When Plans Go Awry: Improvisin’ 5/30/2020

Plans had been made and in place all week. We were going to be #Splorin’ at Trempealeau Wildlife Refuge along the mighty Mississippi River. This was going to be a great time #Splorin’: it is right in our neck of the woods — only about 1.5 hours away, which our Loyal Readers know is nothing for us. As the saying goes “Mike plans, God laughs” (well, close anyway). Thursday evening on their Facebook page, the wildlife refuge posts that their main entrance is closed due to high water on the Trempealeau River. The refuge is still open, but it is a 2 mile walk in from a remote parking area. With all the COVID restrictions in place, we had no ideas if bathrooms would be open or not. Luckily we could rely on our portable toilet — but that would mean going to the bathroom would involve a 2 mile hike back to the car and a 2 mile hike back into the refuge. No thanks, not with Tammy’s fickle bladder. 😦

Mike had already found breakfast and #SupperClubSaturday locations for us so we tried to ensure wherever we went we could still at least use those. We discovered long ago it is much easier to plan a location to go #Splorin’ first, and then find restaurants — we were reminded very heavily of this fact on this weekend. In the end we could not find anything too close to the refuge….in Wisconsin. But looking across the river in Minnesota, there was a state park ripe for #Splorin’: Whitewater State Park in Altura, MN. The plan did not come together until late in the evening on Friday, but wow — what an amazing park! But that’s getting ahead of ourselves.

Finding open restaurants is still a little bit of a challenge — especially in Minnesota since they only allowed outdoor dining at this time. But, there is a restaurant that we have driven past probably a hundred times (or more): Pier 4 Cafe and Smokehouse in Alma, WI. Alma is right on our way to Fountain City, WI where much of Tammy’s family originates. We have always said that we should stop in; it is such a cute little place right above the lock and dam. This cafe was everything we expect in a #SplorinSaturday cafe — “hole-in-the- wall”, cute decorations, hyper-local and great food. The only thing missing was a coffee klatsch of older gentlemen– oh well, maybe next week. Food was amazing — we had our “standard breakfast” but instead of a salad we had cottage cheese. The omelets were HUGE — probably 2 inches thick and covered the entire plate. We quickly felt bad about both asking for the cottage cheese as we each got a HUGE cup (probably a cup and a half)! There was no way we could finish — in fact in the end I think both of us left half of the cottage cheese.

It was on the way to Whitewater State Park that Mike had to let Tammy in on a little secret about today’s adventure: HILLS. The wildlife refuge was supposed to be a “walk in the park” with almost no elevation gain, but the trails at this state park have a LOT of elevation gain and loss — so instead of an easy day of #Splorin’ we were in for a day of ups and downs — literally.

However, before even starting hiking we had an interesting time. Since this is Minnesota, we’re non-residents and didn’t have a sticker to get into the park. We could not find any information about how we could buy one at the park — nothing said they were open, but it also did not say they were closed. We thought we would be able to get a day pass, or something. Turns out the only way to get a pass is online — but this park is in the middle of nowhere so getting a signal (even with Mike’s MiFi) was impossible. So, we figured we would have to drive somewhere to get a signal — but, right before we left Mike found that they have WiFi available at the contact station. Another nice surprise — Minnesota does not have different resident vs. non-resident prices, it is one fee for the sticker. With that purchased we were ready to start hiking.

Given the late evening find of this park, the plans and research for the trails were made a little hastily. We usually try to get at least 10 miles in, but Mike only planned for about 7 and figured we could wing the rest of it (insert dramatic foreshadowing music). The first trail was to be the longer one — the Dakota Trail. This was listed as 4.2 miles and “steep and hilly with over 200 stairs”. We left the parking lot and…..found the 200 stairs!!! We went up, up, up, and more up. It was somewhere around 150 feet up in the first 1/5th of a mile. The last part of the stairs was more of a ladder — straight up the rock face to Coyote Point. We were both out of breath; it was a incredible ascent. The view from the top was awesome — as usual Mike is much more about the climb and Tammy is much more about the view. This is mainly due to Mike’s foolish (to him) fear of heights. It is not really even a fear of heights, it is much more a fear of drop-offs/cliffs/etc. Anything where you look out and you can see hundreds of feet below you with what appearsto be nothing in between you and the drop off. We’ve hiked along a lot of very steep hills that are high up and he is completely unbothered because you can see the trees, brush, rocks, etc. that descend down the hill. All this is to say that Tammy goes to the edge and takes pictures while Mike stays back (usually hanging onto a nearby friendly tree or rock) and tells her (over and over) BE CAREFUL! Mike also doesn’t want to dawdle on these overlooks and wants to get hiking again. However, as we left Coyote Point he was in for a shock — you walk along a ridgeline that is maybe two feet wide with sheer drop-offs on either side of you. Mike just concentrated on picking his feet up and putting them down and, as you can imagine, he survived.

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The next mile or so of the Dakota Trail was absolutely breathtaking! Views of the Whitewater River and little rustic bridges that cross it were had at almost every turn. The trail, much to Mike’s chagrin, hugs the edge of the bluff. Sometimes the trail would go right along the edge and sometimes it would wander back into the trees a little bit. We knew the trail came to a point up ahead where we crossed the river, but we were still very high up. That means a downhill hike — and a significant downhill too. Tammy’s knees hate downhill hiking and in turn she dislikes it — but she is a trooper and may complain a little bit (nowhere near as much as Mike does over the heights), but her pain is physical, Mike’s is mental. The bluff got more and more narrow until we were essentially hiking down a stone ridge-line. Nowhere near as narrow as it was getting off Coyote Point, but it was quite steep and there were no steps.

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We now found ourselves in the river valley with high bluffs on either side of us. It was hard to imagine that we had just hiked up and down those steep bluffs. But we were not done yet — we now had to go up the bluff on the other side of the river. And we also had to get across the river. There was no bridge — rather there were very large stepping stones placed across the river. Mike found the crossing to be a piece of cake, but Tammy didn’t like it. Mike’s long legs makes the steps easy, Tammy’s shorter legs had a difficult time and she was uneasy with the water rushing by just inches below her feet. Crazy how these things affect people completely differently. Nonetheless we made it across with neither of us falling in — and we started the ascent on the other side. It should be noted that the trails are NOT very well marked. The map shows generally where the trails are, but the trails have no signs on them where they branch off. Usually this is not that big of a problem, but here the trails were very winding and changed directions quickly so it was easy to get turned around as to which way you were going.

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We quickly found ourselves at Signal Point (well, relatively quickly anyway) and looking back across the river valley to the bluff where we had hiked along on the other side. What a view!! The trail continues on along the bluff to Eagle Point where the map shows a hairpin turn back along the other side of the bluff — again you would think this would be easy to find, but it was not. While coming along the one side we could see a trail on the other side of the bluff. Tammy asked if we were on the right trail — Mike’s response “I sure hope so, because I do not want to walk along that one that is right on the edge of that cliff”. No time to even insert dramatic foreshadowing music because there was the hair-pin turn and we were on that trail on the edge of the cliff…ugh. We hiked for about 74 miles on that trail (ok, Mike says it seemed like 74 miles) before we made it down into the trees where Mike’s anxieties could ease a bit. Back down the bluff we were going. Mike glanced at his watch and saw that we had barely gone 3 miles by this point in time — WOW! It was almost 2.5 hours into the hike. Up and down is slow going — and we were not done yet.

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Once at the bottom of the hill we had to cross MN Highway 74 that bisects the park and…you guessed it…began to climb yet again. This time it was a little easier climbing, at least in terms of steepness — but it was a little harder because of all the hills we had done so far. We also did not have to climb all the way to the top of the bluff!! We finally started descending on the other side of the bluff and made our way down to a small parking lot by South Picnic area — BOY was it crowded!! People everywhere. And the bathrooms were open! At this point in time the bathrooms at Wisconsin state parks were still all locked up. We made our way back to the van, our portable toilet and most importantly water bottles!!

After a short break, we were going to walk the easy trail down along the Trout Run Creek — this was going to be an easy out-and-back trail before we started heading UP again. This trail was right off the parking lot for the overrun picnic area, so it quickly became apparent that the trail was going to be packed with people. Groups of 4 or more people were all the way along the trail making social distancing on the trail almost impossible. The trail up to Inspiration Point was along this trail and we quickly decided to abandon the easy creek trail and head UP. This was quite a climb — as you near the top you encounter a set of very narrow steps — it would be almost impossible to pass someone under normal circumstances, but with social distancing it would BE impossible. Luckily we did not encounter anyone on the steps and just climbed and climbed. Finally at the top we were provided with quite the view!! There were already several sets of people out on the point so we did not go out there (whew, no height issues for Mike). As we were there we saw a dad with two little girls (still in pajamas!) who was trying to take their picture. Mike offered to get a picture of all three with the beautiful background and they were very thankful. They were also kind of lost. They were only about half a mile from the picnic area, just down the steps and a little down the hill. Mike got him straightened out and the dad was happy that he didn’t have to go the entire way back they had come to get there. Apparently he was giving mom a break and had the kids out hiking! Great dad!! Two women overheard Mike giving the dad directions and asked him about the trails and where they had to go, of course, he got them going in the right direction too. Funny, less than 18 hours ago we had no idea this park even existed and now here is Mike giving people directions on where the trails go.

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The next highlight after Inspiration Point is Chimney Rock — this about a half mile hike along the ridge. While it was only half a mile, we encountered about 1000 people (ok, maybe an exaggeration….but just a little). We can never figure out either why it is always us who step to the side of the trail to let others pass — oh well, Wisconsin nice! Although it happens in Wisconsin all the time too. It was decided right then and there that we were done!! Make it back to the car and go! But we had to get to Chimney Rock first — that was quite a sight, again it is hiking along some fairly steep bluffs, and going uphill, but smaller than earlier in the day. As we started making our way down the hill we encountered a group of 3 younger gentlemen. They all had camo backpacks on and had a variety of accents (Southern, Texas and what sounded like New York). It became obvious they were military. When we passed them they too asked Mike about the park and the river below looking a little dried up. When we were done talking to them and started walking away they one said “thank you for the information sir”, after Mike said a quick “you’re welcome” he added on “…and ma’am”. Yep, definitely military. As our old joints slowly had us making our way down the steps, this group of three men quickly caught up and we stepped aside to let them pass just as we stepped on a step that was not solid. We were able to warn them about it and once again we got the “sir” and “ma’am” treatment. Once at the bottom of the hill we decided to make a little detour on the way to the car and head back to the group campsite to see what they were like, and they were very nice! We were quickly back at the van and getting ready to leave for #SupperClubSaturday.

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Our #SupperClubSaturday destination this week was Vino Over the Valley in Arcadia, WI. We have been to their sister restaurant Vino in the Valley in Maiden Rock, WI many times so we were anxious to try this one out — one thing we like is good wine and good food!! We made our way down through Winona, MN and across the river. We thought we were going to be going through Fountain City, but Google had other plans and directed us a different route — which we did not know existed and was really pretty! One thing we saw on the way there was dragon flies!!! Lots and lots and LOTS of dragon flies. They were everywhere! We were going to be arriving at the restaurant about 1 minute after they opened — we thought no way would we have any problems getting in. However, as we rounded the last corner of WI Highway 95 we saw….motorcycles, seemingly an endless number of motorcycles. We had forgotten that right next door to Vino over the Valley was a bar, apparently a biker bar, called “Larry’s Lookout“. This bar is owned by the same person who owns the two ‘Vino” restaurants. It was almost impossible to find a parking spot — there were motorcycles parked all over the lot blocking ways to get to the restaurant. Mike was lucky to find a spot right next to the bar that was open, otherwise it would have been parking on the highway.

Once we made it to the restaurant there was a sign that said they were seating people socially distanced so there might be a little longer wait than usual. We weren’t worried there was almost no one else there. We were seated at a table with a gorgeous view of the valley and thousands of dragon flies and several bluebirds.

We ordered a bottle of wine (duh!) and two appetizers: a cheese and meat sampler and our favorite the stuffed mushrooms. The stuffed mushrooms were good, although just barely warm. The cheese and meat sampler was good, but not anything “exotic” that you might think of at a higher end restaurant and we were not told what the meats or cheeses were.

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Unfortunately we ran out wine during the appetizers so we had to order another bottle — shucks! Thankfully Tammy drank more of the second bottle than Mike! Our dinners were both salads — Black and Bleu Steak for Tammy and the Italian Cobb for Mike. They were both good, but Mike’s had so much lettuce on it they must have thought he had a couple of pet rabbits at home that needed to be fed. But Mike at all the “good stuff” out of the salad and we took the extra lettuce home. We noticed that as it got later and the restaurant started to get busier that their version of “socially distanced seating” was not what we would really expect. Rather than seating people at every other table, they just sat people on one half of the restaurant (the side with the gorgeous view). So, by the time we left there were people at the table immediately behind each of us. Not much distancing going on there. 😦

It was time to leave. A very uneventful drive and home early again on another exciting #SplorinSaturday!!!