Day 152: Clover Valley Segment, Rock and Walworth Counties

Day 152: Friday, April 1st, 2022

Total Miles covered for the day: 1.6

Location: The Clover Valley Segment

1.6 miles of trail covered

As I mentioned on yesterday's post, Theresa and I spent the night at the lake house of someone we met on the trail by the name of Jan Hincapie. Lodging, as I'm sure you know, is one of the big expenses for the Ice Age Trail, and this part of the trail is farther than any other point from our home. Having someone offer a house to stay at for free was something we couldn't have asked for, and certainly couldn't turn down when it was offered. 

What I did not mention, or barely alluded to, was that there was some bit of time between that hike and the time I actually wrote the post. Today is no different. In fact, every post from now until the end of the blog is going to have been written somewhere between two and eight weeks after the fact. The reason for this is simple. We've been hiking. A LOT. So much so that I haven't been able to sit back and spend the time it takes to put all my thoughts in order and drop in a blog post. Consequently, what I am able to record now may be missing some of the contemporaneous recollection from the day, and will rely heavily on the photographs and increasingly sparse notes I took along the way. 

I mention this largely because to be true to the adventure, it is important for me to record here for posterity that we became so engrossed in the doing of the thing that the blogging was put on the back burner. 

I will continue to write as though each post is fresh in the telling, feigning ignorance of future events. As much as possible I will try to relive the moments and the days exactly as they unfolded, and recall the same level of excitement - or monotony - we were experiencing at the time. From my own perspective I feel it's a story worth telling, and I hope anyone reading this finds some enjoyments out of it, too. 

Back to the hike. 

I mentioned yesterday that I was hiking the Milton and Janesville to Milton Segment in advance of Theresa, knowing that she would have that opportunity today. She did in fact head out today and by 2:30 pm had hiked off the city of Milton, and had made it to the bike path which was the Janesville to Milton piece. The skies were different for her today, being bright blue and sunny instead of the leaden gray from yesterday, but her experience was much the same. She absolutely LOVED the bike path. By 3:30 pm she had crossed Townline Road, and by 4:33 pm she reached the light pole marking the end of that Segment. 

Having just been sprung loose from work, I was able to arrive and pick her up shortly thereafter, and we drove both vehicles to the west end of the Clover Valley Segment. There is just enough room there to park alongside the road, so we did that and drove to the east end, to park in the large and relatively new parking area there on Island Road. By 5:28 pm we were ready to start.

The segment cuts a 1.6 mile track through the Clover Valley State Wildlife area. Were it not for the dredged channels that are cut through the marsh, the entire region would be an impassible morass. But because of the dredged channels directing water away from the marsh and north to Spring Brook, it is possible to walk into and through the marsh. 

We started out with a wide grassy mowed trail, headed south, and there was only a bit of water here and there. It was a pretty warm day, especially when compared to yesterday's cold. With temperatures hovering in the low 40s and not much wind, it felt like the perfect day for a hike. 

With little fanfare or difficulty we reached Spring Brook, which glittered in the sunshine and ran clean and pure through the marsh. 

Off in the not-too-far distance we could hear the trumpeting of a few Sandhill Cranes, that had been making noise since the time we arrived. From the sound of it there had to be at least a dozen, and they seemed to be standing right in the field we were headed towards. 

I think I have mentioned before how much I enjoy walking in the marsh, if only because it's such a rare pleasure to be able to quietly explore an environment so different than the ones I typically have access to. 

Shortly after picking up one of the geocaches along the way, right next to the creek, we finally saw the cranes. A group of about 15 got up and flew east and we stood and admired them as they flew. 

Then after a few more steps, another group of perhaps 25 cranes lifted into the air, followed by yet another group of at least 25 more. They are the distant black specs in the photo below. 

Zooming in for a better shot, yet more birds got up, then even more. 

Until I decided a video would be the only way to capture the moment. 

Theresa and I stood there in awe, watching as the largest group of cranes we had ever heard of, let along seen, lifted off and flew away, their warbled trumpet voices filling the late afternoon skies from horizon to horizon. We attempted to count, but gave up after it was clear we had exceeded 200 birds. 

Even after this largest flight, of which I only captured the end in the video, there were still more and yet more cranes that got up and flew away, in tens and twenties. In all, we conservatively estimate that no less than 400 and possibly 500 cranes were gathered in that marsh. I cannot begin to express how astonished, humbled and grateful we were to have experienced this once-in-a-lifetime event. We have both been crane-watchers all our lives, even taking part in the ICF annual Crane Count for many years, and we had never seen more that 30 or perhaps 35 birds in one flock, and typically not more than a dozen. That there was a place and time where we might experience a flock of many hundreds was beyond our imagining. 

And while we could have stood there all night in hopes that we could see more, we were in fact there to finish the Segment, so after offering our thanks to the universe we continued on our way. 

And while I did say it was possible to walk through the marsh because of the channels that had been dug, I didn't say it could be done without getting wet. 

It hadn't been a particularly snowy winter, nor an overly wet spring, but this marsh was holding a LOT of water in it, and we were forced at times to pick our way as best we could. The photo below shows Theresa walking next to not a stream, but rather the trail itself, which held 4-6 inches of standing water in many stretches. 

43 degrees may be just fine for hiking, but it doesn't make for good sloshing weather. Eventually we both just gave up trying to avoid the water and slopped our way along, knowing we had to try and dry out our shoes by morning. 

The cranes weren't done. 

I'm guessing this is a deer stand, though I have seen similar structures used for more scientific purposes. Nah - it's a deer stand. 

At long last we made our way up out of the wet swamp grass and into a slightly drier upland area, though there was still water on the trail between the trees. 

There is a Disbursed Camping Area on the segment that in my opinion is one of the best I have seen anywhere. It's flat, open, manicured, and has room for at least 20 pup tents. 

With only three tenths of a mile remaining, we came to the surprisingly well marked boundary between Walworth County and Rock County. 

And just like that we found ourselves taking the final few steps up to County Line Road and our waiting car. It was 6:38 pm and the temperature had dipped to just below 40 degrees. 

We are now at a point where we're counting down the number of segments we have left to hike, and it is dwindling rapidly. After today, there are only ten more Segments to go, and then all we have left to do is some connecting routes to bring us to the end of our mission. I can't say the end of our journey, though, because we have added a new mission. When we're done with all the trails and all the connecting routes, we will be going back to revisit all the places where we chose to bike a connecting route or bike trail. In order to earn our 1000-miler patches, these will need to be hiked. That's a bit daunting, since it's nearly 275 miles of roads and bike trails, but I have no doubt we'll finish.  

Running Total: 1016.2 miles of trail covered, 149.6 miles 'extra' hiking/biking. End of Day 152.

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