Day 185: Connecting Route Chippewa County

Day 185: Sunday, June 5th, 2022

Total Miles hiked for the day: 10.8; Net Miles 0.0

Location: The westernmost part of the long Chippewa-Taylor County Connecting Route, between the trailhead for the Chippewa River Segment and the intersection of County Road EE and 155th Avenue. 
10.8 Miles of trail covered

There is another long connecting route that starts just west of Cornell and extends through town, then south a few miles on County Road EE before heading west towards Taylor County. It was this piece of roadway we decided to tackle today, working to shorten up the driving time needed to get to the farthest point of any of our remaining gaps. 

Theresa and I had biked this whole connecting route in two parts, in July and September of 2013. That feels like a very long time ago, and I can tell you from experience that the miles go faster on a bicycle. 

Even after finishing more than ten miles today, we still have just over 200 miles of roadway left to hike. We're doing everything we can to knock off the miles that are farthest from home first. 

With only one car available we needed to do crisscross hiking. Theresa dropped me off at the north end of the CR right at the trailhead sign for the Chippewa River Segment and I started walking south while she went into town and parked on the far side of the bridge to walk back my way. The time was 10:00 am and it was already 62 degrees, but that was about as warm as it would get today. 

The first thing I did was walk south on County Hwy CC along the Chippewa River/Cornell Flowage. It's a beautiful area, but the road is quite busy. 

When I got to Bridge Street, so named for the giant blue steel span bridge that is somehow not the key feature of this town, I crossed paths with Theresa, but she wasn't alone. 

I think it was the Facebook posts that alerted Vicki Christensen that we were in the area. Vicki very much wanted to join us for a bit of road walking. Not because she needed a patch (she already earned that a few weeks ago) but just because she thought it would be fun walking with us. Go figure. So she somehow knew where we would be hiking today and she spotted Theresa on the road. Vicki pulled over and parked and flagged her down so that she could walk the rest of the way with us. 

I continued south and east while Theresa and Vicki headed north along the road I had just walked. 

Bridge Street is even busier than Hwy CC. I wouldn't want to walk across it with a dog who was anything less than well-trained and on a leash. There just isn't enough room for pedestrians. 

Across the bridge is a poorly-marked turn that takes the hiker north past the Visitor's Center and into Mill Yard Park. It was there that I found our waiting car, and I jumped in to go get Theresa and Vicki. 

They weren't done with their walk yet, but I turned around and waited for them. There is a small parking area near the end of the Segment, so putting one or two cars there isn't a problem. I walked down to meet the two of them (all of about 500 feet) and then back up to the car. 

I'm not sure why, but that was all the walking Vicki wanted to do with us today. Maybe she was planning on going out and doing some trail walking. Regardless, I dropped her off at her vehicle and we parted ways. 

Theresa and I made a brief visit to the Visitor Center in Mill Yard Park before returning to our previously planned crisscross hiking through town. 

It is here in Mill Yard Park where the town shows off its true main attraction - the gigantic steel monstrosity known as 'The Stacker'. It's my understanding that it's the last of its kind. This thing was built for the purpose of stacking wood. Cut wood. Wood chunks, that is. 

The Stacker is 175 feet high, and was used literally to make giant stacks of pulpwood after the logs had been cut down into smaller pieces. The wood was later floated down a sluice to the grinder room where it was turned into pulp and eventually paper. According to an information sign, operations ceased in 1971 but The Stacker remains behind as a memorial to the important role it played in the town for 60 years. 

There are also signs talking about a couple of influential men in the history of the town. 

The walk through town includes a trip past both Dylan's Dairy and the Main Scoop, two competing ice cream stores. Both are worth visiting, and if you're there at night, Dylan's Dairy has some great evening fare available. 

I'm not sure where the route through town used to go, but Vicki told us it now travels down Main Street all the way to 5th, where there is a restroom available in the park. The restrooms don't show up on the maps yet, so those are good to know about. The trail also goes past a 24-hour laundry and a grocery store, so Cornell can truly be counted amongst the most convenient towns on the IAT. 

Saying good-bye to Cornell, we started crisscrossing our way out of town. 

Yellow Goat's Beard

My role today was to be the person who walked first and then drove back to pick up the reverse hiker. That meant I was going in a normal direction while Theresa was hiking retrograde. In this fashion we made our way down 8th Street, which eventually turned into 256th Street, then west on 210th Ave and south again along County Road EE. 

We saw pretty gardens...

 

... and lots of empty road. Empty but for the tiny little dot that is Theresa. 

I also saw a Blandings turtle just off the road. 

There wasn't much to say about this stretch of roadway. The scenery was a bit bleak, even by my standards. Part of it may have been that my feet were complaining after yesterday's long hike and several of my blisters had opened. I was having trouble enjoying the day. 

Although I did see a cow or two. 

And an oddly fascinating flowerbox. 

And some ducks. 

But soft! What joy from yonder field flows? 

It is the Sandhill! And the two have become four!

I stood and watched these little fluffballs for a good five minutes or so, but never managed to get what I consider a decent photo. 

I heard a good deal of birdsong as I walked. My new Birdsong Identification App told me that I was hearing Vireos, Nuthatches, Redstarts, Robins, Blue Jays, Ravens, Chickadees, Sparrows, Wrens, Grosbeaks, Warblers, Blackbirds and more. That helped to while away the time. 

Another thing that kept us occupied was that Theresa stopped to buy meat at a place called Morfoot's Farm Store. They have a small shop that's open 24 hours a day, self-serve and self-pay. The address is 19646 Co Hwy EE. It's worth going back to. The meat looks good, and it's not outlandishly priced. 

There was quite a bit of traffic on the road. I had taken to collecting aluminum cans along the side of the road, using a plastic bag I picked up on the way, just to kill time while I walked. 

They I got a call from Theresa. When she tried to park on the side of the road on 170th Ave just off of County Hwy EE, some jack-noodle in a pickup truck came roaring up and telling her she couldn't park there. There are times when it's worth telling ashpoles like this guy that it is perfectly legal to park along the side of the road as long as it's within the public right-of-way, and that the land he was chasing us off of was not technically his land, and there are times when it's just not worth the fight. In this case, the guy looked like the kind who might 'accidentally' nudge your parked van into the ditch while you were away from it, so Theresa chose to use discretion and avoidance just so we could get out of there without damage to our car. She parked on the other side of EE and picked up the phone to call me. 

"Stop picking up cans and get yourself up here. We need to get off this piece of road as soon as possible."

Then she told me what she was dealing with and rightly described that two mile stretch of roadway as 'hostile territory'. 

So I stretched it out a bit and picked up the pace. I was able to get to the car without incident and I drove back to pick Theresa up at the north end where I started, though I had to wait a bit. After a brief discussion we decided to hike one more leg to get us another mile and a half further south and away from future encounters. And so we did, taking one more hop that got us down to 155th Avenue. That was plenty for the day. 

On the way home I decided we should drive up to Mondeaux Dam and have dinner at the Mondeaux Dam Lodge. We did drive there, but unfortunately we discovered it has been closed for quite some time while it was undergoing major renovations. 

We didn't get anything to eat while we were there, but we did happen to cross paths with Nol Marschke, who was in charge of final preparations while they were getting ready to reopen. He gave us a tour of the new building, which was quite a bit nicer that we remembered from eight years ago. 

We also couldn't buy a beverage, but Nol gave us a couple of sodas for free, just because. We gave him and his buddy snail patches.  What a nice guy. I hope he does well when they reopen this summer. He's thinking maybe they'll be ready by the 4th of July. 

The tally:

• Two new Snails
• Completed maps 16 and 17
• Converted 10.8 miles of biking to the 'hiked' category
• 202.7 miles to go

Running Total: 1212.3 miles of trail covered (934.3 hiked), 229.1 miles 'extra' hiking/biking. End of Day 185.

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