Day 189: Rib Lake Segment, Connecting Route, Taylor County

Day 189: Friday, June 10th, 2022

Total Miles hiked for the day: 7.7; Net Miles 1.1

Location 1: The road portion of the Rib Lake Segment, along Harper Drive and Rustic Road

4.3 miles of trail covered

At some point in the future, the Rib Lake Segment will not have a road portion. Until that time comes, though, hikers must hike the road between Copper Creek on Rustic Road and Sheep Ranch Creek on Harper Drive. The road portion cuts the Segment into three pieces, Rib Lake East, Rib Lake Road, and seven tenths of a mile of trail that can be considered Rib Lake West. On the east end, at the spot where the trail used to end long ago, there is now a temporary trail that extends north along Copper Creek, giving access to a number of campsites. There is also a stub of a trail going west marking where the future trail will go, but it is clearly marked so as to prevent hikers from going the wrong way. Most hikers. More on that later. 

We had already hiked the trail portions, of course, so all we needed to do was walk the road. 

Today was another day when we came chasing out after work and drove to the nearest end of the segment we wanted to walk so we wouldn't waste daylight driving when we could be walking. We figured we could always drive home in the dark, which is in fact what we did. 

We worked the road from east to west, Theresa dropping me off at Copper Creek where the trail cuts into the woods, while she drove down to the Harper Lake landing and walked back. Theresa was having a really tough time today because her hip was giving her a lot of trouble. Forget about the blisters. We've both lost count of those. The miles did not go quickly. 

Rustic Road is aptly named. It is gravel, remote, and unquestioningly 'rustic'. Not bad to drive on, though, or walk on. I've seen much, much worse. 

We got started in mid-to-late afternoon, me having taken off from work a little early so we could get out here. Our goal tonight was to walk just the Rib Lake roadway, but we ended up doing more. The temperature when we started was 76 degrees, and the sun was still sitting high in the blue sky. 

Whatever hesitancy caused the delay in the trees leafing out this year appears to have completely lapsed. Every tree that was healthy was by now breaking forth in resplendent green. 

There is rain forecast for tomorrow, but tonight was perfectly pleasant. So pleasant that other hikers had also chosen this very night to come out and hike this portion of the Rib Lake Segment. As I was walking, having just crossed paths with Theresa, I met two women hiking in a west-to-east direction, obviously geared up as hiking enthusiasts. 

"Are you out hiking the Ice Age Trail?" I asked them, sure of the answer. 

When they confirmed that they were indeed IAT hikers, I asked them, "Are you looking for Snails?"

They were jumping-up-and-down happy to see us. 

Meet Dory Witzeling and Marta Weldon. Theresa is way in the background, having turned around when she heard the commotion. 

I left the awarding of the snail patches to Theresa. She is, after all, the star of the show. 

Marta Weldon is the 'Mindy' portion of the hiking duo 'Mork and Mindy'. Her husband Mike ('Mork') was off hiking the trail doing a crisscross hike with the two women, and we expected that Theresa would cross paths with him, too, eventually. She never did, though, and we found out much later why. Apparently, he was hiking the eastern portion of the trail west of County C, and missed the signage saying that the trail continuing west wasn't open yet. He kept going while the trail went north without him. Long story short, he was fine, but there were some concerned people for a while while they were all trying to figure out where he was. 

Down at the point where the road squeezes between North and South Harper Lakes there is a port-a-potty and a nice place to have a picnic if you want. 

After I picked Theresa up and we set up for another leg I ran into some more new flowers for me. This is Meadow Buttercup. 

And this is broadleaf lupine (I think), or possibly sundial lupine. 

And these were funny. I had this photo up on the computer and I tried looking it up on PlantNet. The app identified them as Myosotis Decumbens, but didn't give a common name. Then Theresa walked by and said, 'Why do you have pictures of Forget-me-nots on your screen?" So - mystery solved. 

At the west end of this roadway, on Rib Lake School Forest Property, there is a parking lot with what appears to be an outhouse. This lot is not on the IAT Atlas, and I didn't venture over to assess the quality of the outhouse. 

Just a bit further down the road, though, is the clearly visible Ice Age trail heading west through the weeds. I found myself happy that I didn't need to hike through there, given that we were still in late tick season. It looks like this is a pretty lonely piece of trail. 

By early evening we had finished the Segment and map 25. After some assessment of our time and physical condition we determined there was enough left in the tank for one more piece.  

Location 2: The Connecting Route between the Mondeaux Esker Segment and the Pine Line Segment, along Fawn Ave. 

3.4 miles of trail covered

Taylor County was one of the first counties we completed, and so it felt like ages ago that we were out here bicycling up and over the many bumps on this relatively straight road. We're not talking big hills - 40 to 60 feet in elevation change max - but there were a lot of them. Being almost entirely paved it's relatively easy either on bike or on foot. 

The Pine Line Segment gets its name from the bike path of the same name. Somewhere back in there in this photo below, the Pine Line bike trail goes left and right. But you can see from the photo that there's not much of a path to get to it from the road, and there's not much of a place to park even if there was a good path. 

One of the first things I encountered was this cute little lady on the side of the road laying eggs. Whatever that look was on her face, I don't think she was smiling at me. 

This was quickly followed by another turtle, a painted turtle rather than the snapper above, who was more timid and far less intimidating. 

Someone decided to make a set of - flowers? - for their front yard. I believe those are CDs. 

As I was trucking along the road, largely just listening to my book on tape and trying to beat the sunset, I suddenly stopped in my tracks, having walked right up on a deer, standing not 20 feet off the side of the road, munching grass. 

She stared at me, chewing, then she bent down to grab another mouthful of grass. She was utterly unconcerned as I pulled my camera out and snapped a picture or two. 

The tail never went up. The ears barely flickered. She stood there and I stood there, not 20 feet between us. Eventually I turned and headed west again, and just as I did a coyote flashed across the road in front of me. 

The coyote didn't hang around for photos. 

There was a waxing gibbous moon hanging around in the deepening blue sky. 

On the last leg, I crossed paths with Theresa very close to the end of the road, or the start of the Mondeaux Esker Segment, depending on how you look at it. On this end of Fawn Ave there is some gravel. 

Right as I approached the end of the line I noticed several deer crossing the road. When I came out into the open (south side of the road) I saw this farm. If you zoom in and know what you're looking at you can identify nine different deer in this photo. In reality, there was more like thirty of them, and they were far more worried about me walking by than the one deer I had seen earlier. These started taking off when I was a quarter of a mile away. 

The time was 8:30 pm, and daylight was fading fast. 

Two more maps completed, for the last time. 

Our car was parked on the side of the road right at the intersection where the trail begins. The person who lives down that dead end road is very friendly and enjoyed talking to Theresa when she parked there. I got in and went back to wait for her to finish her leg before driving home in the dark. It would be another night of hot baths, ibuprofen and not enough sleep. Tomorrow morning we were getting up and doing it all over again, coming right back out here to Taylor County. 

The tally:

• Three new Snails (we gave Marta a patch for Mark) 
• Completed maps 23, 24, and 25
• Converted 6.6 miles of biking to the 'hiked' category
• Added 1.1 trail miles (previous totals were off for some reason)
• 176.6 miles to go

Running Total: 1213.7 miles of trail covered (960.4 hiked), 253.7 miles 'extra' hiking/biking. End of Day 189.

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