits the concept of the 'slippery slope'. We were living that concept, and we weren't winning the battle.
I looked downhill. No good. The ditch was too severe and we couldn't get out that way. It was uphill or nothing.
So we tried taking it in small bites, zig-zagging our way up the hill forward and back, trying to gain a few inches each time. No way, no how. We didn't even finish the first zig, let along get a zag in there. It was time for a radical solution.
Faced with the likelihood of needing a tow truck to get us out of there, I took one more desperate shot. I turned the wheels downhill and started moving. The goal was to reach an untested piece of comparatively high ground with a lot of grass on it, then turn uphill with whatever speed I could muster and angle my way to the lowest part of the hill.
For a miracle - it worked.
I've been in a lot of bad places in vehicles over the years. I don't know that I have ever gotten myself out of a tougher spot than this one. I really didn't have much hope when I pointed the nose downhill and gunned it. Really - there was no real logic to it. I just figured I only had one chance to get some momentum going, and I lucked out. Maybe it was a different kind of Trail Angel helping us out. Either way, I was happy to be getting out of there on our own.
Location 4: The portion of the Merton Segment between the intersection of Dorn Road and Richter Road and the spot where the Bugline Trail meets Dorn Road
1.6 miles of trail covered
There is a certain craziness that comes into our decision making sometimes. I mean - we had already done a full segment Snail Hike, a short Connecting Route, and then driven up to finish off yet another segment. We had already walked 7.9 miles of trail. It was still drizzling and getting colder all the time. So why would we drive to yet another piece of trail and start hiking? Well - it was sort of on the way to the hotel, and...
And I don't know what. It was madness. I guess it's because we managed to shoo the turkey vulture away and we were feeling full of ourselves.
Anyway, we actually debated a bit and almost didn't do any more, but we spurred ourselves into it. We decided we'd do it as a crisscross hike to speed things up a bit.
Theresa dropped me off at the intersection of Richter and Dorn and I started hiking west along the road. She drove to the bend in the road and parked, and started walking back. Twenty minutes later and we had the first four tenths of a mile done.
I thought we would do the trail portion next, but we were starting to push darkness a little bit, and Theresa wisely wanted to get off Dorn Road before real dark happened. This made sense, so I dropped her off at the place on Dorn where the trail heads west on the Bugline, and I went and parked on Tamron Drive. We crossed in the middle and when she was done walking she came and picked me up.
This left us in position for both of us to walk together along the seven tenths of a mile through the woods between those two short road hikes.
Finally, we reached the parked car. It was 6:54 pm. We had only nine tenths of a mile left of the Merton Segment, but Theresa had reached a whole new level of 'done in'.
Cold weather hiking takes a lot out of you, and today we managed to walk 9.8 miles clearing 9 miles of trail off the map. Silly as it might seem to those of you who have walked the Merton Segment, we were going to have to come back a fourth time to complete the whole 5.4 miles of it.
In our defense, two of those hikes took place at night, with head lamps on, and today was done in near-freezing rain. Merton has been a chip-away segment from the beginning. No sense changing that now.
Running Total: 976.9 miles of trail covered, 148.8 miles 'extra' hiking/biking. End of Day 146.
No comments:
Post a Comment