We did not Splore last week — instead we spent our Saturday with family in Governor Dodge State park celebrating Easter. It was a nice, socially distanced day for us. But this made us all the more excited to get back to Splorin’.
In our vast years of Splorin’ experience there are several things we try to avoid: bugs (mosquitoes, wood ticks, black flies, horse flies, etc.), mud (“pre-spring” in Wisconsin) and people. People? Even in the pre-pandemic, world our Splorin’ has been about us (and several “guest splorers” that we have shared this experience with) and getting out into nature on the trails where it is quiet, peaceful and serene. It is not something we really want to share with tens or hundreds of people that we don’t know who too many times are too loud, too messy and just plain spoil the experience for us. Why mention that this week? Mike had a Splorin’ trip planned right down to the breakfast restaurant, #SupperClubSaturday, trails, etc. for this weekend. But there was a possibility that the weather would not be so nice — cold and possibly rainy. Now, that doesn’t stop us, but it does stop many, many other folks, which is why Mike has added a new Splorin’ rule: “When the weather is expected to be adverse, drop current plans and head for a more popular location”. Why? Well, when the weather is not nice we can go visit the places that are usually crawling with people, because “fair weather adventurers” tend to stay home. So — we decided to shelve the plan for this weekend and head to one of those locations: the Dells of the Eau Claire County Park in Aniwa, WI. We’ve heard and seen so much about this park, but it is one of those places that is usually overrun with people, so we have not visited yet. Well today was this park’s lucky day to have two hardy Splorers’ such as us visit!!
We started out, as always, listening to the Y106.5 Saturday Morning Polka Party with Don Wayerski while driving to Wausau. We were excited to have found a little eclectic type breakfast place, but as we neared downtown Wausau we noticed something strange. Many of the stop lights were out and their stop signs were popped open. We saw quite a few people running right through these stop signs. We finally found the one-way street that the restaurant was on and were surprised to see no cars out front. As we pulled up and parked we could see why — there were no lights on inside. It was kind of like Benders in Elroy all over again — but this was different, there were no lights on…..anywhere. None of the businesses, etc. So, we had to resort to backup planning (which Mike messed up on this one and didn’t really have a backup this time — WHAT?) and searched for a new breakfast stop. We made our way to Blue Willow Cafe, in Wausau, WI. This is yet another formulaic family restaurant in the “Altoona Family Restaurant” genre.
We have to laugh when we find them because they are all the same: a huge menu, someone always roving with a coffee pot, food that comes out fast, typical “American homestyle” cooking and pies/desserts. They are never the best restaurants, but they also are never the worst — they know what works for them and for their customers. So — we enjoyed our “standard Splorin’ breakfast” with coffee and nice conversation. Unfortunately there were no coffee klatches here, but lots of families enjoying breakfast including a couple of “regular” elderly gentlemen sitting at the counter where every time a waiter or waitress would walk by for the first time they would greet them with a “Good morning Bob, how are you doing today!?”.
Per usual Mike has our planning done at a detailed level — where we’re going to park, walk, have happy hour etc. We arrived at the Dells of the Eau Claire County Park and turned down the road to the parking lot only to find the road blocked off with a gate. It appears that where we were going to park was in an area associated with the campgrounds and they were not open for the year yet. We saw a couple of cars back on the other side of the road, but having to park somewhere differently puts the plan into chaos. Luckily it was just a half-mile or so off from where we were going to park. There were only three or four cars in the parking lot — which is EXACTLY why were here today. The weather was a little chilly (40ish), cloudy and still a slight chance of rain. Mike ended up putting the legs back on his hiking pants and opting for a light jacket — and he was very thankful he did because it was a chilly first couple of miles.
This is one of those locations where the main attraction is right there by the parking lot. Literally 100 yards from the parking lot is the rushing, crashing, roaring Eau Claire River. It is truly an amazing sight to behold. At the first overlook the river appears to be going in 10 different directions at a time. There had been rain for the last couple of days so we think it was running a little higher than usual, but to see all the swirling, churning, boiling water flow around all those rocks, ledges, and little (and big) obstructions was mesmerizing.
Some could sit and watch this all day! But not us, we had hiking to do!! We enjoyed the view for a little while, but soon started hiking down the trail. The Ice Age Trail cuts through this park and we were hiking down it for a little ways following the familiar yellow blazes. The trail leads right alongside the river, we stopped several times to enjoy the view and take some pictures.
We ran into a little family with a two year old who found an acorn in the middle of the trail and was excited to be able to show us as we walked on by — cute! We then came to a part of the trail where we rose up above the river and there was a chain link fence blocking the river side of the trail. You could tell you were right on the edge of a bluff, but the fence kind of spoils the natural look. Sure, it probably saves a several lives a year, but come on man, nature! At the end of this section we arrived at the bridge over the Eau Claire River — we didn’t cross it as the other side of the river would be saved for hiking a little later in the morning.
We soon were venturing off the Ice Age Trail back onto a local park trail that was heading towards the group campground. The walking was pretty easy here — it was a two lane rutted road trail that had some muddy and wet spots, but they were easy enough to get around. We ran into another small family with two dogs and two kids — the dad asked us “Are there a lot of people up ahead?” This confirmed our decision to change plans for today and pleased us. No — there were not a lot of people and that is exactly why we were here today! Obviously they were regulars who know what the park can get to be like. The trail was nice, typical wooded scenery but a lot of standing water and even little trickles of water down the trail. There must be springs nearby in the woods that keep this so wet — it had rained, but we didn’t think it had rained that much.
We finished our first little loop and were back at the parking lot and headed across the bridge over the river to reach our next loop. This was to take us back around the other side of the park and meet up with the Ice Age Trail again. It was a very cool section of trail. The earlier trail could be called “woodland,” this part of the trail could be called “swampy primeval”. What is “swampy primeval”? Think Princess Bride and the Fire Swamp where Westley and Buttercup encounter the lightening sand, fire spurts and Rodents of Unusual Size. No, we did not see any of those, but the scenery was very similar — in other words, very stunning and beautiful. We came upon a little shelter that had been built out of the local granite rocks that you see everywhere around. Unfortunately it was covered with graffiti on the inside, but it was really cool.
Thankfully we emerged from the “swampy primeval” forest unscathed and met up with the Ice Age Trail again. This is another aspect of Splorin’ where we need to leave a little leeway in our planning. We never know exactly how fast we are going to hike (due to conditions, elevation, etc.) so we try to leave variable pieces where we have options to add or subtract from a hike. At this point, it was about 30 minutes to get back to the van, but we had about an hour and 40 minutes until we needed to be back. That meant we were going to be able to do an “out and back” hike on this segment of the Ice Age Trail that would last just a little over an hour — SWEET! Mike set and alarm on his phone and down the trail we went. Once again the trail was following right along the Eau Claire River. The river was still raging and there were lots of rapids. We wondered if there were ever people that braved the river and kayaked down it. Certainly not something we would do, but it would be cool to see.
Soon enough we were down and back on that section of the Ice Age Trail and at the van to drive a couple miles to tackle one half of the Plover River Segment of the Ice Age Trail.
We had enough time to do an out-and-back hike on the lower portion of this segment and it was a mighty beautiful walk in the woods. It started off on some narrow “board walk” and crossed a little stream. We had fun trying to dodge the mud in the middle of the trail — luckily there were lots of logs, roots and rocks to aid us in staying fairly dry and mud free.
We then came to the actual Plover River itself. Rivers are not all the same shape and size — some are big and some are small — luckily for us at this point in its existence the Plover River is pretty small and the water was not very high. There were a series of stone steps to get across the river. Mike just took right off and crossed the river with no qualms or difficulties at all. Tammy, crossed with no difficulties, but she did have qualms about it. Crossing water on something less sturdy than a big steel bridge with solid railings is as scary to Tammy as looking down sheer drop-offs is to Mike. None-the-less she made it across staying nice and dry (although she was sweating a little bit upon reaching the other side).
The remainder of this section was wandering along the river, going through recently logged areas that were full of aspen trees and finally going across a lovely open prairie — it was then time to turn around and do the whole hike in reverse — we love out-and-back hiking. You would think that coming back the way you just came would be boring — but there is a lot you don’t see when looking in one direction; it can be a completely different hike even though it is something you just did an hour ago going in the opposite direction.
We were soon back to the van and getting ready for #SupperClubSaturday. This weeks installment of that journey was at the Palms Supper Club in Schofield, WI. Our GPS in our van, Michelle, gave us a little bad direction before arriving. Somehow she didn’t think you could turn into the parking lot from the main road so she took us around a block where we had to make a perilous spring across four lanes of traffic into the lot that we could have turned left in to had we just kept going. We have since forgiven Michelle, but we watch her directions a lot more closely now.
Today, was the anniversary of the passing of Tammy’s dad (28 years) so in his honor, Tammy swayed from her “regular” pre-dinner cocktail and ordered an Old Fashioned (low sugar and diet soda).
We tried something completely new to us for an appetizer: “walleye cheeks”. They are amazingly delicious — lightly pan fried served with a lemon cream sauce. Mike thought they were over the moon good and Tammy liked them, but still doesn’t really like walleye as it tastes “fishy” to her. Of course Mike had the Prime Rib — his review was “OK”. Not sure if we have mentioned it before here, but there are two main “flavor” components to Prime Rib — the bark/seasoning used on the outside and the au jus that is served with it. The seasoning on the outside isn’t enough to carry a Prime Rib if the au jus is not equally seasoned. Unfortunately this au jus was just so-so, Mike had to add salt to it to get some flavor going. Tammy had “not Prime Rib” for dinner. Soon enough though #SupperClubSaturday came to an end and we were on our way home to sulk around the house for another week until we could get out again into the wonderfully wild and beautiful outdoors in Wisconsin.
Splorin' Saturday 