Posts tagged #vandra

Hiking Indian Lake County Park in Wisconsin

 

Adventure Tuesday

Indian Lake County Park

    A county park is a park set up by the state, compared to a state park that is under the sub-national level. Personally I am not completely clear what the exact difference is, however, just as any other park we have been to in Wisconsin Indian Lake was extremely beautiful. 

 
 

    As many other parks here in Wisconsin they are even maintained during the wintertime and you can cross-country ski there. We will definetely come back here in the wintertime to ski, well, if we even get enough snow this winter..

 
 

    A few minutes after we started we began to climb some stairs to get up a hill. Clearly this trail up the hill hadn't been used in a long time, and we discovered on the way down that there, of course, was a different route to use, a more used route. Either way, we got up the hill and arrived at an old chapel.

 
 

    Along the trail there are a lot of benches where you can sit down and rest, if you need to. All these benches are donated by families and friends that are remembering a loved one. This Chapel we arrived at was built by european settlers in 1857. Can you believe that someone actually stole the original wooden altar in the 80s?

 
 

    After the small detour to the chapel we continued our hike, in the 85-90℉ degree (30℃) weather, and yeah we didn't bring any mosquito spray. In Alaska if you forget your mosquito spray you are totally screwed, you are not getting out alive. Here however, well we got out alive. The trail was winding through deep deciduous forest and open grassland. 

 
 

    As always I got to caught up into the details of all pretty wildflowers, and the insects. Hopefully you'll appreciate the pictures.

 
 

    Eventually we took a wrong turn and got back to where we started a little too early. But since the mosquitoes were eating us and the weather was hot and humid I was pretty happy about that. We also ran into the great black wasp, which isn't as dangerous as it looks with its 20-35 mm long body, but yeah, size wise very very intimidating. That's when I decided that it definitely was time to leave. 

 
 

    Have you ever seen any interesting insects? 

Posted on August 16, 2016 by Ann Rumbleinthearctic and filed under Adventure Tuesday, Wisconsin, Madison Life and tagged County Park Wisconsin Indian Lake Indian Lake County Park Summer Adventures Hiking Forest Chapel Trees green Lush Adventure Park State Park hiking vandra Hikes 2016.

Hiking Devils Lake State Park in Wisconsin

 

Adventure Tuesday again, and this time I'll bring you to Devils Lake. I brought my DSLR camera on the hike, but since I wasn't hiking with W, I actually didn't take that many pictures. I did snap quite a few with my phone though, as always. 

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Devils Lake State Park

    It's been hot, like for a Swede hot. It's in the upper 80s -90s (27-35 C) almost every day now, and humid, some mornings it's about 98% humidity. A friend of mine suggested going on a hike around a lake, and then finish of with a dip in the water. Of course we weren't the only people there, many many cars and parking lot was already filling up early in the morning when we arrived. Most people go there to BBQ, hang out and swim in the water. Fewer people actually do hike the trail, although, plenty of people compared to a day-hike in Alaska. I have a falcon guide book to hikes near Madison that actually describes this hike as "one of the tougher in the book". I guess this speaks to the fact that there aren't any mountains, or large hills in Wisconsin. There are several trails, you can walk along the ridge on both sides of the lake, which is what we did, in that way you actually get some views too. 

 
 

The Landscape   

    Since we wanted to hike on the ridge, we quickly started to climb and got some gorgeous views of the lake and the forest. The landscape is really pretty, boulders mixed with both deciduous and coniferous trees. And boulders, lots of boulders, leftover from glaciers back in the day, combined with lush green vegetation, like everywhere in Wisconsin. The area is a great spot for vulture watching, and we did see quite a few, but hard to catch with your iphone camera. We saw more signs of glaciers, and then one of the main attraction, which everyone else wanted to see and touch too: the Balanced Rock.

 
 

Trail Maintenance

    They really take care of their trails here, almost a little too much maybe. Parts of the trail actually had asphalt on it. Makes it easier to hike on though, and less erosion i would think, but not sure how it works during a heavy rainstorm. I would think it would channelize the rainwater? 

 
 

 I had a really great time, even though this is very different from Alaska. On the other hand it's very similar to Sweden. At the end of the day that dip in the water felt very good. 

Where do you go to swim, do you have any nearby lakes? Or maybe outdoor pools?

 
Posted on August 9, 2016 by Ann Rumbleinthearctic and filed under Adventure Tuesday, Wisconsin, Madison Life and tagged Devils Lake Devils Lake State Park State Park Blue Lake Forest Wisconsin hiking Summer Adventures Madison Adventure Trail Trails Hiking vandra Hikes.

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.

 
 

    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  :)

 
 

    Do you have a favorite wildflower?

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.