Our most loyal blog reader, Carrie, decided to make a guest appearance at Buckhorn State Park with us to go Splorin’ — YAY!!!! She is such a trooper! I’m sure there are a million other ways she could have spent a Saturday, especially a Saturday where she wasn’t working, but we were honored that she wanted to spend it with us!!!
We started with breakfast in Neilsville, WI at Schmitty’s on Main. Another cute and kitschy restaurant that was very busy on a Saturday. It reminded Tammy of her grandma’s living room and she could even imagine Grandma Loretta calling out to her dad, “Schmitty, get grandpa a beer and a short one.” Tammy enjoyed observing a young mother playing with her daughter and keeping her busy NOT using electronics!
One thing that Tammy has been missing since the emergence of Splorin’ Saturday — Farmer’s Market Saturday. Before Mike got his new plumbing and new lease on life, Saturday summer mornings used to be reserved for going to the Farmer’s Market at Phoenix Park in downtown Eau Claire (usually followed by Tammy working and Mike going to visit his dad). Well — imagine our surprise when right across from Schmitty’s was an Amish Farmer’s market!!! Breakfast was awesome, as usual, but the farmer’s market was beckoning. Tammy and Carrie took off for fruits and veggies while Mike waited to pay the check. Blueberries, raspberries, green beans and other veggies were purchased from the Amish farmers. Their buggies were turned into booths while their horses were tied up in the back of the parking lot. We then took off for Buckhorn.
As usual Mike has “The Plan” down. A quick several mile walk to get things started and break Carrie in easy. After getting our daily pass, we parked across the street and doped up with bug spray and hit the trail. This was another trail where we had to head across more of a field than forest to get going. So — it was a grass trail — with long grass — and according to Carrie strewn with wood ticks. Carrie was not a fan of the grass; Mike was hopeful this was the only trail like this today. He was also hopeful that there was not a lot of elevation changes — it was time for an easy park. Unfortunately only the former was true.
We enjoyed the trails and ran into a couple of people along the way. We still don’t know what was wrong — but there was a trail on the map, that we could just not find. We came across a sign for the trail with an arrow, but it pointed down an overgrown section between a couple rows of pine trees. There certainly was no one that had walked down through the overgrown grass, so we unfortunately had to skip that half mile of trail. Oh well, we don’t let little Splorin’ mishaps like that get us down — ever onward!!!
The next hike of the day was a conglomeration of three trails in one. I don’t really know why parks insist on doing loop trails that don’t begin and end at the same place — but I am more than happy to attempt to hike them!!! So, three loop trails were on the docket — Central Sand, Partridge and Turkey Hollow trails were tackled. While they were all done at once, they all were actually quite unique. The first, Central Sands, was through some dense woods. Interestingly (?) enough this trail was packed with mosquitoes!!! Even though we doped up again before beginning — we were attacked!!! Not quite Richard Simmons swatting, but pretty darn close. As we emerged onto the Partridge Trail the mosquitoes just disappeared!! This trail was very interesting because it was through the middle of an area that had been clear-cut. So, it was a mature hardwood forest with 95% of the trees removed. It had been clear-cut a year or two before, so it was coming back to life from the ground up. All the bushes and small trees that typically are choked out of light by the big trees were growing with wild abandon. Then we were onto the Turkey Hollow Trail — this was through quite a different type of forest. The first part was wide open — lots of tall hardwood trees with almost no under-growth at all. Kind of a big switch from the lots of under-growth and no tall trees on the last trail. The Turkey Hollow Trail led us along the lake (river) with some very pretty views. There were some very interesting camp sites here — they were pack in camps — you had to carry everything in by hand (or cart), no cars allowed! Very rustic!!
A lot of times our hiking is a pretty quiet affair. Sometimes because we are just taking in the scenery and enjoying each other’s company and sometimes because we are ascending hills and Tammy is concentrating on breathing. But with Carrie along, there wasn’t a lot of quiet. Her stories, observations and commentary make us smile at least and LOL at best. We will miss “the world according to Carrie” when she heads back to MU in a few weeks.
We had one more hike left that comprised two trails. The first trail was going to be past a “deer exclosure”. We saw this and kept asking ourselves what an “exlosure” was. Turns out it is fenced off area to keep deer out, not in. That way they can study the affect that no deer on an environment would have. We had seen similar areas at both Copper Falls and Rib Mountain State Parks (fenced in areas in the middle of the woods), but couldn’t for the life of us figure out what they were for. It is kind of interesting — the point is that at one point in time white tail deer were endangered in Wisconsin (I know, hard to believe right?) — and it is important to know the impact that they have on the growth of trees, bushes, grasses, etc. We popped out of these woods onto a trail around a tower. We’re not really sure the purpose of this tower. It was only 20 feet high and you certainly could not see anywhere beyond the immediate vicinity of the tower itself. There were some teenage girls up in the tower, no doubt trying to get away from their dastardly parents while camping ;-). The loop here was also uneventful, and unfortunately for Carrie, choked with tall grass in the middle of the trail. We still had a little time so we ended the day by going out on the short Sandblow Vista walk. The Sandblow Walk leads you out onto a typical central Wisconsin sandblow. This desert-like area recalls the park’s ice age history when the region was covered by glacial Lake Wisconsin.
Overall — we were pretty underwhelmed by this state park. We think it would be an awesome state park for going to the beach, or camping, but hiking? It was pretty boring. We have to apologize to Carrie who used her “one outdoor day” with us at a boring state park. We wished she would have joined us at a more exciting park. Which one? Well, you have to read the rest of the blog posts and decide for yourself. Tammy and Carrie were able to take showers at the one camping area before we headed off to dinner. Mike, for some reason, foolishly waited in the car while Tammy and Carrie were showering. By the time he got to the shower there were, literally, 15 people waiting to get in the showers. Luckily there was another showerhouse that Mike was able to go and use — he had to take an ice cold shower 😦 but at least he was clean!!!
While it was unfortunate that Carrie had to endure perhaps the worst hiking experience we have had, she was about to experience one of the more delightful #SupperClubSaturday experiences. We traveled to Wisconsin Rapids to go to the Branding Iron Supper Club. Since Carrie has made fun of her parents for having dinner at 5 PM on Saturdays (only old people eat THAT early), we made reservations for 5:15 PM (yep, we were really pushing it!!!). We got to the restaurant at 5 — thinking that we would just have a drink at the bar while we waited for our table. We didn’t think they opened for dinner until 5pm, but saw people eating when we got there. We thought we would be seated and be able to have dinner. The hostess checked us in and told us to have a seat at the bar until our table was ready. It was so confusing — we had reservations at 5 for a restaurant that opened at 5 — how could our table not be ready? Well — it turns out that you order at the bar and they begin preparing your food. You are then seated at your table when your food is almost ready. So, while sitting at the bar enjoying a cocktail, we ordered dinner from our waitress. About 10 minutes later the bartender told us “Your table is ready, it’s table #8 and it is straight back on the left”. We went and sat down and the waitress, while dropping off our order of cheese curds and calamari, told us we could help ourselves to the salad bar. Our food came and it was absolutely delicious!! We were definitely fans!!! The place was packed but didn’t feel overcrowded at all. This is why we love supper clubs.
We then had the long drive home through little Podunk towns while looking for deer, turkeys and cranes!! Wonder who our next guest ‘splorer may be??
Splorin' Saturday 