Nothing like last minute change of plans…..we originally had planned to stay close to home today and just head up to Lake Wissota State Park (yes, we’ve been there before) and try out our new Christmas presents: snowshoes!!! But, the weather was supposed to be good and we’ve still got plenty of Wisconsin state parks to so — we (foolishly?) decided with the nice weather this would be a good day to tackle three smaller parks that would require a lot of driving. This was going to be a long day, so….
….we started early. We were out of the driveway at 5:36AM (darn it, late again). This was going to be a tough day — a lot of driving and a lot of hiking, so time was of the essence (insert dramatic foreshadowing music). Our first park of the day was way down in Southwestern Wisconsin (across the river from Iowa and almost to Illinois) so we were taking a very familiar route: I-94 to Hwy 27 South. We are always on the lookout for “firsts” during our Splorin’ and this time, the drive didn’t disappoint. Just south of Black River Falls, out in the middle of nowhere (so it was completely pitch black) something started across the road from the ditch on the left side. Mike saw it immediately and hit the brakes. He initially thought it was a deer, but it ended up being a very large owl…..carrying a very large rabbit. It made it about 6 feet in the air and started to cross the road. Luckily Mike was able to slow down enough so it made it across the road without coming through the windshield!! That was a little too close for wildlife viewing.
As we got closer to southern Wisconsin, somewhere around Westby — we noticed that it started to look like there was a light amount of snow on the ground. Not a lot, just a light trace. We were heading to Boscobel, WI and the Unique Cafe. The best way we could describe the Unique Cafe is that it was …. unique. How many cafes do you go to that have medieval suits of armor in them? That and ALL the other thousands of little memorabilia/kitschy type items. We were very happy to see that the men’s Saturday morning coffee klatsch was in full swing in the back of the restaurant, but we couldn’t sit near them as there were no other tables available there. Mike had his usual meat omelette with a side of bacon, Tammy had a “unique” omelette — sausage, mushrooms and marinara sauce, and we both had huge salads with lots of veggies in them. When one of the men from the coffee klatsch got up to leave he stopped by our table looked at Mike and said “Hey kid”. Mike looked at him, then at Tammy, then back to him and he finally realized that he was mistaken and said “I thought you were one of the Miller boys”. Tammy told him that we were from Eau Claire and he started asking what we were doing in town and Tammy had to explain it all to him. He was a little hard of hearing because every time Tammy said something he leaned forward and said “Huh?” It was kind of funny…nice local retired guy. We learned after he left our table and stopped to talk to someone a couple of tables away (coffee klatch guys always stop to talk to everyone on their way out) that his name was Lyle. We finished up and headed out to enjoy the rest of the day.
Almost immediately after leaving the cafe we ran into … ice. We decided to do this today because of the weather, yet here we were going down these twisty, curvy, country roads that are covered with ice and snow. We ended up have to go pretty slow to ensure we stayed on the road. The reason the road was so curvy was that it was following a river — it was beautiful!! The light snow that had fallen overnight to make the roads treacherous, made the trees on this hills and valleys along the river absolutely stunning! We finally made to the end of that road and onto a big highway — thankfully we would leave those icy roads behind us. Not. We went on the highway for about 1 mile before we turned onto “Fairground Rd.” which would take us to Bloomington! Never knew there was a Bloomington, WI (Mike has spent 4 days a week in Bloomington, IL at State Farm for the last 14 years). Fairground Road was even more treacherous that the last road. This was a very straight, narrow, up and down hill road that was very slippery. Tammy thought Rollercoaster Road would be a better name! We met about 5 or 6 cars and trucks along this road and every time we thought we were going off the road. But enough about the drive, let’s get to the park.
Our first park of the day was Nelson Dewey State Park. This is a very small state park on top of a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River you had to drive up to the top of the bluff from below. Mike had “The Plan” ready — we were going to drive to the far end of the bluff and do a loop hike that would, at most, be about 2 miles (across 4 or 5 different trails). As we turned onto the road that would take us to the park entrance, Mike said “I sure hope this isn’t a park that has a closed gate during the winter.” We’ve been to a couple of these, but they stated this on the website — that you had to walk in, but Mike had not looked closely at this one. Across from the entrance to the park, were signs for Stonefield Historic Site; it was closed for the winter but Tammy was curious what it was all about. Of course, we turned into the parking lot to a closed gate. It was more than a mile walk up the drive to the top of the bluff — we quickly discussed and decided even though we were on a tight schedule — we would walk to the top if we couldn’t drive. Well, we paid our self registration entrance fee and began the hike up. It wasn’t too bad as we made it to the group camp — then it began to climb elevation pretty quickly. No one else had walked to the top yet and with the light snow that had fallen, there were animal tracks everywhere. One set of tracks caught Tammy’s eye more than the rest.
She kept saying the were “Tigger” tracks, because, well, you know — Tiggers bounce! Unfortunately Tiggers are extinct in Wisconsin — Mike found out later that they were some type of weasel tracks (more than likely Mink). After a 300 foot elevation climb up the road, we were ready to begin hiking. Tammy was already near the top of her frustration scale because her new boots were still bothering her. She had picked up gel insoles but they didn’t help at all.
Mike had something new to try today — a hiking app and website that he uses to find trails now allows Android users to record their hikes so they can be shared with others. If you are interested, click here for the trails that we hiked at Nelson Dewey State Park. Our first trail was the Woodbine Nature Trail. It was just a short paved trail (even though we couldn’t tell because of the leaves and snow) but when we got around to the far side — it afforded us a breathtaking view of the Mississippi River.
We then moved on to the Mound Point Trail. Mike thought this 0.6 mike trail would just follow the top of the bluff from one end of the park to the other. Well, the only thing he had right was that it went from one end of the park to the other….but instead of following the top of the bluff, it followed along the side of the bluff. It was absolutely gorgeous!! Lots of little “sneak peaks” of the river that you would never see in the summer. Up and down the ridges, over little bridges in the valleys, it was an awesome hike!!
At the end of this trail we had to walk down the road a bit to get to the next trail. Unfortunately Mike read the map a little wrong (as he is very apt to do) and we walked farther on the road than expected. But alas, we finally found the Prairie trail. While this trail was very short, it had amazing views.
The last trail on the bluff side of the park was Cedar Point Trail. It quickly became apparent why it was called Cedar Point — the trail led you to a point with a cedar tree on it. 😉 Once again, cannot say enough about the views.
The funny thing here was that we were at the far end of the bluff where we had planned to start our hike if we had been able to drive all the way to the top and we were literally only about 100 yards (straight up) from our car in the parking lot below.
We made our way back to the top of the road along the Oakwood Trail which was just a nice walk in the woods. As usual for our hikes we found cool mushrooms.
We spent about 1.5 hours more at this park than we expected — we had better get on the road, we have an hour drive to our next stop — Belmont Mound State Park. The trails we hiked were mapped by Mike here. Once again, this is a small park — only a couple miles of hiking trails, but we were ready to take them on!! The sun was out in full force now, making it hard to get a good picture of our starting point. Despite the little bit of snow, Tammy had decided she had had enough of her painful boots and traded them out for her summer hikers — better to get wet feet than have to say Hail Mary’s and Our Fathers for another whole hike!
We took off from the parking lot to go up the Tower Trail which leads to the top of the mound. It goes straight up hill from the parking lot. No long slope with switchbacks…just straight up. We made it up to the tower and found a map that someone had made with all sorts of trails on it — lots more than were on the “official” map of the state park. It turns out these were trails that someone marked off with ribbons as s/he didn’t think there were enough. We made it back down to the parking lot and instead of doing the whole next trail, we just did the loop around the mound. We were running out of time if we were still going to make it to the last park on the list. It was a very pretty — and easy — hike. Along the way you pass an abandoned limestone quarry — the bluffs are pretty high.
We were now really cutting it close on time. We had an hour and 15 minute drive to get to Governor Nelson Dewey State Park and then a 45 minute drive to the supper club — we wanted to leave the state park by 3:15 in order to make it to the supper club early enough, but given that it was 1:45, we would not arrive at the state park until 3:00. Oh well, we would do our best. We may not be able to hike much at the state park, but times a wasting — let’s hit the road!
We made it to Governor Nelson Dewey State Park right at 3:00 — we had already talked about and decided that we were just going to hike one trail. Mike picked the trail that was most like the trails we enjoy hiking — through the woods and we took off down the VERY icy trail.
The sun reflecting off the trail was quite bright — the picture doesn’t really do it justice. The trail was so icy that most of the way we had to walk along the very edge of the trail in order to get good footing. We made it around the Woodland Trail pretty quickly — in about half an hour. We were ready to get changed and hit the road. In the middle of the summer we had to take showers before getting changed and Supper Club Saturday, but in the winter we’ve learned to change at a gas station or just in the car. This time it was in the car in the parking lot. Luckily, since losing weight and being in better shape, we are more flexible and don’t have a problem changing in the car!!
It was about 3:40 when we left — we were headed to Cimaroli’s Supper Club. We’d read reviews that said we should arrive early or there would be a wait (although probably not as bad as the Black Otter). We made it there at 4:20ish (not too bad) and got right in with no problems at all. Although there were a LOT of people there, it seems like many arrive early for a few cocktails and we were even asked if we wanted to be seated right away. Yes, yes we do — we’ve been ‘splorin’ all day! We ordered our drinks (no more wine for us at Supper Club Saturday) and an appetizer of “Portabella” Mushrooms (yes, that is how it was spelled on the menu). Mike had the prime rib and Tammy had flat iron steak and shrimp. Honestly? Neither of them were that great. Mike’s prime rib, ordered rare, was medium at best and was not seasoned at all. Instead of ordering a potato we always ask about a vegetable. The waitress said the vegetable that day was squash. Ok — sounds great. About 5 minutes before our food came out Mike said “Hmm, I hope the squash is not acorn squash.” Tammy guffawed and said she thought it would be summer squash. Well, low and behold out comes acorn squash with our meal. It turns out that it really does not have that many more carbs than summer squash, and once again Mike and his ESP strikes again. While the food wasn’t great — the company was, like always, the best!!! A day with each other is what we are looking forward to the most on ‘Splorin’ Saturdays!!!
Thankfully we “only” had a two hour drive home. Finally made it home around 7:30. We ended up driving 471 miles in 9 hours and 2 minutes. Ugh….well, it needs to be done!! We will take Wisconsin’s state motto and make it our own: Forward!!
Splorin' Saturday 