Day 171: Connecting Route, Green and Rock Counties

Day 171: Monday, May 9th, 2022

Total Miles covered for the day: 14.9

Location 1: The rest of the connecting route between Albany and Arbor Ridge, from the east trailhead of the Albany Segment to the intersection of Hill Drive and County Road M. 
14.9 miles of trail covered 

Holy heat waves, Batman!

Last night we stayed in Whitewater again at the Hincapie Hilton, and today was my shipping out day. I needed to get back to Wausau to go back to work the next day, so I packed up all my stuff this morning and came down to Evansville to pick up again where I left off last night. 

This only made sense because Theresa was going to stay one more night in Whitewater and come back here over the next couple of days and finish off anything I might finish today that she won't get done. 

Since I can walk faster than Theresa, today was going to be all about me getting as many miles in as possible. Ideally, I wanted to finish the whole 14.9 miles I had left between Albany and the far side of Evansville, and eventually I did, though it took more out of me than I would have expected. 

Today we had an unofficial Snail Hike planned, because we had one person who wanted to walk with us along this connecting route. But - she wasn't going to be able to join us until 11:00. So what I did was pack up and leave as early as I could, driving to Evansville and parking my car, then starting west. Theresa would take a more leisurely start and meet me whenever she could, walk with me for a while, then we would go together to meet up with our companion. 

And that is how I found myself standing at the very same intersection I stopped at last night at approximately 8:00 in the morning. It was only 65 degrees so far. I don't know what happened to spring, but I guess we're just skipping right ahead to summer. We exceeded the forecasted high, according to my phone, as the temperatures eventually soared up to 86 today. 

The path through Evansville has almost enough blazes to keep you from getting lost. Honestly, I'm really glad I studied the maps ahead of time. It allowed me to proceed with confidence through the many turns and twists through town, and even the occasional bike path. 

The route through town is charming, and many things caught my eye. I'll let some of the pictures speak for themselves. 

Mmm.... Coffee....

Yes, in fact, I did stop at the Ceili Coffee and Wine Bar, and so should you if you're wandering through town in need of caffeine. 

I didn't love the walk along Hwy 14. It was ugly and spartan, and didn't even include a quick mart or anywhere to use a bathroom. 

Lake Leota Park was a nice spot for a visit, and I honestly wish I had more time to spend there. 

It was just as I was leaving the park and headed south towards Church Street that I heard from Theresa. She was well on her way and I gave her my current location. 

I really don't know what happened to spring. It feels like just last week we were hiking in snow. Yesterday the trees were bare! I know they were! I have pictures! And today - where the heck did those flowers come from?

And the leaves suddenly bursting from the trees?

 I love Victorian homes, but I sure wouldn't want to own one. 

Theresa met me at the square College Drive, just north of Brezezinski Park. There was a Sueussian Little Free Library we just had to take a peek into. 

And even though our objective for the day was miles, miles, miles, we just couldn't pass by without taking time to walk the labyrinth in search of our inner selves. 

The time was now about 9:20, and we walked together for a while, working our way through the west end of town and south on 5th street. It was time to stop and head west to meet up with our hiking companion for the rest of the day. 

We calculated we were about 20 minutes from our meeting place, so we gave it a few extra minutes just in case Flora's Butterfield Bakery was open. Alas - it was not. We've been to Albany a handful of times, but we have yet to be able to stop in and sample the wares. 

Right on schedule we made our way to the Albany Segment east trailhead to meet up with our fellow snail, Karen Melcher Ghinazzi. 

Naturally, we decided to hike for a while together, so we introduced Karen to leapfrogging, and took a couple of cars down the road to the county line and walked back from Hwy 104. 

It didn't take long for everyone to become a believer. The sun was here for real, and it was hot out there. 

By 11:13 am we had made our way back to the trailhead, and we touched the sign, such as it was. This also meant we had finished map 70, though I wasn't thinking about it at the time. 

And then it was time for Karen and I to make miles. For the rest of the day we leapfrogged our way towards Evansville, but instead of walking with Theresa, we let her keep her own pace behind us, tracking her progress with her new Far Out App. And it's not like we left her in the dust. Theresa was covering about three quarters of what we did with every hop, and she had the next two days to come back and finish. 

It was amazing just how uncomfortably hot we got fighting that southern wind. But with the wind came the flowers. 

This below isn't a real photo. It's from a jigsaw puzzle called 'Wisconsin Farmstead'. 

Or is it? You'll have to walk the roadway to find out. 😁

On North Croak Road (yes, that's really the name) we parked at Magnolia Bluff Park and headed south. It's a convenient stopping point because it has water, bathrooms and an actual parking lot, unlike the sparse roadside parking we've been making do with. South of this spot the traffic was still pretty light. 

For our next leapfrog we decided to just go for it. There wasn't really anywhere along Hwy 59 to park, and my stopping point wasn't that much further north, so for our last leg we went all the way there and hiked back to Magnolia Bluff Park, about 4 miles in all. 

Old Hwy 92 wasn't too bad, but walking on Hwy 59 was terrible. Definitely one of our top 10 busiest and most dangerous stretches of highway that we had encountered. Maybe it was the heat and punishing sunshine, or maybe it was the fact that I had been hiking more that 14 miles already and my feet had been blistered for the last 13.7 miles, but I couldn't wait to get off that highway. 

Karen and I reached the end by 3:30 pm, and she was kind enough to snap this photo for me. 

It was the end for me, at least, because I had already hiked the rest of the connecting route. Theresa didn't need to hike any farther because she, too, had hiked the part of the road that was ahead. But Karen still had another two miles to go, so after a short break and parting ways, Theresa played trail angel for Karen, escorting her the last two miles up to Lake Leota Park. 

For me, it meant traveling north and going back home, ready to go to work the next day. Tomorrow, Theresa will be meeting up with her own trail angel, Delores Olver, who will be helping Theresa hike off all those silly little gaps on her Far Out maps. (As of this writing that has already taken place.) So between the two days, Theresa and I managed to hike off the rest of Rock County (another patch earned!) and complete the entire dreaded connecting route between Albany and Janesville, and finish maps 70, 71, and (drumroll please) even map 72. 

I'll take that any day. 

Running Total: 1161.0 miles of trail covered, 156.6 miles 'extra' hiking/biking. End of Day 171.

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