Day 148: Monches Segment, Waukesha County

Connecting Route (x2), Washington County

Day 148: Sunday, March 20th, 2022

Total Miles covered for the day: 10.7

Location 1: The Monches Segment

3.1 miles of trail covered plus 0.1 miles extra hiking

We had one small piece of trail that prevented us from checking off map 83, and that was the Monches Segment. Theresa organized another Snail Hike today, starting at 9:30 am. In the chat leading up to today we got lots of comments like, "Oh, that's one of my favorites!" and "I loved that trail!"

So it was with somewhat raised expectations that we approached our day. While this didn't quite make our top ten list of favorites, I can see what it was that people liked about it. Hills, trees, water (there has to be water for anyone to call a segment a 'favorite'), nice tread, not too terribly steep, good blazes, good parking on both ends - all of these added up to a pleasant segment. The fact that today was the first official day of Spring and actually felt a little like Spring might be on its way made it all the more enjoyable. 

Once again, we played our game of Catch the Snail. Theresa drove her car up to the huge parking lot situated just north of the Waukesha/Washington county line on County Road K and started her hike a few minutes early while I hung out at the official meeting place, the reasonably large parking area just west of the point where the Monches Segment meets the Merton Segment. 

By 9:30 am the crowds were gathered at the south trailhead parking area and I was surprised to see how many people were there. Apparently, the hint of Spring in the air on a sunny Sunday was enough to bring out the hiker in people. 

I took a photo while we were at the south parking area.  

Left to right - Paul Schwab, Mary Schwab, Mary Siekmann, Doug Richter, Heidi Schelke, Austin Kosobucki, Courtney Pickar, and Rich Hilliger. Eight hikers, and only three of them were new snails. 

I'm not sure why I passed out he Snail patches at the beginning today. I got carried away. 

Then we drove up to the starting point of the hike, the same parking area Theresa had gone to earlier. It was a little unusual for me to catch a ride with someone else at the start of the hike. When we pulled into the lot, I met two additional hikers who wee just catching up with us, Greg Moreau and Lucy Bunker. They were a really nice couple and I enjoyed chatting with them for whatever time we had together. 

Arrange this, organize that - and off we go. The Monches Segment doesn't actually start until you cross County Road K, and also County Road Q. That's where the county line is, and that's where they put the Monches trailhead sign. For forms's sake, I took another group photo. It was 9:53 am, and it was already 38 degrees out, though it felt much warmer in the sun.  

This was a high energy group, and they made their way enthusiastically along on the initial hike that took them into the hills of Waukesha County. The going was steady but not too steep, sunny and just a little bit slick with mud. 

At the top of the hill, just before starting a long downhill stretch leading to the river, there was a commemorative rock. It also marked the posted coordinates for the Cold Cache in the segment, talking about the unusual combination of hummocky, terraced and outwash terrain.  

As I walked along the trail, gathering information for the geocache, I noticed ice in some of the footsteps on the trail, still there despite the warm, sunny day.  

And as always, I kept my eye out for pretty fungal blooms.

The group caught the snail at 10:25 am. On days when she gets a head start, Theresa always meanders slowly, taking her time on hills and taking long, restful breaks on benches. This is her preferred method of hiking, and I honestly wish we could spend more days like that. 

Despite her pace, or lack of it, she still manages to cover 6 to 10 miles a day, and sometimes more. What she lacks in speed she makes up for in determination. In my opinion she has earned every one of those breaks she takes, and more. 

We also encountered two additional hikers while we were all having our little group chat. Meet. Lisa and Gary Myatt. Life is good. 

The way down from the hilltop, where we saw the commemorative rock, is a long, gradual hike down to the river over the hummocks and terraces. Once we got within sight of the river, that's when the cameras started coming out. 

I don't know why people like taking pictures of water so much, or why so many people think pictures with water in them are beautiful pictures. Perhaps it's that lizard-brained connection we have with water, connecting at the deepest level with what we innately understand is the very source of life. 

Give me a bench by a creek and a warm Spring day, and I will stop time itself just to watch the water ripple across a set of stones, or swirl next to a branch. Water is magical. 

The last two hikers to stay with us were Greg Moreau and Lucy Bunker. 

A mile and a half into the hike, there was a nice bridge that spanned the river, hobbled and cobbled together to form a patchwork crossing. I get the impression that the center span had been put there many years ago, and that persistent high water made the rest necessary over time. 

On the far end of the bridge, we saw a group of hikers coming towards us. We discovered that they were actively looking for us. 

More Snails!

I get way too creative with my pictures sometimes. This one below makes me queasy just looking at it, and it was the least 'artsy' of the lot. 

Meet Mike Bonness, Jason Affeldt, Cindy Bonness, Larissa Affeldt, Theresa, and of course, Sable (the dog). 

The fun didn't end there. As we meandered along the river headed south, we ran into another woman doing an out-and-back hike, who absolutely needed a Snail patch. This is Maike Feldhusen.

There seemed to be no end to the pretty river views. 

And, way up high along the river, we spotted several bat boxes. It was too early to tell if they were occupied yet. 

And then I spotted this along the trail. It was a watermelon-sized rock that looked like someone's failed art project. Upon closer inspection, though, I could see that it was just a conglomerate rock globule, cemented together with sandstone. Little by little the sand was eroding away, eventually exposing and dropping rocks behind. 

This was an absolutely awesome example of the type of rock that forms in hummocky terrain. You can tell this wasn't part of the outwash, because the particles aren't sorted into size strata. Instead, this was the supraglacial meltout debris from the top of the glacier that fell in place and spent 10,000 years hardening into rock. 

I don't know who fished this out from where, but I'm glad they left it there on the side of the trail for people to discover. 

When we reached the end of the segment, even our last two hikers had left us behind. It was 12:01 PM, and we had finished our scheduled hike for the day. Now the only question was, what would we do with the afternoon?

That question was stalled just a bit when we got to the parking lot and saw this family just getting geared up for a hike. They didn't know much about the Ice Age Trail, but they were an eager bunch, and they thought that getting patches on their Sunday hike was just the coolest thing ever. 

The Krohn Family and Dakota

We have seen many such people who were not truly avid hikers of the IAT suddenly appear on the Thousand Miler Wannabes or the IAT Facebook pages as new members. You never know where the next group of people will come from who truly love the trail and help to keep it alive. Maybe the little one in the backpack will lead a Chapter someday. 

It could happen. 

Location 2: The Connecting Route between the Cedar Lakes Segment and the West Bend Segment

5.4 miles of trail covered

So now we sat in the car with the afternoon in front of us. It was a driving home day, but it was also pretty early. A few miles to the north, on either end of the West Bend Segment, was two relatively short connecting routes that were the only unhiked miles between the Eagle Segment and the City of Glenbeulah. Put differently, it meant 7.6 miles separating maps 80 through 89. 

7.6 miles was a lot to ask after hiking more than three miles on trail, but the rest was all on roads. Could we do it? We weren't sure. The only way to know was to start walking and see how far we could get. 

We dropped a car at the north trailhead parking area of the Cedar Lakes Segment and made our way around the corner to Sleeping Dragon Road.  

I went up to get a close pic of this sign while Theresa took off walking ahead of me. It was 1:15 pm, and we were off to the races. The temperature had actually warmed up even more, and Theresa was hiking in a single long-sleeved shirt. I still had on a layer or two. 

I kept seeing carrots as I walked along, clearly having fallen off of some food truck. I didn't know where they came from but I didn't pick any up even though I had the urge to do so. I really wish I had gathered a couple. 

Just around the corner to the south, we came up to these guys, who would have dearly loved them. 

As it was, they wouldn't give me the time of day. Theresa just kept walking while I took pictures. 

When we got to the car, we started looking for another place to take the next leapfrog hop. This was not as easy as you might imagine, because we wanted to go at least as far as County Road NN, and once we started looking for a reasonable place to pull over, we found that there was literally nothing north of Scenic Drive at all until we reached the parking lot for the West Bend Segment. That was too far for one leg, so we went back down to NN and parked along the road in the best spot we could find. 

The miles didn't exactly go by quickly, but they did go by. We jumped in the car at Sleeping Dragon and had to drive all the way up to the West Bend parking area and just take the long walk all the way back to NN for our final leg.

Is it a scenic walk? Well - maybe. There are some pretty impressive hills, and we walked past some nice homes. On the south end there was a nice view of the Lake. Was it a safe walk? No, no it wasn't. There was basically no shoulder. Cars would come whipping around corners and have to come to a sudden stop because we were there on the road with nowhere to go and a car in the opposite lane kept people from swerving to avoid us. It was not fun at all, and we were more than a little relieved to make it all the way down to NN and the lake's edge, where the road was a little more open and easier to walk. 

This little cutie was along the edge of Little Cedar Lake. 

Yes, it's a fake frog. 

This connecting route was 5.4 miles long. We made exceptionally good time. It was only 4:00, and both of us were still standing. With only 2.2 miles left on the other CR, we knew we could finish it, but that would make driving home a risky exercise. Despite the risk, we pushed on. 

Location 3: The Connecting Route between the Kewaskum Segment and the Southern Kewaskum Segment

2.2 miles of trail covered

It was now up to 54 degrees. According to Theresa, that's t-shirt weather. 

There is only one logical way to hike the road between the Kewaskum Segment and the Southern Kewaskum Segment, and that's north to south. That's because the elevation drops from 1120 feet to about 940 feet, and almost all in one direction. There are a couple of little bumps along the way, but if you want to take advantage of gravity to keep up the momentum, north-to-south is your answer. 

We've been hearing and seeing cranes for a couple of weeks now. Here is a pair in the field that we passed along the way. 

And then we were done. by 5:43 pm we reached the Southern Kewaskum trailhead sign and put this "high-mileage" first day of spring in the books. 

This last push on the two connecting routes allowed us to finish maps 83, 85 & 86 for the day. We also finished Washington County (bonus), and got this close to reaching the 1000-mile mark. That milestone will have to wait until next weekend when we hike the Verona Segment. 

Running Total: 994.1 miles of trail covered, 149.4 miles 'extra' hiking/biking. End of Day 148.

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