Day 190: Connecting Route, Taylor County, Connecting Route, Chippewa County
Day 190: Saturday, June 11th, 2022
Total Miles hiked for the day: 11.8; Net Miles 0.0
It's Saturday. Last night we pushed it hard out in Taylor County and ended up getting home very late. We both woke up sore and tired. Our backs ached, our feet hurt, we had blisters on 14 out of 20 toes between us. The forecast was yucky, and it took us both quite a while to get up the enthusiasm to get ready to go take another long walk.
We had a very hard time deciding where to walk today. We no longer have the entire state to choose from, and rain was forecast in every location we needed to go. All of our remaining miles are now between maps 18 and 61, so when a major storm system blobs up the middle of the state, our options get a little dicey.
We finally decided we would just go towards Cornell and walk the Chippewa-Taylor CR in the rain. As long as there was no lightning and the wind stayed tolerable, this wouldn't be a problem. We still had some 30 miles to go out here, so we knew that whatever we got done would just make the next trip that much shorter.
The closest point was the south end of the Lake Eleven Segment on Hwy 64 in Taylor County. It took us just over an hour to get here, and we arrived at 1:00 pm. It was a late start for a Saturday.
It rained most of the way out here, but when we got to the starting point the rain had stopped. It was about 65 degrees, and the winds weren't too fierce. The skies were gray and threatening, but seemed to be done dumping water for the time being. On the whole - not a bad day for a walk. Based on the wet roadway, our late arrival time was just about perfect.
I touched the sign and started walking south.
As usual for these road walks, we're doing crisscross hiking, and I'll be seeing Theresa on and off throughout the day, though almost never walking with her. It's not my preferred method of hiking, but it's a lot more efficient, and we don't have to take two cars out here or self-shuttle with bikes. It also means my mind wanders, because I'm alone for long periods of time and the roads are a little repetitive.
What is there to see today? Hmmm... Corn.
There are water and bathrooms available at the Lublin Community Park.
I'm enjoying all the birds. You might call that the 'beauty' of this roadway. Because it's so flat and open, you get to see farther. There are many birds that hang out in treetops that you never see, but when they land on phone lines you can see them.
County Road F is a relentless treadmill. I'm genuinely trying to have fun with this, but all this walking, day after day, pushing for the extra miles, it taking its toll on both mind and body.
I saw a sign that said "Posted". It made me wonder what the origin of that term was. Did it have anything to do with a post? I mean - the word 'post' has a bunch of meanings that come from different places. Post, as in a fence post, comes from the Old English word of the same spelling. Post as in a military post comes from the French poste, meaning 'a place where one is stationed'. This is very similar to the origin of the word Post as it relates to postal carriers, where early on carriers were literally 'posted' to facilitate rapid transit of letters. But those are nouns, and I'm talking about a verb.
One can post bond. One can post a letter. One can post an entry in a book of ledgers. All good verbs, but not the right one. I wanted "Post", meaning 'to put up a sign'.
I found one reference online that attributes the verb 'post' to the 1630s, where it meant to 'affix (as in a paper advertisement or notice) to a post in a public place. That's all well and good, and makes sense, but still not quite what I'm after. After all - when did the single word 'Posted' come to mean that the land behind the sign was private land, and that by the act of putting up this single word, on a post or otherwise, it was meant to convey that there were forbidden acts on that land that included merely standing on or indeed passing over said land? Posted: No Trespassing - that's pretty clear. Posted: No Hunting. Got it. But just 'Posted'?
As a total aside (as if I have not gone sideways enough on this post) there is a Post Foods Company, once famous for selling a coffee alternative called 'Postum', which is coincidentally the Latin term meaning 'to place or put'.
This is where my mind goes while I hike roads. I should start sharing these thoughts with the hiking community. Some people might get a laugh.
Random thought, or more of an observation: A person with a black umbrella annoys Red Wing Blackbirds a lot more than a person walking alone down the road without an umbrella.
We spent the better part of the day clocking off 8 miles on County Road F, and we both needed a break. We decided to call it quits, at least for a while, and drive the rest of the connecting route looking for a place to do an overnight van camp.
We did find a couple of spots. There was a place to pull over on County Road S just north of 155th Ave that looked like it would be OK. There was also a spot up near one of the boat launches on Otter Lake on the opposite side of the road where all the vehicles park. One of the paid spots at Pike Lake wouldn't have been too bad, but wasn't really our kind of spot.
So as long as we were this far west we went back to the farm that sold meat products and we bought a bunch more steak and hamburger. The price was fair, and it tasted great.
Which left us out at the westernmost piece of road we had left to hike at about 6:30 at night. I won't say that either of us really felt like doing more walking today, but we also told ourselves that we were going to push ourselves to finish this thing as fast as we could, so once more we set up to do some crisscross hiking on another lonely stretch of Wisconsin byway.
Fatigue is truly upon us. I walk with a half-limp on both legs, favoring the many blisters that have developed, healed, then returned deeper than before. My knees hurt from the road pounding. My calves ache from the repetitive use. My hips have started to hurt from the abuse. And Theresa is feeling every one of these pains and more, given that the nerve damage on her foot has never healed, and probably never will.
I want to say we were having fun on our hike, but today wasn't really all that fun. We're pushing too hard, I know, but we really want all this hiking to be over with, and we're starting to really see the light at the end of the tunnel. We have about 24 more hikes to do, or possibly fewer. It all depends on how well we hold up.
I took a few snapshots along the way, but mostly I was just thinking about walking, one more mile, then one more mile.
The tally:
- No new Snails
- Completed map 21
- Converted 11.8 miles of biking to the 'hiked' category
- 164.8 miles to go
No comments:
Post a Comment