False advertising. The day broke hot, humid and stormy. No, not really. But that was the theme of the day — unexpected outcomes. Some good, some bad…read on patient reader to hear our tale.
As is usual for a big day of Splorin’ it began early….6AM early. Off to Governor Dodge State Park today. We knew this park was big….but we had no idea how big. The Plan had us stopping for breakfast in Reedsburg, WI at Greenwood’s Cafe. This was exactly the kind of place we love — not because it had the best food, the biggest selection, the best service, etc., but because it was just good ‘ole smalltown home Wisconsin in a cafe. When arriving the door, had a note on it that mention you had to pull hard to open the door — which was true, had you not read that you may well have thought it was locked. We entered to find that there was only one table available — a table for four. The restaurant never had an open table the entire time we were there. It was constant people coming in and leaving. Almost like people waited for others to arrive before leaving themselves. Breakfast, as usual was our omelettes and salads — boring, but we enjoy boring. 😉
We were then off to the State Park. This was an unusual day in that we actually went right past where we were going to have #SupperClubSaturday on the way to the park. It was easy to find the restaurant — it was right on highway 14 outside Spring Green, WI. If you’ve heard of Spring Green, WI, it is most likely because of Frank Lloyd Wright and his famous House on the Rock. We never did stop, but drove past it twice. Maybe someday we’ll be back to enjoy the house. Shortly after passing the attraction entrance, we came to a scenic overlook that had it’s own exit and parking lot from the highway. Unfortunately, we were already past it before we really knew it and decided we would stop on our way back to the restaurant if we had time. We actually really wanted to stop back because there were parking lots on either side of the highway and a bridge over the road to get to it — that must be some scenic overlook! <insert our usual ominous foreshadowing music here>.
We arrived at the park ready to go!! Mike once again had “The Plan”. Hills and more hills; we knew there was going to be elevation changes, but it is really difficult to know exactly how much change there will be. One thing we noticed upon entering the park — there were a LOT of people here <more foreshadowing music>. We had to wait in line to get a map. We then drove, and drove and drove to get to the first parking lot. This was our first indication of exactly how big this park was. We finally got there and applied tons of bug spray because we knew we would be in the thick of the woods and in some wetland type areas. We took off from the parking lot and within 10 minutes had already climbed about 300 feet in elevation — WHEW!!! That was kind of unexpected. There were some improvised “steps” on this trail — just short enough for Mike to not have too much trouble, but just long enough for Tammy to have to stretch to make them work. We made it to the top and had a great view back down a rock lined valley that was filled with trees that had fallen/blown over. This trail led us along a ridge and eventually down to Cox Hollow Lake — literally, within feet of the water’s edge. We then crossed the wetlands that were the headwaters of the lake and began the climb back up the ridge on the other side. There were several places where we met others on the trail. Of course, you never meet others where it is easy for you to pass them — it is always where the trail is at it’s narrowest and this was no exception. As we made our way along the trail we kept hearing more and more excited voices – it sounded like kids screaming and yelling — in fun, not concern. We climbed up and down and came to a spot where at the bottom of a particular steep hill there was a nice bench with a view of the beach area. All those voices were coming from the beach — even though it was a half mile away, the sound carries quite well across the water. This trail was coming to an end in about a quarter of a mile where it would dump us onto the “Lakeview Trail”.
Ahh, “Lakeview” must be lovely to have a “view of the lake” <ominous foreshadowing music>. As we got closer to the Lakeview trail it became very thick with undergrowth. We could hear other voices and thought we didn’t want to meet anyone on this trail as there was nowhere to let them, or for us, to pass. We popped out onto the trail just as a family of three passed — a dad, a mom, and a baby — IN A STROLLER! That was a first. We’ve never seen anyone pushing a baby stroller on the trails before. Granted the trail was a grass trail, but it was nowhere near level ground, etc. We started heading up the “lakeview” trail (in the opposite direction of the stroller). We immediately asked “where’s the lake?”. According to the map that Mike always carries, it was supposed to be on our left, surely we must be able to see it soon. Long story short — we made it all the way around the trail and could only see the lake for about 50 feet (out of 1.3 miles of trail). Huh? We think this trail should be renamed to “No Lakeview Trail”.
We began backtracking to where we parked — still a couple miles to go. We knew we had a big hill to climb on this trail, but Mike remembered that there was a bench right at the bottom of that hill. We’d take a break there and drink some water before the climb. We got to the bench. It. Was. Occupied. 😦 So, instead of taking a much needed break, we had to just keep plugging along. Tammy said that we would need to take break on the way up somewhere, but that she would go as far as she could. Amazing woman that she is — we were on the way back down the other side of the hill before Mike told her she made it to the top without stopping. We continued on the trail and had one more big hill to climb — we ended up stopping in the middle and taking a break. We just had to take the big hill back down to the parking lot. Turns out going down those steps was more difficult (agilitywise) than going up them. We made it back to the car to take a much needed water break. That was an over 5 mile (in two hours) hike. Whew.
People…did we say we saw lots of people? On that first hike, we saw maybe 15 – 20 people, which for hiking is a lot for us. Little did we know, that would be a small amount of people today…. On the way to the next hike of the day, Mike worried that it looked like there was just a small parking area where the “Lost Canyon Trail” was. We then drove, and drove, and drove to get there as we came close, we saw ALL the cars. There had to be 40 or 50 cars parked all along the road near this trail. Mike immediately went into his crotchety “get off my lawn” mode. Tammy stayed much more positive. (Mike was positive too — there was going to be people EVERYWHERE on this trail.) Turns out, as usual, Tammy was mostly right — while we did see a lot of people on the trail, it was nowhere near what Mike feared. Within the first 1/4 mile of this trail it is paved and leads to a very pretty waterfall — it turns out this is all the further the great majority of people venture. We walked past this and did the old “National Lampoon Vacation” Grand Canyon head nod — and moved on. This was an exceptionally beautiful trail — leading right along a very small stream that wound it’s way through a canyon with sides of limestone. Our only worry as we walked along this trail was looking at the steep sides of the canyon. We knew we would need to climb these sides eventually.
Those of you that know Tammy, know that she does not very often use profanity. Mike uses it all the time. However, on these hikes whenever it is evident that we are going to hike up a big hill, Tammy inevitably drops an F-Bomb. She also drops an F-Bomb when we come to a huge downhill section of the trail (because that means there will be a corresponding uphill section somewhere). It is actually quite funny!!! We cross over the stream and you can see about a half mile uphill climb in front of us — “F&$%” says Tammy. Pictures are not in the Plan when we are on a hill, sorry dear reader. We move along the hill passing several families with very small children just hopping and bopping along the trail. It is at this point that we are much less impressed with what we are able to do — but, we try to remember those kids are 45 years younger than we are!!! We make it up the hill with a couple of switch backs and find ourselves immediately behind a group of 5 or 6 people hiking in front of us. We always have a difficult time passing people. Not because we can’t, but because we don’t want to pass people and then encounter a big hill that we have to take a break in the middle of and then have them pass us. This time, we had no problem passing this group and staying ahead of them. We made it back to the car and took another water break. We then took a “quick” trip to find the shower houses in the campground. We found them and then decided to take a little drive (but nothing is little in this park).
Mike was able to talk Tammy into one more hike for the day. He (somehow) convinced here that it would be a relatively easy, no elevation change hike. Taking the “Upland Trail” was supposed to be a nice easy hike. For the most part it was — we looped a corn field which was land-locked within the state park — still don’t know how it is planted and picked.
There were several big hills out behind the corn field that we had to go down (and obviously back up), but we made it around pretty quickly. By the time we made it back to the car, we were both ready to be done and to take a shower. As usual the shower felt great — not just to get rid of the sweat and dirt, but also to scrub off the several coats of bug spray too. We clean up pretty ok sometimes.
We were then off to dinner — but first, we were going to stop at the scenic overlook. We pulled off into the parking lot of the overlook with high hopes. We had to cross over the highway on a bridge specifically built for the overlook. It was a 1/4 mile walk to the overlook where you could see….NOTHING!!! It was definitely a pretty spot in the woods, but because all the trees and underbrush had grown, you could not see a thing — it looked just like any other trail that we had walked along all day long. Perhaps if there were no leaves on the trees or undergrowth, you MIGHT have been able to see something. What a disappointment. Our only consolation was that we were not the only “suckers” to fall for the “scenic overlook” ruse — we saw several groups coming and going as we made it back to the car.
Now, finally off to #SupperClubSaturday. We were going to Arthur’s Supper Club (in honor of Tammy’s Grandpa Arthur 😉 ). The interesting thing about this supper club was that they have a “Prime Rib Buffet” on the first Saturday of every month. Mike was excited, but was honestly not expecting much. Too often when a restaurant has prime rib on a buffet, it is overcooked and not very tasty. Boy, that was WRONG this time!! Mike absolutely loved the prime rib. He actually said that it was better than most of the supper clubs that we had been too (that is saying a lot!!!). Tammy had her usual scallops and those were good and the salad bar even warranted seconds!! She did learn a lesson about ordering a cocktail however. She usually orders “Gin and soda with a lime”. Don’t know if it was the waitress or the bartender who took “soda” to mean 7-Up, but nonetheless, it was WAY too sweet for her — she now knows to order “Gin and CLUB soda with a lime”. Mike still just orders “whiskey and diet coke” (hard to screw that one up).
The drive home was uneventful — although the last hour was on the freeway. Yeah, we don’t like to take the “fast” way – but sometimes you just want to get home!
Splorin' Saturday 