Day 181: Janesville Segment, Devil's Staircase Segment, Rock County
Day 181: Monday, May 30th, 2022
Total Miles hiked for the day: 5.9; Net Miles 0.1
Location 1: The Janesville Segment, between Wright Road and Interstate Highway 39-90
3.1 Miles of trail covered
This being a holiday weekend, I took Friday off and Theresa and I dedicated ourselves to closing the gap in Manitowoc County, a 34.3 mile effort that we somehow managed to finish in a three-day period. That left us one more day - Labor Day Monday - to get a start on our next objective. There are 244.6 miles of trail that we had, in the past, chosen to traverse by bicycle. Actually, there was 274.3 miles of this when we first started but we've managed to hike off nearly 30 miles of it so far, so now it's under 250.
That's still a lot. And we want to make sure we get it done by our final hike in September, on the 24th. That party is already in the planning, with an Event posted on Facebook. That means we've got some walking to do.
So even though we had an absolute monster weekend so far, we drove down to Janesville this morning from Manitowoc so we could start working ourselves closer to home. This was a tactical decision, because when we took away all the biking miles and redefined our gaps, the farthest point from home was Janesville. Theresa went so far as to reprint our Wisconsin page on the Atlas so we could see what was left, and all the map pages, too, so we could mark them again when we hiked them. Our longest solid line now extends from map 75 all the way through map 104, and there is a disheartening number of pages we need to revisit in order to fill in the orange blocks. By starting with the maps furthest from home, we figured it would get easier and easier to clip off the miles.
It was 12:08 when we finally found ourselves standing on Randolph Road, with our target vehicle parked to the north. It was a 0.8 mile section, but I actually thought I was at Mt. Zion, which would have made more sense.
The temperature today reached a ridiculous 91 degrees, and when we started out at noon it was already 86. The sun was beating down mercilessly, and if not for the parasol, Theresa wouldn't have been able to do it. I used my umbrella, too, because I think I might have also wilted in the heat, and I was in no mood for the sunburn I would have gotten if I didn't use it.
When I look at the photo above, this is what I see in my mind. Am I wrong?
We used every bit of shade we could find, and stopped often at the many benches we found along the way.
The Janesville Segment, as it winds through the city, is mostly on a bike path traveling through greenspace. I have described it before as low-rolling and very pleasant, but the sun took some pleasure out of the walk.
Even so, we still enjoyed the beautiful sights and smells.
And we weren't alone on the trail, either. This is Ping, who was out by herself doing an out-and-back on the whole segment. This, we thought, was a terrible idea, and we ended up giving her a ride to the other end to cut a few miles off of her walk.
As noted above, when I parked the first time, I thought I was at Mt. Zion Ave. I still didn't know that at this point, so when I parked again on Sioux Court to hike the other 'half' of this gap, it actually turned out to be much farther than I anticipated, 2.3 miles instead of the expected 1.8. No wonder that first leg went so fast.
We were very much taking our time, so when we spotted this very young fellow we stayed and watched for quite a while. I didn't get a good photo, but his nubbin horns were just coming into velvet.
He seemed to be enjoying the phlox, which were just coming into full bloom today.
The rest of the walk to Randolph Road seemed endless, but every step was pretty, and we loved traveling through the long, narrow park. Next, we made our way towards the Rock River, where we had another three miles to walk before finishing the day.
Location 2: The Devil's Staircase Segment, between Riverside Park and the eastern trailhead.
1.3 Miles of trail covered
For whatever reason, we decided to finish up the last bit of hiking on the Devil's Staircase Segment first, so we dropped a vehicle at the end and went down to park at the end of the segment near the restrooms. This was a fairly short walk that started out near the edge of the river, though it wasn't easy to see that from anything resembling yellow blazes. I think I remember seeing one... or two. But not many.
We walked along the edge of the river, where we think the trail was supposed to be. But eventually we just took to the road when the water's edge became a silly departure from the roadway a mere 20 feet away.
The walk was easy, flat, and if not for the oppressive heat, quite enjoyable. I eventually found the sign that led up to the infamous Devil's Staircase, where there was an actual trailhead sign. To be frank, I can't figure out why they don't just have the Janesville Segment end there.
Location 3: The Janesville Segment, between the Canterbury Street tunnel bridge and the west end of the segment
1.6 Miles of trail covered
I have really fun memories of walking up and touching this wall in the middle of a February blizzard in 2014. The snow was blowing sideways and we couldn't see more than 50 feet in any one direction. We found just a trace of the old yellow blaze that was once painted here.
Taking that as our starting point, we headed north under the tunnel (where the trail used to go) and made our way up and over the bike path to find a massive construction zone. We gingerly made our way around that only to discover that the trail, inexplicably, no longer went under the tunnel. We found the trail, where blazes went both left and right.
We reversed course and went back to the parking lot we started from only to take a closer look and see that the blazes led up this pathway that looked more like a volunteer trail to a homeless encampment.
Look closer. I think we can be excused for missing this particular blaze.
Up a little farther it looked even more like a path to a homeless shelter, albeit one with a yellow blotch of paint leading to it.
I wonder how long it will be before the taggers decide to cover that little yellow splotch with something more entertaining.
Then we came out riverside on the construction zone and back to the spot where we noticed we hadn't been on the trail after all. In short order we found ourselves on the bike path, which is a more recognizable trail to follow. Once again we were following an Eden-like paved pathway through a delightful wooded greenspace hidden along the Rock River through the middle of the City of Janesville.
There is a railroad not too far from the bike path that sits atop an elevated bed, making it necessary to create water tunnels to let drainage get to the river. My inner geocacher wants to take time and explore these tunnels.
Like the other side of the bike path, there were plenty of benches.
There's also one or two places where road access is possible, if a little pinchy.
I'm definitely not taking my car through that.
While we were walking we chanced upon a young boy who was out walking with his mother. He wasn't having the greatest time of it. I'm thinking he was cranky because he was hot. But after some carefully applied snail therapy and a cool patch, he seemed to brighten up a bit. I chose to take no pictures except this one.
We also once more ran into Ping, who had caught up to us from behind, having completed the entire Segment while we were marching off a few miles. She slowed down enough to walk with us over the last little bit and we spent time chatting as we went. She said that she usually hikes with a larger group of people, also Asian, but that no one was able to go with her today. We got her to promise that when she's hiking the northern 1/3 of the trail she wouldn't go alone, because it's too isolated. Sadly, it's not the bears or the fear of injury that gives me concerns for women hiking alone through the Chequamegon and Nicolet Forests. It's the people one might meet out there in the woods.
When we finally got within sight of the park where the car was located the signage got really bad again. The concept of 'trail' is a little vague through here, and I can't even make sense of the few blazes that exist, since they seem to appear at somewhat random spots in the park, loosely strewn along the lake.
Unlike yesterday, where the miles were flying by in our relentless pursuit of finishing Manitowoc County, today it felt like the road was stretching out in front of us. We didn't finish until 7:03 pm, a full 7 hours after we started. There was no sign or blaze to touch when we arrived, so I touched the Snail Sign in my van window instead. It was as close as I could get.
The tally:
- At least five new Snails today
- Completed map 74
- Completed Janesville and Devil's Staircase Segments
- Completed Rock County
- Added 0.1 miles of new trail, making adjustments for previous rounding errors
- Converted 5.8 miles of biking to the 'hiked' category
- 240.1 miles to go
- Oh yes - one more thing. Our hiking total for May, 2022 is 131.9 miles. I can't believe it either.
Running Total: 1212.2 miles of trail covered (896.9 hiked), 190.5 miles 'extra' hiking/biking. End of Day 181.
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