Day 178: Connecting Route (x3), Sheboygan and Manitowoc Counties

Day 178: Friday, May 27th, 2022

Total Miles hiked for the day: 12.9; Net Miles 12.9

Location 1: The Connecting Route between the LaBudde Segment and the Walla Hi Segment

5.3 miles of trail covered (Note: Since hiking this in May there has been a re-route that includes 0.8 miles of new trail, so this describes the old route.)

It's been a busy May for us. So far we've walked over 90 miles, and we're now staring at a four-day holiday weekend of nothing but road miles. We don't know how far we'll get, but our objective is to cover as many miles as possible, of course. 

There are plusses and minuses to that approach. We get a lot done in a short time, but it's not as much fun as it should be. This is not 'leisure' walking. This is not 'enjoy the scenery' walking. This is 'pound out the miles until your feet bleed' walking, and because of the sheer expense it's not even walking that we get to do together, for the most part. 

We have exactly 34.3 miles of roadway out here in Sheboygan and Manitowoc counties that we have yet to traverse, either on foot or by bicycle. Our short-term goal for this long weekend is to finish those miles. Given how good a start we got today, I'm thinking we'll succeed at that, but I'm not counting chickens. Anything can happen. 

And so it was that last night we found ourselves at the Pankonen-Grupe farmstead in Newton, Wisconsin, sleeping not in some back bedroom abandoned since the 1990's after their oldest child went to college, but in our van, cozied up between a couple of outbuildings. Theresa had posted on Facebook that we were planning to hike in this area over the weekend and needed a safe place to park the van while we slept. Karen Pankonen-Grupe was kind enough to offer us a flat spot on her farm, and even arranged to have an extension cord available so Theresa could plug in her CPAP at night. 

You could be excused for not knowing where Newton Wisconsin is. The Town has a population a little over 2200, but doesn't have much of a Town center. Really, it's just a collection of erstwhile businesses that were once a whistle-stop for the railroad. There's still a grain mill there - maybe the train still stops once in a while. If the Ice Age Trail has done nothing else for us, it has introduced us to many of these small communities that are eking out an existence, struggling to keep enough in their Town's annual budget to keep up the maintenance on the community park and the little league baseball field. These towns are quintessential rural Wisconsin, testaments to the stubborn pride that keeps them going, tied to the land and their central European heritage. When I look past the weathered buildings and focus on the people, what I usually see is hope, faith, and love. 

I awoke this morning, not exactly bright and early, but before Theresa woke up. We got here fairly late last night, and because we were in two cars I was able to do the jump and run routine. Leaving Theresa in the van for a little more shut-eye, I headed down to the north end of the LaBudde Creek Segment and parked along the road on County FF. The parking there is somewhat precarious, especially when the ground is a little spring-soft. The shoulder is steep, and any problems encountered there would become big problems, fast. 

Today, though - all was well. I touched the LaBudde Creek sign at 9:32 am. With cool temperatures, overcast skies and cranes bugling in the marsh, I headed east down the road. 

The first thing I'll say about County Road FF is that it is not designed for pedestrian use. The crew who painted the white lines must have used the edge of the pavement as a guide, because the white literally falls off the edge onto the gravel at times. Usually you have an inch or so to walk on, but not always. Really - you're walking on the road and darting onto the shoulder when cars go by. Not all that different than most roads, but this one feels really squishy. 

The second thing I noticed was the impact of the emerald ash borers. Anywhere where there were ash trees, they now have a vitiligous appearance with all the healthy outer bark flaking off, exposing the dead bark below. 

Here is a picture of a doomed ash, leafing out for probably the last time. 

I was also displeased but unsurprised to see poison ivy growing along the edge of the road. Sigh. I guess poison ivy season is here again, but we won't be encountering it much because all we have left is road miles. 

The path was not very hilly, and a little boring, to tell the truth. Maybe it was the gray skies. 

At least there were some interesting old buildings along the way, like this fine German masterpiece of a cheese factory.  

And this place was fascinating. The Rustic Rhine Saloon was still in operation. We absolutely need to come back here for a meal. 

There were a few wildflowers along the way. 

And another sure sign that I was hiking through an area with a lot of glacial stone available. 

Here was a mayapple in full bloom.

And here was one of thousands of trillium. 

Rhine Road became Lax Chapel Road at the county line crossing from Sheboygan to Manitowoc County. As I walked I was mostly listening to my book on tape, but when I got close to the river I listened for birdsong. What I got was mostly just typical backyard birds, like robins, cardinals and sparrows. Still, it was nice to hear the happy chatter as birds continued their spring activities. 

 

I got to Hwy 32 at about 11:00, and passed the Millhome Supper Club (closed). Hwy 32 itself was under construction, and the crossing was dangerous. There were a lot of cars flying by, and the short distance I needed to walk along and across that road, necessary so as to bridge over the Sheboygan River, made me feel very uncomfortable. 

I made my way north to the beginning of the Walla Hi Segment and went down to touch the sign at about 11:15. This was where Theresa came to pick me up. She had been hiking off bits of the road behind me, self-shuttling using two cars. 

She hadn't gotten as far as I did, but it was time to go. 

Location 2: The Connecting Route between the Greenbush Segment and the LaBudde Segment

4.4 miles of trail covered

With very little time to spare, we picked up the other car and scooted down to the large parking area at the north end of the Greenbush Segment. There we met two delightful hiking companions, Vicki Klink and Sandy Vorpahl, who would be hiking with us for the next leg. 

While we were getting squared away two more hikers arrived, but they were there to hike the Segment and we were off to hike the road. I didn't catch their names, but we did hand out a couple of patches. 

We introduced Vicki and Sandy to the concept of Leapfrog hiking with two cars, and they took to it like fish to water. 

Or in Sandy's case, like a bird to the sky. Sandy, you see, is a birder extraordinaire, and she has one of the best ears for birdsong I have ever heard. With each tweet and chirp she would turn her head and say things like, "Myrtle Yellow-Rumped Warbler", or "Red-Eyed Vireo", with the sureness of someone looking at a candy bar and saying, "Kit-Kat". Her long-range zoom lens camera was as much a part of her hiking equipment as her shoes.

For my part, I don't know birdsong very well, though I would very much like to know it better. A while back I downloaded a bird identifier app for my phone, but it really didn't work very well. Sandy says she uses one called 'Merlin', and I'll have to download it and give it a try. She demoed it for me while we were hiking, and I have to say it looks pretty awesome. 

Back to my wildflowers. They are easier to photograph, because they don't move as fast. This is another example of a flower that should have a much prettier name, so people would appreciate it more. If this was a rare 'Golden Mantis' flower, people would travel for miles just to see it when it was in bloom. Instead, it's a 'Common Lousewort', and really, who would go ten feet off the trail to see one of those? 

Back on the road, we continued to encounter other hikers. This dedicated pair of Ice Age Trailers was doing the same thing we were, at the same time, on the same stretch of road. As luck would have it they were hiking while we were driving by, and we threw on the brakes to go back and award them their snail patches. 

I'm sure it would feel a little random and weird to have someone stop their car and come running out to give you a patch, but by the looks on their faces it resulted in a little joy to add to their road hike.  

On we went, leapfrogging our way north. The roadside here isn't much wider than what I found in the morning. 

They seem to like informational signs in these parts. If you look closely, you'll see that all of these were put up courtesy of 'Historic Race Circuits of Elkhart Lake'. The stories are all appropriately related to people associated with local race history. 

This little egg-cracker was all of about an inch and a half long. 

For the last leg, we had vehicles waiting at the intersection of County Roads J and A, where the recommended route used to go, and we drove up to the far end of the connecting route. There I dropped Theresa off to start walking ahead of us, and the other three of us drove up to the parking area a half-mile up the road on the LaBudde Creek Segment. This is because LaBudde ends in a ridiculous spot at Hwy 67 where there is no parking. I wanted to spare Theresa as many miles as possible, and I volunteered to walk the extra half-mile. 

Expecting her to be far ahead, I was a little surprised to see her waiting for us on Golf Course Road. Apparently, instead of turning right and heading north to go around the golf course, she had accidentally turned left, and was a good half-mile south before she realized what she had done. (Note: At the time we hiked this, the official suggested route went north around the golf course, then followed Country Road A all the way to Glen Road. It was about 0.3 miles longer than the current suggested route down past Crystal Lake.)

So - long story short Theresa put in even more 'extra' hiking than I did, and we ended up walking together the rest of the way. 

Right by the golf course there was this mini umbrella-grove of mayapples. 

The journey ended for the group at 3:30 pm. I remember asking if they wanted to cut across the ditch to get to the cars in the parking lot. 

"Heck, no! That would be cheating!" 

I like these gals. Sign-touchers, all. 

Location 3: The Connecting Route between the Walla Hi Segment and the City of Manitowoc Segment, from the Intersection of Hillcreek Rd and Marken Rd to Valders Memorial Park

3.2 miles of trail covered

Theresa and I took a break from hiking and caught some late lunch/early dinner. Despite the fact that it was a little sunnier than before, the wind had come up and it was cooling down. The temperature was now in the low 40s again, but we wanted to see if we could knock just a couple of miles off of the long connecting route between Walla Hi and City of Manitowoc. 

We ended up hiking a short section mostly along County Hwy J south of Valders, plus the one-mile along Hillcreek Road. We started walking about 5:20 pm and finished a little over an hour and a half later. 

There wasn't anything particularly strategic about this piece of road, except that it made for a nice five-mile gap to the south and a decent parking spot for the nine-mile piece to the north. 

I can say that the hiking was much, much nicer on this road because there was actually a little piece of road beyond the white paint. 

The Canadian National Railroad line runs through Valders, and I was fascinated that these old railroad spikes just continue to lie in the rocks by the tracks. 

Somewhere along the way we met a couple named Laurie and Mark, but for some reason I can't find any pictures of them. I did, however, take a photo of this mud puddle, which for some reason I found very interesting. 

At the end of the day it was back to the Pankonen-Grupe farm, where we met our hosts and their 15-year-old daughter. They, too, were totally excited to get their official SNoTT patches. 

Their son wasn't there, which the daughter thought was really great. 

"He's going to be so jealous..."

For the record - we left a patch behind for the son as well. 

The tally:

• At least 12 new Snails today
• Completed maps 89, 90
• Completed Sheboygan County
• 12.9 new miles covered
• Added 1 mile to 'extra hiking and biking' 
• 267.4 miles to go

Running Total: 1190.7 miles of trail covered (869.6 hiked), 185.5 miles 'extra' hiking/biking. End of Day 178.

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