“The Plan” begins with looking at the map of the state park — this time the map had a TON of Single Track Mountain Bike trails. Many of the parks we have been to have trails designated for different uses -hiking, snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, horse trails, etc. Some of these trails can be dual use (like you can hike on a horse trail), but we read here that you are not allowed to hike on the mountain bike trails. We thought we would be seeing mountain bikes everywhere! Turns out we did not see a single mountain bike the entire day!
Mike picked the breakfast restaurant this morning and it was good, but we should have taken a close look at the map. We stopped in Prairie Du Sac, WI at the Blue Spoon Cafe. The restaurant looked really nice — right on the Wisconsin River, had lots of good Google reviews. On our way into downtown Prairie Du Sac, we drove passed the Eagle Inn, which was packed!!! Hind sight says we should have eaten there, but oh well, Splorin’ Saturday is about livin’ and learnin’. While the Eagle Inn was packed, there was almost no one at the Blue Spoon — that meant we would not get to partake in our favorite activity at restaurants and by now you should know that is listening to conversations going on around us. This restaurant just had counter service — you order, take a number and find a table. The restaurant and the views from it were stunning — very clean. The menu was less than desirable for us because everything was laden with carbs. Not a single omelette in sight! We both opted for the eggs benedicts: Mike traditional, Tammy spinach and tomato and added a salad of course. Tammy decided on an avocado vinaigrette dressing that was REALLY yummy. Mike opted for a raspberry one that ended up too sweet. Good thing we like to share. Tammy was “good” and ate everything but the english muffins; Mike opted to be “bad” and eat the english muffins under his eggs (but not the extra ones that were on the side). Breakfast and the coffee were very good — but the Eagle Inn seems like it would have been much more like our “usual” breakfast spot.
Off to the state park. The drive south of Wisconsin Dells along highway 12 is gorgeous. Going through the hills and bluffs offer quite the view from all angles. We turned off of highway 12 and headed for Mazomanie, WI. Where?!? As we passed through this charming little town, we couldn’t help but discuss how it is pronounced (or mispronounced). Is it just phonetically pronounced, or does it rhyme with Menomonie? Turns out it is phonetically pronounced as determined by MissPronouncer . If you’d like to hear it, click here. The roads and views are simply amazing — rolling hills surrounded by high bluffs — looks like it will be a great hiking location. As we got closer and closer to the park, we were getting on increasing smaller roads, twisting and turning up and down hills. We passed a couple of cyclists (who Mike was less than impressed with as they rode two abreast and would not go single file). We passed an “Adopt-a-Highway” sign that said it was adopted by “Horribly Hilly Hundreds”. Turns out that Horribly Hilly Hundreds is a cycling event where they enjoy riding uphill. It boasts 10,700 feet of elevation gain in 200K (125 miles). That’s nothing — at Perrot State Park we did 2,185 fee elevation gain in 11 miles. Hey cyclists — call us when you want a real challenge. ;-). Turns out those first two cyclists were the first of too many too count. We saw them everywhere, on the regular roads, park roads, heck we even saw them cycling by on the roads while we were on the hiking trails!! They were like ants — all in a line pedaling to the top of the park, circling and then heading back down.
On the way to the parking lot where we would begin our hiking adventures for the day we passed a stunning overlook — we knew we would be stopping back there later in the day (ok, maybe even more than once). The hiking began at the top of the park. We had no idea how much elevation change there was here, but we knew there would be some given the overlook we just passed! We went past a West Tower and began to descend…and descend…..and descend. Mike quickly admitted that yes, were were going to have to climb back up that hill to get back to where we started — although it would be on a different trail. The trails were very wide — wider than we usually see unless they are through grasslands or prairies. It was an awesome hike.
We ended up taking another couple of trails — and passing a couple of groups of hikers. One thing we noticed — other people are very loud while hiking. We can hear them a long way off. Our only hope is that we do not come across that way, and that people are surprised when they come upon us in the woods. We finally reached what we thought was the “bottom” of the hill and would now begin our climb back up. We quickly go to the “Friends Shelter” which Mike figured was halfway back up the hill (note: he was wrong). Mike also did check the map again and determined that we could climb up the hill and come out right at the overlook that we had seen earlier. Game on. We began climbing. Thankfully the trail changed from the wide open trail to about a foot wide beaten down path through the woods — somehow these are easier to hike when going up hill. Perhaps we just don’t notice the hill as much, but regardless with a couple of back and forths on the trail we popped out at the top right at the overlook. We made that whole climb without stopping — it felt awesome. The overlook did not fail to impress. Wisconsin really does have some absolutely stunning scenery!!!
The next hike of the day would take us off to the eastern side of the park. Not really a whole lot of jumping off points here, so we drove to over by the East Tower and began there. Just like where we started by the the West Tower, we immediately began to descend down some improvised steps. Mike (reluctantly and waiting to hear an f-bomb)had to inform Tammy that yes, we would be climbing back up these very same steps. They seemingly went on and on and Tammy was already worried about the climb back up. We knew we had to cross the road eventually to get out to the back side of the park but it still came as a surprise to see cyclists cruising, seemingly, through the forest. We quickly crossed the road and made it onto the “Weeping Rock” hiking trail. Once on this trail we immediately began descending a series of switchbacks making our way down to a little stream. We noticed some people on the trail behind us — we are kind of trail “snobs” — we like to hike alone. We don’t want to be pushed by anyone and we also do not want to hold someone up or have them pass us while we are taking a break, out of breath halfway up a hill. We didn’t really want to pick up our pace here as it was a stunning valley with couple of very narrow bridges over the creek. We finally made it to the “weeping rock” and it was amazing. An entire hillside of limestone with springs weeping down the sides — this must be absolutely beautiful in the winter when that water freezes. We never saw those people behind us again — perhaps they were snobs too and stopped to let us get ahead, or maybe they took longer enjoying the beauty of the trail. We then quickly began “the climb”. It started off nice and gradual, but it was the kind of trail that Tammy does not like to hike uphill: gravel, wide and straight. Mike doesn’t mind because he thinks you can just get into a rhythm and just keep going. Tammy doesn’t like it because all you have to look at is the hill ahead of you. Regardless we hiked up and Tammy never stopped — we could see a gate up the hill and Tammy decided that was where she would take a break. We made to the gate only to find — that was the TOP of the hill!! Yay!! We then had some nice level hiking across the edge of a prairie.
since we were hiking on level ground, we were able to really take in some of the beautiful flowers that we see in all the parks. We really should get a “wildflowers in Wisconsin book so we know what we are looking at.
After crossing the park road we took the “Walnut Hollow” trail. It is important to note that this is the third trail we have taken that had the word “hollow” in the name. We never really thought about it, but the other two were very hilly — this third one lived up to that “hollow” name. So much so that we had to lookup the definition of the word “hollow”, it means “valley”, yep, just what we thought. Valley is just another word for “hills” when hiking. We made it just fine however, but it was another of those long low sloped hills that Tammy hates. Along the way we came to a “night sight” trail (it connected the pool to the campground). The idea was that if you came along the trail at night with a flashlight there were animals off in the forest with red reflective eyes. We saw rabbits, deer, raccoons, and our first bear!!!! Tammy says it doesn’t count because it was just a wooden cutout in the shape of a bear, but I think it should count for like 1/4 of a bear.
We finally looped around to the bottom of the hill that would take us back to the car. Tammy knew that meant those dreaded stairs — she was not looking forward to this. We made it to the point where we would have to mount our assault on the stairs only to find a group of people in front of us. We decided to sit on the bench and take a five minute break to let those people get well ahead of us so there would be no chance of having to pass or worse yet, almost catch them only to have to stop and take a break. After five minutes we began heading up. It took us only a couple of minutes to catch up to those people — two ladies stopped in the middle of a flight of the steps. We decided we were just going to have to pass them, and maybe have them pass us again later. As we got closer we said our obligatory “Good afternoon”. Turns out that one of the ladies had just had a knee replaced so that is why she was going so slow — kudos to her, apparently she believes in Splorin’ Saturdays as well!!! We passed her and quickly came to her husband who was coming back down the path to check on her. We kept hearing little kids ahead of us too — thinking we would eventually catch up to them we suddenly popped out of the trail at the base of the East Tower. We were at the top!! Tammy and I just kind of looked at each other with the “WTH?” expression of what were we worried about? That hill was nothing!
We still had plenty of time left in the day. We were done hiking, but since we were staying in Madison for the night, we didn’t have to shower at the park. We were planning on showering at the hotel and then going to dinner. We decided to take it easy and head back to that overlook to play some cards. Luckily there was a picnic table right at the front edge of the overlook — it was in the sun, but it was a lovely day and not too hot. We sat and played a couple of games of cribbage.
We then drove to our hotel, stopping at Carr Valley cheese outlet in Middleton to pick up some fresh cheese curds. We also stopped and got a bottle of wine. We made it to the hotel, showered and we were ready for dinner.
We were excited about #SupperClubSaturday tonight. We headed to Toby’s Supper Club in Madison, WI. In our research to find the perfect supper clubs, we rely heavily on Google reviews. Not only does that give us an idea of what the food and atmosphere are like, it also let’s us in on any specific information that is important to that supper club. Our loyal readers may recall when our daughter Carrie accompanied us to the Branding Iron Supper Club in Wisconsin Rapids — that was the first time we encountered ordering food at the bar and then being seated when the food was ready. We found several reviews that mentioned they did this at Toby’s too, so we knew what was coming. We also found that it gets quite busy and sometimes you have to wait a long time. The bar opened at 3PM and they began serving dinner at 5PM. We figured getting there around 4:30PM would be perfect — and it was. We walked into this genuine old fashioned supper club all done up in wood with a big bar in the center. We took a couple of chairs at the bar and ordered drinks. Tammy had a classic Old Fashioned (in honor of Jude and Den’s wedding anniversary) — although she found it just a little too sweet for her liking.
We enjoyed the atmosphere — lots and lots of more senior people (we’re quickly getting there, but we still bring the average age down when we are present in these places). At about 4:45 the bar tender stopped by and ask if we were staying for dinner — we said we were and he got us menus and pointed out the specials of the day behind us on board. We then ordered from a waitress. The waitress came back about 10 minutes later and told us our table was ready. We were taken to the table where our salads were already waiting for us. We have to say, this is something that has been a surprise in our supper club experience and we love it — ordering food from the bar and being seated when it is ready. So — cool!!! It allows the restaurant to only have people at the table while they are eating and also allows patrons to show up and have a couple of drinks before eating and order when they are ready — rather than ordering a drink getting halfway through only to find out your table is ready and having to do the awkward do I pay for drinks at the bar, or do they go on my bill stuff.
The food was simply amazing. This was definitely one of our favorite supper clubs so far. We may just have to go back sometime.
All in all a very successful Splorin’ Saturday. We headed back to the hotel to get a good night’s sleep before our meeting in Madison the next afternoon. It was a nice change to only have a 30 minute drive.
Splorin' Saturday 