Day 169: Whitewater Lake Segment (Part 2), Walworth County, Connecting Route, Rock County

Day 169: Saturday, May 7th, 2022

Total Miles covered for the day: 10.7

Location 1: The eastern third of the Whitewater Lake Segment from Esterly Road to the Eastern Trailhead  
1.8 miles of trail covered 

Seldom have we enjoyed more beautiful weather, or a nicer, more leisurely walk with more people (and dogs) than we did at the beginning of our day. 

For today's Snail Hike we met at the large parking area at the intersection of Hwy 12 and Sherwood Forest Road. We were there early, which was a good thing, because there were a LOT of cars parked there. Spring was officially in the air, buds were breaking on the trees, and our little snail hike wasn't the only thing drawing people to this parking lot this morning. There was some sort of equine event happening, which included a hippie van and the requisite new era equivalent driver complete with guitar, sitting in a lawn chair and helping to stop traffic for the horses as the need arose. 

It made sense. Highway 12 on a Saturday morning is one of the busiest and most dangerous road crossings that exist on this whole trail. It's hard enough for a pedestrian to cross that road with two lanes of traffic flying over that nearly blind hill. On a horse it would be even harder. 

Upon arrival we started handing out snail patches to those who were meeting us for the first time. 

This was the early crowd, but there were more to follow. 

One of many canine hikers today, and this one got his own patch. 

As much fun as it was handing out all those patches, by now it was 9:30 and time to start ferrying people around to their various starting points. Since Theresa and I had only 1.8 miles to walk, everyone opted to shuttle out and walk longer distances. With so many attendees today it was easy to have them group up and self-shuttle, and Theresa and I were responsible only for taking a couple of hikers to a different starting point than we were going to. 

Even so, we kept bumping into more people. While I dropped off one hiker at the west trailhead, these folks were here waiting for us. They were late to the party and had planned to walk the segment hoping to bump into us. When they texted their intentions we were able to coordinate this as a meeting spot. 

And by the time I got back to the other trailhead to meet up with Theresa again, we ran into these two hikers. They had already hiked the Whitewater Lake Segment, but they happened to be here hiking the trails north of here and heck, yes, they wanted a Snail Patch!

More doggos. 

The original intent had been to hike west to east, ending at the trailhead, but we decided it would be a lot more fun to hike in the opposite direction so we would bump into all those folks that were here at the start. We took yet one more short trip to drop off a target vehicle at Esterly Road and came back to Hwy 12 again, and so it wasn't until 10:42 that we ourselves were completely ready to start walking. 

We made it across Hwy 12 and started up the hill on the other side. This is a view back to the parking lot, which looked a lot emptier now that so many of the cars had taken off to other spots to start hiking. 

And into the woods we go, up yet another set of stairs that seemed to be simply everywhere on the Whitewater Lake Segment. 

"Come sit awhile", it said. Don't mind if we do. 

Today was a day for running into people on the trail. 

And for crossing paths with those we started the day with. 

Perhaps a week or two later in the season than expected, the hepatica are finally in full bloom. 

And I couldn't resist this shot. In the front was purple and white blooming hepatica, with wood anemone showing leaves right behind it and a may apple poking it's big, fat leaves out of the soil right behind them. 

Another doggo and its human. 

And more familiar faces. It really was better hiking this way, so we could see people one more time and spend a few minutes chatting as we met up with each of them. 

And more people showed up while we were talking. This was really a splendid day, taking the trail one short step at a time. 

Hello again!

Here was a new flower for the year. 

This group was funny. The first woman, having seen Theresa, said something about 'Snails', but Theresa had spent so much time talking that we weren't getting any actual hiking in, so she just sort of blew right past, assuming it was yet another group of people we had seen at the start of the day in the parking lot. 

But after talking with her a bit, we thought it might be a good idea for me to go trucking back and catch up with them to make sure. Turns out these three recognized Theresa from all the Facebook posts, but didn't know there was a planned hike today. It was a random snail sighting, and by rights they had all earned their snail patches. I'm glad she had me go back to find out.

With so much interaction with so many people, it was hard to even think about the trail itself, but I'll describe it now. Having once reached the top of the ridge at the east end of the Segment, the trail does its best to stay atop that ridge, with steep hills to the west and kettles to the east. Hikers must occasionally dip down and up again to cross the terrain, only occasionally taking what I consider to be unnecessary meanders to familiarize hikers with some glacial 'feature' or another. Truth be told, I don't need to hike down into any more kettles to appreciate the nature of a dent in the earth that was not formed by small-scale erosion. 

The woods was commonly dense, sometimes with an understory and sometimes almost park-like, and there were occasional sparse areas with smaller and much younger trees just now filling in what was once cleared by fire or mechanical means. 

And we never stopped bumping into people, both new and of the 'hello again' variety. 

I never knew Norwin Watson. Now I wish I had. 

The last of the trail that leads to Esterly Road is a long, level piece of ground entirely unlike the rest of the Segment. It is covered in thick pines and represents the area just south of the advancing glacial lobe's terminus where silt and other debris would have blown and been washed off the top of the retreating ice. There is a very nice, large parking area there that was just emptying itself of the last of the horse trailers when we arrived. 

This completed the Whitewater Lake Segment for us, and with it map 78 and the rest of Walworth County. It was 12:39 pm, the Snail hike was over, and we had the rest of the afternoon all to ourselves. Hmm.... what should we do?

Location 2: The connecting route between the Albany Segment and the Arbor Ridge Segment, from Wheeler Road to Burdick Road.  
8.9 miles of trail covered 

Between the Albany Segment and the Arbor Ridge Segment lies 34.1 miles of Connecting Route that almost inexplicably takes the hiker all the way north to the City of Evansville, a charming Wisconsin community of just under 6000 residents. Seeing that the shortest possible route between those two end points is a mere 18.7 miles, this means the suggested route is some 15.4 miles farther than it needs to be. 

One good explanation for this, or course, is that Hwy A, and then Townsend Road is just that - the shortest path between these two points, and thus gets a LOT of traffic. The road is narrow, with nothing but paint and a steep gravel slope to define a walking space. 

I agree that it makes sense to get hikers off that road. I also agree that no matter how I try to draw short lines between those two points on the map, it invariably travels along busy, narrow roads. Still - 15 extra miles? Since there is no requirement to travel each and every step of the suggested connecting route in order to qualify for Thousand-miler status we were going to take this as it came. If we felt like cutting it shorter we would. 

But here's the wrinkle. Those darned maps. Because the suggested route goes north all the way to Evansville then back south again to the same latitude, map 72 was a problem. If we were to walk straight through from one side to the other, dodging cars and taking 15 miles off our route, we would go straight from map 71 to map 73, with a no-mans land in-between. We would end up skipping map 72 entirely and walking off the page somewhere in a location we couldn't conveniently mark. 

This may seem like a nonsensical objection to the shorter route, but how, in good conscience, could we mark off that we had hiked across map 72 if we never actually set foot on map 72? There was a wrongness to that approach that was bothering both of us. 

Theresa, and I, spent many hours staring at this slice of Wisconsin, trying to figure out the shortest route that would get us onto, then off of Map 72. The big problem is Marsh Creek. It's a rather large portion of Rock County that is both a vital wetland and an impedance to both foot and car travel. And while it is possible to find alternatives to the suggested route that will carry one up to map 72 in a slightly shorter distance, particularly if one avoids going all the way north to Gibbs Lake Park, in the end we decided we would just hike the whole d**n thing. Probably. At least the route we were hiking today would make that assumption. 

And so, with only the two of us to worry about, we decided we would go back to crisscross hiking. We took one vehicle west until we found the Arbor Ridge Segment trailhead. I am writing this blogpost somewhat after the actual day we went there, so I can't remember why we took that little side-trip, but while we were there we ran into this gal who was on one of her first IAT hikes. We were able to give her some newbie advice and sent her on her way. 

We had already hiked Arbor Ridge, and the first mile or so west of there all the way to Burdick Road, so that's where Theresa dropped me off to start walking. It was 2:30 pm, and the temperature was perfect, in the low 50s. The sun was shining and the winds were light, without a cloud in the sky. Given the uninterrupted opportunity to hike off some road miles, we were hoping for a big number today. In the end we made it 8.9 miles, which was a pretty good achievement. 

The first goal. and it was an important one, was to get us the heck off of County Road A. West of Burdick Road County A actually picks up a little bit of a shoulder, but it is still a very, very busy and narrow road and vehicles coming through don't have much wiggle room to avoid hitting you. The best advice I can offer it to get out of their way. Step aside and live to hike another day. 

Some of the first trees to show obvious signs of leafing out are the weeping willows, who boast a Dr. Seuss golden crown this time of year. 

We successfully got ourselves off of County Road A without incident, and started working our way north on H. That one mile seemed longer than it really was, but eventually we turned the corner onto West Fenrick Road. 

This part of Wisconsin is as agricultural as it gets, and today was just another spring day hard at work for the farmers. 

Even the chickens were enjoying the spring weather. We passed one farm that had an entire flock out rooting around through the woods. 

I imagine they lose a bird or two to the local foxes who must know about and covet this food source. 

"He ran till he came to his nice warm den

And there were the little ones, eight, nine, ten
Sayin' Daddy, Daddy, better go back again
For it must be a mighty fine town-o, town-o, town-o
Daddy, Daddy, go back again for it must be a mighty fine town-o

The fox and his wife, without any strife
Cut up the goose with a fork and a knife
They never had such a supper in their life
And the little ones chewed on the bones-o, bones-o, bones-o
They never had such a supper in their life
And the little ones chewed on the bones"

There was  one spot along the road where someone had built a very nice covered bridge to get across the ditch. It was adorned with duck decoys and the horns of a couple great beasts. I didn't quite understand the theme, and perhaps there isn't one. 

The way lies straight and flat.  

After a couple of miles on Fenrick Road we turned north on N. Roherty Road where we finally crossed Marsh Creek. This is what committed us to eventually going all the way to Evansville. In truth, standing here at this creek we were actually standing on map 72. We could have turned around, headed back south and found a shorter route, but that would have led right back down to County Road A, and we hated that road. So we just kept going north. 

There really isn't much to report about the rest of the walk. It was sunny. It was warm. It was flat. 

And as the sun crept lower in the sky we decided enough was enough. We had a long drive ahead of us to get back to the Hincapie Hillside Estates and we had another Snail hike scheduled in the morning. 

One more Segment completed, only three to go. Finished map 73 as a bonus. 

Running Total: 1134.1 miles of trail covered, 156.1 miles 'extra' hiking/biking. End of Day 169.
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