This was a hike we’ve done before, but a ‘Splorin trip is not always about finding some place new. Sometimes you have to head back to places you’ve already been to but at different times of the year just to see how different they are in the different seasons. Perrot State Park was on the docket for today and it is a park that we will go back to many, many times. Not only is the scenery utterly amazing, the elevation gains on the hikes are really a really great workout! AND it is only 90 minutes away!!
But sometimes even the best made plans go a little sideways. Breakfast this morning was supposed to be in Tammy’s parent’s hometown of Fountain City, WI at the Wing Dam Bar and Grill. However, Mike messed up on what time they opened and we found out that we would be arriving a little too early. We quickly regrouped and Tammy found us River Ratz Saloon in Buffalo City, WI that opened at 7AM.
The only problem was that the website said they opened at 7, but they didn’t “really” open until 8….oh well, there was a line of people waiting to get in when they finally opened the doors so we weren’t the only people who checked the hours online. I don’t know if you could really call it a coffee klatch, but you could call it people who knew each other and sat at the bar drinking coffee and catching up on their local stories. The restaurant was wonderful and the sayings that were posted all over the restaurant were hilarious. Including the ones on the wall on the outside of the building.
Tammy has a thing for taking pictures in bathrooms and Mike usually scoffs at that, but this time he had to take the picture in the guy’s bathroom as we were leaving.
With that, we were off down the road in search of Perrot State Park and some hills to climb. It was supposed to be an absolutely beautiful day — mid 50s and sunny. Mike had already said he was going to be OK with the thought there would probably be a lot of people, but all y’all out there that know Mike and his hiking style know that is a lie. ;-). We parked and were the only car there….for 30 seconds. Another car pulled in and two ladies jumped out and started up the trail in front of us….ugh, Mike was already perturbed. But they were fast and were talking about “stress-induced incontinence” when they walked past the van, so maybe they were in a hurry looking for a bathroom?
The trail started off a little rocky with some compacted snow and ice, but we soon got beyond that ugly mess to some beautiful views.
This was Brady’s Bluff Trail. Anyone who has been to Perrot knows that this trail goes straight up hill. You got up about 500 feet in about half a mile. Is a very strenuous workout, but the views you get on the way up are outstanding!
When you finally recover from the hiking straight up the side of the bluff, you could sit and look out at the view for days. Nothing can prepare you for the beauty.
The only thing you can’t do when re-visiting a park is hike the trails in the same manner again. While we started doing the immediate climb to the top of Brady’s Bluff the same way from the same parking lot, instead of going off the back side, Mike had a plan to take us down the front to the park office. So after a quick respite to enjoy the view at the top, we were on the move again. We encountered a couple of people heading up on our way down, but not too many. The trail is so steep you have several switchbacks that you have to traverse. One of them is in the middle of huge grass field on a very steep section of the hill. This picture looks like the camera was twisted at an angle, but I can assure you it was level.
Mike thinks this was the inspiration for the “As you wish…” scene from “The Princess Bride”, but he thinks a lot of crazy stuff.
We made it to the park office to find that the parking lot there was already completely full. Ugh, Mike’s patience would be tried today, but we headed back up the Perrot Ridge Trail in the reverse direction we took last time. We passed a nice little waterfall and some obvious storm damage where they had to reroute the trail because trying to restore the trail would have caused more damage than just rerouting it. Unfortunately this portion of the trail was a very long and consistent climb up. Where Brady’s Bluff is a blast of straight up, this was a long drawn out up where you never really got a level stretch to catch your breath.
The top of Perrot Ridge is as equally breathtaking as Brady’s Bluff. However, the climb down the front of Perrot Ridge is NOT for the faint of heart. It is climbing straight down some very steep sandstone rock faces. As we neared the bottom we saw someone coming up the trail who stopped and exclaimed “Well, hello to my favorite hiking couple!” It was a friend from Eau Claire, Lucinda. We’ve joked before that she must “follow” us as she seems to travel to places we have been recently, but this time we coincided at the same place! What a small world!
We still had to ascend and descend Brady’s Bluff one more time, so after our quick conversation with Lucinda we were off yet again. Climbing up the back of Brady’s Bluff is actually more strenuous than going straight up the front. There are no steps on the back side so it is all uphill hiking on some very steep sections. We huff and puffed but made it to the top. We had decided to go back down the same way again rather than go down the stairs that we had taken on the first trip to the top. Tammy was concerned about the potential to meet a lot of people on the those narrow stairs and the difficulty passing them so we opted for the “safer” option. Once we made it back to the park office we decided to walk along the Riverview Trail on a different section than we had done before so it was worth it!! We also got to walk along the railroad tracks and even got to see a train pass us
We were both pretty tuckered out and ready for our “happy hour”. This week’s happy hour was going to be a little different. Rather than sitting in the car and enjoying it, Mike brought a little charcoal grill, camp chairs and our new bluetooth speaker and we were going to head to our campsite where we will be staying at the end of June and enjoy a little picnic. However, when we got to the campsite there was actually someone camping in the one right next to it — so in order to allow them their privacy, we went to the next campsite up. We enjoyed our time enjoying the view, drinking, eating and listening to music. But, we had more hiking to do!!
We were going out on the ski trails. We knew there were some fairly big hills along this trail, but we were ready (or so we thought). As we started down the trail at the first junction point where we were going to turn, the trail was closed. A little further down the main trail was closed too. We thought for sure these were closures for skiing and not for hiking, so we went around the signs and kept going. We then hit our limit — there is a very long and fairly steep hill on this trail called “Tow Rope Hill”. By the time we got to the top of that we decided to re-evaluate what we were doing. We knew the big loop was very strenuous and maybe just a little too much for us to get done and still make it to dinner, so Mike re-planned us a way back to the van that wasn’t quite so long or hilly. We made it back to the van with plenty of time to get ready for #SupperClubSaturday.
Again in the “we’ve done this before” theme, we were heading back to Arctic Springs Supper Club in Galesville, WI. This is an awesome little out of the way supper club that we stumbled upon by accident a couple years ago. It is situated on a lovely little lake that we have never seen as it has always been dark when we’ve been there, but the waitresses have always told us how beautiful it was. We arrived with enough time to sit at the bar and have a drink. We joined two older couples at the bar and listened to the stories they were swapping — it was almost like a coffee klatch with cocktails. After a while one the gentlemen looked at Mike and asks “Are you Butch?” Mike just looked back and said “Nope, we’re from Eau Claire!”. The gentlemen’s wife said “I could have told you that wasn’t Butch, because that is not Butch’s wife!”. Mike being the smartass that he is, said “Well, don’t call Butch’s wife and ask her if Butch is around — maybe he is out fishing”. We all had a good laugh — I guess we are going to have stop calling them “older” soon and start calling them “peers”.
The drive home was, thankfully, uneventful. Time to start planning ‘Splorin for our trip to Illinois!!
Splorin' Saturday 