Willow River State Park is the park just outside of Hudson, WI where we grew up. We spent a lot of time at this state park in our youth – going there just the two of us or with family and we thought we knew this park well. Turns out — we don’t know jack!!!! We were thinking we would save this park for last in our Splorin’ adventure since it was one that we thought we knew and loved. However, life sometimes throws you curve balls and it ended up that we could either go Splore’ this park or skip Splorin’ for this weekend as we had to attend a celebration of life for a childhood neighbor. Since the weather was absolutely gorgeous, we opted to head out to Willow River after paying our respects to the Hatch family.
“The Plan” for this park was to do two hikes — parking by the group camp and doing essentially two 3 mile loops. Given two of our last three Splorin’ adventures were overrun with millions and millions of people (ok, that’s an exaggeration, it was only thousands and thousands) Mike was concerned when we parked and saw people heading down the trail we were going to be taking. Once again, he was crotchety. However, we quickly got going and were able to separate ourselves from all the people.
We began heading down the Oak Ridge Trail and quickly peeled off to the Whitetail Trail. This was supposed to be a simple 1 mile loop. However, after starting on it we encountered a place where the trail split. Hmmm….this was not on the map. Mike quickly surmised that there were some additional trails that were just cut for cross country skiing over the winter. So, we decided to take the well-worn trail and leave the freshly cut trail for the skiers. We were back on the Oak Ridge Trail after a mile. Mike claimed he remembered this trail from cross country skiing it with his sister, Ann. Every hill that we came to would say “OK, this is the big hill that I remember at the end of the trail”. It wasn’t until we were actually at the LAST hill of the trail that he was right (just because it WAS the last hill). Oh well, he tried to remember.
Something happened along the Oak Ridge Trail that has never happened before. Mike suddenly started talking about changing “The Plan”. He mentioned that he had seen a trail that never existed at the park when we used to come here. It was going to be an additional 4 miles or so of hiking, but it sounded neat. Tammy immediately stepped up to the challenge and said “Let’s do it!!!”. She rocks!!! So we immediately had a new “The Plan” and we’d do it!
At the end of the Oak Ridge Trail we made a quick diversion to the beach — which we already knew was closed because of construction on the dam — to go to the bathroom. As we got closer to beach we saw a very strange sight (well, at least to us) — there was NO lake. There was a beach, but it led to prairie where the lake had always been. It was funny to see the “No Lifeguard on Duty” sign. They obviously would protect you from drowning in the prairie grass.
We then were able to head down the trail that we thought we knew the best — Trout Brook Trail. This was the trail that we walked many times in our younger days — hand in hand when we could only imagine what our future could bring. Little did we know that our future would stir memories we thought we had, but apparently we really didn’t. We thought we remembered wide open prairie on this trail, but now it looked so different. There wasn’t so much long grass, it was mostly trees, trees, and more trees. But, some of it looked a little familiar.
After making our way around the loop portion of the Trout Brook Trail we made it back to the bridge that would take us to the new (to us) Nelson Farm Trail. This trail would eventually wind it’s way to the falls (which we had never been to as well). Crossing the river we snapped a couple of selfies and made our way.
Mike checked on his new favorite app (The Hiking Project) and saw that we would have 306 feet elevation gain along this trail. We found that we accomplished half of this within the first half mile of the trail. We went, seemingly, straight up hill. Mike found the hill a little more challenging that typical – but he thinks it is because of carrying an extra 20 pounds or so in the backpack. Nonetheless we made it to the top of the hill a little beat, but we never stopped; we kept moving and catching our breath over the next little bit that was more or less level. The remainder of the Nelson Farm Trail was pretty — but it started to get boring as it was a wide grass trail with very thick brush on either side of the trail — not much to see.
Tammy noticed that this trail was by far the most “consistently hilly”. It was a long series of rolling hills, up and down. The gravel surface made the downhills difficult. There were a couple of these hills that we basically slid down most of the way as the it was just that steep. We did come to one very beautiful spot overlooking the non-existent lake but there were already two people there. They had left their bags on the bench and were sitting on the edge of the overlook — essentially taking all the space available. :-(. Tammy wanted to stop for a picture anyway, but Mike didn’t want to stop. Hindsight, as usual, proves that Tammy was right — we should have stopped.
We eventually made to the end of the trail and arrived at the Willow Falls. How in the world did we not know these were here? We thought this was our favorite state park yet we had no idea these falls were here!!! We decided that we would blame this on growing up without the internet. Had we had the internet and the ability to search for things, we would have known that these existed. Regardless – they were outstanding!!! Mike got the change to model the new backpack that we (well, he) carries with us when we go Splorin’ now (and if you look closely you will see our hiking poles that we have yet to use, but we will soon).
Wow, the falls, just wow….no other words can describe them. We did sit down for a couple of minutes just to take in the breathtaking view. But, we were quickly getting cold, so off we went….down the Burkhardt Trails.
This trail would either lead us up 8 billion steps to an overlook, or would take us through the woods up the hill to the overlook and then back down the 8 billion steps. Since Mike hates going up steps and would MUCH rather go up a hill, we headed for the hills. The hill was difficult — it was long but nowhere near as steep as the earlier trail. We made it to the top and began following the trails to the overlooks. We made it to the first overlook to find we were alone there! Even though Mike is not to fond of looking straight down — the railings were metal here and very sturdy so he did…OK.
As we left the first overlook it began to “fersgadruzzle”. That is a combination of freezing rain, drizzle and snow. The sky looked no different than it had all day after the sun went behind the clouds, but it was precipitating. Mike checked the radar only to see that it would be raining/snowing for the rest of the hike. We made it to the next overlook and even though there were people there, Mike still went out. He actually took a selfie there too!!!
Now we had to head down the 8 billion steps to get back to the falls bridge. The steps were metal and open mesh. It was kind of disorienting to be able to look down at the steps and see all the way to the ground. It definitely would have been easier (on the eyes at least) to climb the steps instead of descending them. We did (obviously) make it down to the falls. We took another minute to admire the falls that we never knew existed and then because of the rain were off to the car.
On our way back to the car we took the Willow Falls Trail which wound it’s way along the “lake shore” (that is in quotes because there is no lake). We decided that we have to return and do this park again once the construction on the dam is complete and the lake is back to its old self. We made it back to the car after making our way through the campground and passing a gentleman who definitely did NOT want to be passed. Sorry old man — you go slow you get left in the dust!!
Upon arriving back at the car Tammy was within inches of tapping the car — the signal to stop the hike counter on Mike’s watch when Mike told her to “WAIT!”. We had hiked 9.97 miles. We couldn’t stop there — so we did a quick lap around the parking lot to get us to 10.02 miles. We think that was the longest single hike that we have ever completed. We then were off to Tammy’s sister Vic’s house to change for dinner.
#SupperClubSaturday was to be at a place that we have been many times. We figure this was acceptable since we had been to Willow River State Park before. We went to Jake’s Supper Club.Too wet and too dark for a picture. We have probably been to this supper club at least 10 times before. Once with Tammy’s parents on one of their anniversaries, once for our senior prom, and both Meghan and Carson, and Carrie and Michael have been there for prom as well. This is a special place for us. The “specialness” fell a couple of notches for us when we were seated in a booth in the bar instead of the dining room overlooking the Red Cedar River. Next time we know not to fall for the “Would you like to sit in a booth?” question. But, we got to spend time with one another – if that is not the definition of winning, we don’t know what it is.
We love Splorin’!!!!
Splorin' Saturday 