Posts tagged #Trail

Hiking Governor Dodge State Park in Wisconsin

Adventure Tuesday

Governor Dodge State Park

Governor Dodge State Park was the second park W and I visited. It is pretty close to the Blue Mounds State Park so we actually did both in one day. Now the main difference between visiting a park or hiking trail here in Wisconsin (so far) and Alaska is that there are a lot more people here in Wisconsin. Not too surprising I guess, but still, I like the less developed trails and areas that aren't so touristy. Within Governor Dodge State Park we went to the Stephens' Fall. Of course all of these State Parks have multiple trails connected to them. We have only explored a tiny bit of all that is accessible so far. We started at Stephens' Fall. I am actually not that used to waterfalls from living in interior Alaska, but they are definitely on my favorite list now.

Again, like the previous State Park we visited this one was very lush and green.

Cone, Governor Dodge State Park

Green Trail, Governor Dodge State Park

Trail, Governor Dodge State Park

The main attraction was definitely the waterfall. After that the trail followed a creek before we turned up to only deciduous forest and then some grassland.

We did run into some creatures, very small creatures though. Chipmunks are very new to me, and I was very excited about seeing them. Aren't they cute?

We ended up where we started, a field full of Lupine. It was so beautiful to see. Although, nothing beats a field full of fireweed! The field also had Wild Parsnip, which apparently is irritating to your skin. I did not know this, so very appreciating that they write a big sign about it :) It appears that the ants don't mind this plant though.

As always, I took the opportunity to take more macros of the nice wildflowers and all other details along the trail. W had to wait around a lot for me, as always. In the end I told him he could go ahead of me so he didn't have to be so bored :)

Flower mix, Governor Dodge State Park

Lupin Details, Governor Dodge State Park

Flower, Governor Dodge State Park

Governor Dodge State Park

Lupin, Governor Dodge State Park

Governor Dodge State Park

Wild Parsnip, Governor Dodge State Park

Governor Dodge State Park

Do you have a favorite wildflower?

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Posted on August 2, 2016 by Ann Rumbleinthearctic and filed under Nature, Wisconsin, Photography, Adventure Tuesday and tagged Governor Dodge Governor Dodge State Park State Park Summer Adventures summer days Summer green lush chipmunk Adventure Trail Trails Park Nature vandra hiking 2016.

Surrounded by moose

A couple of weeks ago I decided to finally take my last preparation before my big race to the next level. I wanted to do a longer ski, which sometimes can be challenging on the ski trails around the campus, the longest one is 6 miles. I guess you can combine several different trails and get a good mileage in, but I was interested in something new. So I decided to go on the dog mushing trails. I only need to cross the golf course to get there so it is fairly close to my home.

The weather was a little chilly in the morning but it was sunny. As the day progressed it got warmer and warmer. It is amazing how good of a heat source the sun is now when the Alaskan spring is around the corner.

I went on this long ski to prepare myself for the long race I was going to do (25 miles). I ended up doing 15 miles, which at that point was the longest I had ever done, even longer than I had ever been running. I am not a great skier. I may have good balance and stability but could definitely get more efficient. I just don't like getting tired when I am on skis, so I tend to ski fairly slow. I didn't sign up for the race to win, rather to see how far I can go, and what I am capable of. I would never drive out and do this long of a trail alone so signing up for a race seemed like a great idea.

As I was skiing on the dog mushing trails I never came across any dog mushers, I did meet a lot of skijorers though. Skijoring is when you ski behind your dogs, one or more. It looks fast and I would never be able to that, at least I don't think so. I was really close to the end when I looked ahead of me, on the trail, and not too surprisingly a young moose was staring at me. A friend of mine had warned me that there were a lot of moose on those trails, and I was so happy that I hadn't come across any yet. However here I was, in front of a young moose. It didn't really scare me that much this time, he was at quite a distance and I took my ski poles and tried to make noise enough to get him off the trail. He looked at me, walked a little to the side and continued browsing. Great, I was not feeling like going by that moose so close, so I started to look around me and saw a small trail leading to the side. I figured that maybe this trail would lead me around him but it ended up leading towards the big road. For me to get around the moose I would have to break trail, in knee deep snow with lots of trees and bushes. Below is an example of what it looks like on these trails..

As you can see it is pretty challenging to get off the main trail if you have to..

That was not going to happen. I went back to the main trail and tried to make more noise but the moose did not care at all. So I decided to take another trail right across from the previous one. Maybe I could make a big loop on the other side. It seemed like one other person had done something similar, according to the ski tracks. So I went into the forest and followed the ski tracks. Now, I did notice that there were some moose tracks on that trail, but who knows how old they could be (at least I was trying to convince myself that they did not look as fresh as they did). I continued on this trail making noise, and all of a sudden I saw a moose, I wasn't sure if it was the same moose or a different one, so I turned around again and made an even bigger loop. Now I started to get a little stressed, because I didn't really know where I was and the trees and bushes made it hard to "escape" if I were to ski into another moose. Right as I was thinking this I could see a big moose in the corner of my eye, and there was no time to think or stop or turn around so I just continued making noise and skied past really fast. At this point I felt like I really wanted to get back to the ski trail and I went faster. Then all of a sudden I saw another moose to the right of me, further in and I continued on my trail until I froze, cause now I was right next to another big moose. He was really really close, as in I could probably have been able to touch him if I reached out with my ski pole. This is the time when you just want to close your eyes and pretend that you are not there, or close them and open them up and the moose would be gone. Or that moment when you are young and your mom or dad can help you through anything, yeah I really had deep wishes that my mom or dad would show up and help me out of this situation. Obviously that did not happen. I started to speak really really loudly to the moose, kind of angrily too, in Swedish. And I was kind of stuck, because now I was going off the single ski track I had followed, in knee deep snow, with skis, through bushes. It took a while before I could actually get out and back on the ski trail again. It really made me terrified though. Of course as I got out on the main trail again I turn around and saw a dog! I was thinking to myself well good luck with that. And then a skate skier blew past me with his dog behind him. They didn't even notice the moose. And I felt so cheated on.

I have had so many moose encounters now that I have come to realize that they are just there, and they will always be there. Instead of being terrified I just need to accept the fact that I will always run into them no matter what. And not at any single point did these moose turn their ears back and look annoyed, maybe they are used to these things happening, or maybe they were thinking to themselves "what is wrong with this person running around in the woods screaming". Definitely making noise and reminding them that you are there is the best way to go, you do not want to startle a moose.

Overall the day was really really nice, and sunny, and i was really tired when I got back after about 4hrs of skiing..

hope you guys have a wonderful day!

Posted on March 22, 2014 by Ann Rumbleinthearctic and filed under Alaska, Nature, The great wide open and tagged Alaska dog mushing dog mushing trails Happiness Outdoors Skiing skijor skijoring skitrail Winter Winter Adventures 2014 Adventure Trail Snow Nature Moose Fairbanks.

I think we are in a Wolf den..

Fieldwork

This past summer me and my friend were out in te field scouting out new research sites. We drove far into the watershed on ATVs, until a road was non-existing. Ice was still covering parts of the watershed out there and we arrived at a huge beaver dam.

We continued walking around this weird place. It really felt like something was wrong about this place, it was just so quiet. The landscape here was different from other parts of the watershed. All of a sudden we hade this open plain in front of us, with spruce covered hills around us. The ground was mucky and we could clearly see evidence of a large spring flood. We could see tons of wolftracks on the ground, and it made me uneasy.

As we continued walking we kind of felt like maybe we weren't suppose to be here. But the whole area was really surreal, everything looked really spooky and it almost felt like a fairytale. Or maybe as Dorothy would have said:

“Toto, I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore””

The Beaver dam appeared to be active, but no signs of live beavers, and then there were all the wolf tracks, both young and adult. As we looked around I could see holes on the sides of mud pit we were standing in, along with old moose bones and wolf tracks, both very very large, and very small. And I said:

“I think this is a Wolf den...”

The whole field season treated us with this wonderful landscape though. Made me smile almost everyday we were out, even when the rain was pouring down...which actually didn't happen that often this year. Instead we had long field days with too many mosquitos and temperatures up to 92F (34 degrees C) that was tough.

Fieldwork in Alaska: