Most people now know of my hiking and backpacking exploits this year. As I talk about the trips and show the pictures it's amazing the number of people who have commented on how much they would enjoy doing this same thing and to include them when I do more of these things.
Saturday was just that day. Earlier in the week I spoke with my long time friend Jim and asked if he was busy and if he wanted to do a section of the Ice Age Trail with me.
Jim is no longer my neighbor and lives in Muskego now. So I chose a section of the Southern Kettle Moraine Forest. That is closer for him and since I have done all of Washington, Fond du Lac and most of Sheboygan county, it would be a great opportunity to see some trail I have not done yet.
Around 9:15 I headed down (after my 8 AM workout, humble brag). Got to Jim's around 10:30 and by the time we shuttled the cars we were on the trail at 11:30.
The weather was perfect, low 60's sunny, light breeze. The trees are about 25% changed color so it was nice, but not spectacular yet.
The section we did was the Scuppernong segment. A bit north of Eagle. This trail was almost all woods except for the trail connector which ran along some farm fields for a quarter mile. The trail also cut through Pinewoods State campground and skirted Ottawa Lake Campground.
I didn't take a ton of pictures this time. I think Jim and I were just talking way too much and pointing out the 20 different mushrooms and him pointing out the wild asparagus and hickory nuts and general botany that I kind of forgot to take many pictures. It won't happen again.
Jim held up great and we got back to the car around 2:10. About an 2 hours an 45 minutes to do almost 6 miles.
At this time we were both quite hungry. I had thought I put some snack in my bag but apparently they were on the kitchen table instead. Jim knows the area well from a lot of his Harley rides and we head to a biker bar in Eagle for lunch. Knuckleheads. Yep, definitely a biker bar, I feel a little out of place but at least Jim has a HD shirt on. We chow on burgers, fries and a beer. Then it's time to head back to his house where we partake in one more pint of beer he made. It was my recipe, I was honored that someone liked my beer so much that they now make it themselves.
That was a good day. I left Jim my Ice age trail trail book and told him to pick out some new sections we can hit in the future.
Just one other note. With this day under my belt I have now gone over 100 miles hiking or backpacking this year!
Who's next?
The elevation graph of the hike.
