Temperature Relief and Update

When I arrived home from the southern Illinois misadventure, the high temperatures continued in Wisconsin with our warmest days of the year.  With our well-shaded home, we rarely use the air-conditioning, but it received its first work-out of the season.  

Callie and I took early morning walks (5 a.m. before sunrise) to get our steps in.  Then we both retreated to the basement for most of the rest of the day.  

The weather finally turned this week.  Julia was up in Door County with some girlfriends, so I played pickleball every day.  One of the guys I recently got to know at pickleball turned out to be the fraternity roommate of my dormitory roommate.  Small world.  We both like pickleball and good small breweries, so we've gone out for beers a couple of times too.  I had pretty much lost touch with our mutual friend Joe, but Mick has stayed in contact, so it was fun catching up.  Maybe we will all get together someday for a beer.

I completed the repair of the Scamp bathroom door after consulting my friend Dean.  The door was previously held in place by small screws from the inside bathroom door trim to the outside bathroom door trim. After 22 years, the screws had backed out or stripped.  I drilled bigger holes and put in machine screws with fender washers and an acorn nut.  It seems  much better secured.  

In the last few days, the weather has been much cooler with lows at night in the 40's.  I celebrated with hikes at Gibraltar Rock and at Pheasant Branch.  I also restarted my sourdough starter and baked some bread to take the chill off.  I like fall.

I have no September plans to Scamp.  Allie will be home again this weekend  and staying for a week before she stands up in a friend's wedding the following weekend.  At the end of the month, Julia leaves for a long-planned trip to South Africa with a girlfriend from optometry school.  I may take a trip then but probably will travel within Wisconsin.

Why am I not going to Africa?  It's just not a place that I have any current desire to visit.  Ten years ago, I wanted to hike Mount Kilimanjaro, but that desire has faded away.  Julia is going to do a safari, and that doesn't sound like fun for me, especially given the expense.  I'm glad she has a girlfriend to go with, and so is the girlfriend's husband who also declined not to go.  

Next year will likely be a big travel year for us here in the U.S.  I'll save my pennies for those trips. 

Frozen Trail

I started the morning by baking the sourdough loaf that proofed in the refrigerator overnight.

 

The cold temperatures helped to firm up the muddy area trails.  Gibraltar Rock Natural Area was a good candidate for today's hike.  All of those muddy footprints were frozen in place when I arrived.  I didn't see anyone or any dogs on the hike.  

Callie enjoys the solitude too.

I was going to split wood this afternoon, but I decided to move wood instead to make room for the wood that would "eventually" get split.  

The pallet of wood behind the wheelbarrow has to come out to start the new row.  The row of gray wood to the right also needs to go into the pole shed for final seasoning.  That was my project for this afternoon.  I finished about half.  I'm not sure how much more I will get done this week.  Tomorrow, I'm hiking with the Madison Meetup hiking group, and then we have a few days of rain/snow again.

Throwin' Down Wood

I've been sleeping really well since the Daylight Savings' time change.  Several days per week, Julia gets up early at 4:50 a.m. and goes to her morning "Boot Camp" work out at the high school.  When I owned the coffee business, I woke at 4:50 every morning, but that isn't my preference anymore

I heard her get up and forced myself to go back to sleep--probably took less than three seconds.  I didn't wake up until about 6:30.  My first groggy thought was that it was raining.   Nope, she was back and had turned the shower on. 

This morning, I made up a batch of sourdough for baking tomorrow morning and then played a couple of hours of pickleball.  This afternoon, Callie and I hiked Gibraltar Rock.

There were a ton of people at Gibraltar.  Both parking lots were nearly full.  No off-leash dogs though, so it was fun to take Callie along.  On top of the cliffs, I walked by a large family, noticing there was a very special off-trail wheelchair with treads instead of tires.  When I mentioned that I had a son with Duchennes who would love "the nice ride," she let me know that her young son has Beckers muscular dystrophy and that the chair was the result of a lot of fund-raising.  It warms my heart when I see that families of disabled kids go the extra mile for special experiences.  

We didn't have a tank wheelchair for Justin, but he did have a lot of special experiences, including swimming with reef sharks in Bimini for his Make-a-Wish.  And we definitely took his conventional wheelchair to places that took it out of warranty coverage.  These days, we have a hard time getting him out of his dorm room, but that's where his tools are (computer, phone, tv) and where he feels most independent.  Everyone has to hike his own hike.

This afternoon, I spent a couple of hours in my woods, throwin' down wood.  It sounds a lot cooler than it is.  I cut up a fallen oak tree on our property a few days ago.  The rounds are way up the hill.  I threw the rounds down the hill until I could get them close to my woodpile. It's a whole lot easier than using a wheelbarrow. 

The rounds start where I'm taking the photo and are scattered up the hill from where I'm standing.  It only takes a couple of throws for the smaller pieces of wood.  The bigger rounds generally take three throws unless I'm particularly lucky in the way that they bounce down the hill.  Julia has her boot camp.  I have my wood throwing and processing.

While today was beautiful, rain is predicted for the next three days.  When it stops raining on Friday,  I will hand-split the rounds for wood heat during the winter of 2024-25. 

 

Next winter's wood is already in the pole shed.  I've got enough stacked and seasoning for the winter after that. 

New Year: Optimization

My wife Julia turned 59 in December.  In some ways, she's in better shape now than she was in her 20's.  This year she has resolved to enter six races to celebrate her 60th year.

Julia has been listening to a podcast series about preparing for retirement.  One of the exercises is to pick a word theme for each year.  Julia has picked "transition."  I spent about two seconds on the idea and picked optimization, which is defined as "the action of making the best or most effective use of a situation or resource."  In retrospect, I may have been hasty; my word seems harder.  

This morning, we hiked up Gibraltar Rock to celebrate the new year.  There is an organized hike this afternoon.  There will be hot chocolate and cookies.  Several hundred people (and many dogs) are likely to attend, so we beat the rush.  We saw only three other hikers and no dogs.  That's a good start for optimization. 

Christmas in Lodi, Wisconsin

After several weeks of weirdly warm temperatures, including a 50 degree Christmas, winter has returned, delivering a fresh coat of white.  Today, we saw a winter wonderland. 

Goodbye 2019.  Hello 2020.

Humble Pie with a Side of Mud

As readers to my blog already know, the Gibraltar Rock Natural Area is one of my favorite places to hike.  It's the baby brother hiking destination to Devil's Lake State Park, which is on the other side of the bluff in the photo above-- across the Wisconsin River.  Devil's Lake draws three million visitors per year.  If I see a couple of people on a weekday at Gibraltar Rock, it feels crowded.  Gibraltar Rock is a ten minute drive; the state park is about 45 minutes drive.

Gibraltar's Rock's trail rises to an elevation above 1200 feet.  That's nothing for people used to mountain ranges, but it's a big deal in the Midwest. Yesterday, hiking conditions were fluid.  The snow was mostly melted.  The ground has been freezing overnight.  The sun softens up the sunny part of the trail during the day, while the shady parts remain firm.

  I tend to be a fast hiker.  I've always been a fast walker. Thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail during my younger years taught me a lot about foot placement that became ingrained over the years when covering terrain.

I was feeling at the top of my game yesterday.  Callie and I cruised to the top and then jogged down the back side.

Fearless Callie

 After power walking up the old closed road, we took a few minutes to sit and enjoy the view.

I admired the old cedars, hanging out at the edge of the 200-foot sheer cliff and thriving.  We took off fast down the trail back to the truck.  I guess I was daydreaming about future destinations when Gibraltar Rock reminded me to take her seriously.

I was walking on a frozen leaf-covered trail when my left foot slid on a soft spot exposed to the sun.  No problem.  I've caught my balance many times in similar situations.  Unfortunately, my right foot was no help, as it was sliding too.  My body was out in front of my sliding feet.  Suddenly, I was flying through the air on my way to a face-plant on the trail.

There wasn't much I could do at this point, but I did manage to twist my body so that I landed on my side, which slid through about six feet of soft mud.  When I came to a stop, Callie looked up at me as if to say, "What was that?"  I picked myself up, established that nothing was broken, except my pride.  My left side was covered with mud from my shoes to the top of my hat.

I would have taken a picture, but my hands were full of mud with no way to clean up.  Let's be honest.; there was no way I was taking a photo.  I trudged slowly back to the truck, drove home and threw everything into the washing machine.

Today, my body sore, Callie and I hiked on city sidewalks.  Maybe we'll head back into the woods tomorrow. 

Deer Season Approaches

In the early morning, it's time to reload the wood stove.  Callie stayed far away from the stove when she first joined the family.  Now, I find myself dragging her hot body back when the stove starts pumping heat out into the room.

As soon as Julia leaves for work, Callie begs to go outside to play ball, no matter what the weather is.  After an hour or so of being inside again, she starts nagging me to go on our long walk/hike for the day.  Callie keeps me from being a lazy slug when the weather isn't the best.

Today, we had all kinds of weather during our hike at Gibraltar Rock.  We started off with light flurries, followed by rain, and then finished with sleet.  It was a typical gray November day.

It's been awhile since I posted on the blog.  I've been busy moving posts from the wordpress blogging site to the blogger platform.  I anticipated that it would take longer, but I've now finished that process and am over here on blogger for the long haul.  If you are interested in receiving notifications to new blog posts, you are encouraged to sign up at the top of the page.

We had company over the weekend.  Dave and Ruth drove over from Milwaukee.  We spent some time at a new-to-us brewpub in Madison:  the Rockhound Brewing Company on South Park Street.  Good beer, good company  It doesn't get better than that. Later, we went to the Night Market near the state capitol.

Earlier in the week, Julia and I went for a snowy hike at Lake Kegonsa State Park, followed by malted beverages and nachos at the Waypoint Public House.

I also had a nice hike on the Fern Glen Segment of the Ice Age Trail.  It's about an hour in/out hike up and down hilly woods.  We added some length with a road walk at the south end.  There's also a side trail to Susie's Rock.  Lodi is known for Susie the Duck.  Susie is a fictitious duck on Main Street where ducks on the dole congregate for seed corn distributed by humans from a vending machine. 

On the other hand, Susie's Rock is a quiet place in the woods where area resident Susan Groves like to sit back in the late 1800's.  I prefer the rock.

 

Opening Day for gun deer season starts this Saturday morning.  I'll be off the trails for ten days after that, limiting my exercise to city paths.  I also have a new project brewing that I will write about.  Thanks for reading.

More Winter Scenes

Our early winter continues.  I traded my snowshoes for my medium-duty Dahner hiking boots.  The snow wasn’t deep enough for snowshoes. The hiking boots provided extra support for the hidden rocks and stumps lurking under the snow.

Gibraltar Rock was a winter wonderland.  No prior footsteps or paw prints in the snow meant that Callie and I found the solitude that we were looking for.



We chose the Upland Trail out of the Steinke Basin parking lot.  Trail conditions alternated between icy and windy out of the sun to soggy and warm in the sun.  We didn’t see anyone else hiking all morning

Later in the week, we celebrated Julia’s transition to half-time status at work.  On Thursday, we headed to Devil’s Lake State Park for a hike.  The ferry generally stays open into December, until the river and/or the boat becomes to icy.  The hydraulic ramps were icing up on this morning, causing delays. 

After the hike, we stopped in at the newly-opened Tumbled Rocks Brewery and Kitchen near the north entrance to the park.  The food and beer were both good.  We will return.

On Friday night, we received an unexpected call from the Campus Police Department at Justin’s college.  Almost exactly a year from the date that he broke his leg from a fall, he fell out of his wheelchair again.  Another ambulance ride, another hospital visit.  Thankfully, this time he didn’t break anything. He’s sore but still at school.

Active Winter

We had a very slow start to the winter–hardly any snow or cold through the end of 2018.  January and February have been a different story.  We’ve had more than our share of snow, cold, and freezing rain.  The snowbanks on the long, steep driveway are too high for my atv snowblade to be effective.  No matter, I can’t use the atv anyway because there’s glare ice on the steepest part of the driveway up by the pole shed.  I had trouble getting uphill even in four-wheel drive, and I had trouble maintaining control  going downhill (where 4 wheel drive becomes 4 wheel slide).

People in warmer climates probably wonder how we survive.  In fact, many people thrive.  Recently, we had 50 mph winds to go with the icy roads which weren’t responding to salt application because it was too cold.  Julia and I went snowshoeing across from the Lodi Marsh.

We then celebrated our stroll in the woods with a Wisconsin tradition:  drinking beer.  Sun Prairie, a growing community just outside Madison, recently saw the opening of two new brewpubs.  The first one was called Right Bauer and is definitely the only euchre-themed brewpub that I’ve ever been in.  On Thursdays, the owner’s dad presides over Euchre night, which is open to players of all abilities.  We got on the email list and will definitely be back.  The beer was very good.  I also appreciate it when a brewpub isn’t afraid to have guest taps from its competitors.  To me, that shows confidence.  In this case, the confidence was well-earned.

Next, we walked around the corner to the other place, Full Mile Beer Company. This place was packed with people. We snagged two of the last seats and sat back to enjoy wood-fired pizza and some of their beer.  Unfortunately, my pizza’s sauce was bland and a little too thick for my taste.  My Vienna pilsner placed its emphasis on crispness rather than malt. It was well-executed; I just prefer a maltier Vienna.  Julia’s beer, which was a milkshake IPA, was very good.  We’ll be back to give them another chance and perhaps try some different things.

Today, Callie and I went snowshoeing at Gibraltar Rock.  It was a beautiful winter day.  There were a lot of branches down–probably from the recent high winds.  One large branch in particular blocked the trail and created some acrobatic moments as I went down the steep hillside with Callie and then back up to avoid the tangle.  The views at the top were amazing.

By the time I finished the second long uphill in the loop, I had my coat open, gloves off, and hat off.  It’s only cold when you’re not moving.  By the way, the fox in the header photo was walking along the rock wall in our back yard and following rabbit tracks.

First Day Hike

The end of 2018 and the beginning of 2019 have presented some difficult challenges.  When life gets tough, go for a hike.  A number of state-owned properties held First Day Hikes on January 1st as a way to encourage Wisconsin residents to get outdoors during winter and to enjoy the natural beauty.  We went on one of those hikes last year at Gibraltar Rock.  Maybe a dozen people participated due to extreme cold weather.  This year’s hike featured five inches of fresh snow and temperatures in the balmy 20’s (warm compared to last year).  With our new dog Callie leading the way with snarls towards any potential stranger danger, we tried to arrive early to avoid crowds and succeeded on the first half of the loop.

On the way back, we passed at least 60 people and several dogs, so the narrow trail was a bit more crowded than I like.
I’m not one to complain though.  Our Ice Age Trail is a treasured resource.  As more people discover its beauty, more resources can be allocated towards its completion and management.  When we started the hike, there were three cars in the parking lot.  When we ended the hike, both parking lots was full, and dozens of cars were parked on the side of the  highway.  For people willing to brave the crowds (not me), a huge thermos of hot chocolate and sweet treats were available on top.  Instead, we rushed home for naps in front of the wood stove.                                                

Art on the Trail (Redux)

When we hiked last weekend, a few important art pieces had not yet been installed.  So I went out yesterday morning to view my friends’ installations and then again last evening to help in my wife’s installation of her piece.  I don’t think I could ever hike Gibraltar Rock too many times.  It’s just too much fun. 

From Dana  Slowiak of D Squared Studios:  La Lunita.

 

From my wife Julia, “TreeSoul”:

From Dean Allen of D Squared Studios:

Breaking into Spring

My daughter is home for spring break.  Since we are in Wisconsin, and not South Padre Island or Mexico, spring comes later than what the calendar indicates. I’m still burning 24/7 in the wood stove that heats the house.  The heating season won’t end until close to Memorial Day. This morning, I hiked with Julia, Allie and Elvis on our circle around the Gibraltar Rock Natural Area.

The trail was mostly frozen, rutted mud with a few long icy/snowy stretches in the shade.

With about a week until my big trip south, I took the opportunity to start breaking in my new Salomon Trail Running Shoes.  They were recommended on several backpacking blogs as a lightweight alternative to much heavier hiking boots.  Since I will be truck camping rather than backpacking, I will probably bring along both the lightweight trail running shoes and my heavier Danner boots for comparison/contrast.  As of today, there is a significant amount of snow at Roan Mountain, so I will also be bringing my YakTrax for added traction.

The Salomon shoes feel comfortable to me already, but Allie and I will go on several more hikes in the coming week for some more “breaking in.”  Hiking above 5000 feet in the early spring will be enough of a challenge without worrying about blisters.