Driftless Area

Much of southwestern Wisconsin is known as the driftless area:  where the glaciers never covered the land in ice.  It's characterized by steep bluffs and deep river valleys. The Kickapoo River runs through here.  

Kickapoo is an Algonquin name for "one who goes there, then here."  Sixty miles as the bird flies from its source to its mouth, the Kickapoo zig zags 126 miles.  The Kickapoo watershed is nearly half a million acres. 

Recently, Julia and I set off for Wildcat Mountain State Park between the small towns of Hillsboro and Ontario.  We elected to ignore Google Map's fastest route in favor of county highways and town roads that took us through Amish country and beautiful scenery.  

On a weekday, we were the only vehicle in the state park's parking lot.  Trail conditions required some caution with snow and ice on the north-facing slopes and mud on the south-facing slopes. The views on top of Wildcat Mountain (a Wisconsin hill/bluff) and the brisk wind made us feel alive. 

Callie is catching drops from the melting icicles.

After finishing up our hike on the Old Settlers Trail, we drove to the Hillsboro Brewing Company for pizza and beer. 

The pizza was good, inexpensive and was big enough for leftovers on a second day.  As I was sipping my "Joe Beer", a no-nonsense porter with no added flavoring, I spied an interesting sign over by the cashier.

 

 

Of course, I had to ask.  Apparently, the new canning equipment wasn't filling all of the cans full of beer.  Some had as little as six ounces in a can, while others nearly 10 or 11 ounces.  The shorted cans couldn't be sold with the regular labels.  Hmmm, at $12/case, we were pretty excited to bring home a case of "no label" stout.