Since the beginning of this pandemic, my family has taken advantage of more time together and deepened our connection to the Ice Age Trail. My wife has gone that extra mile (literally) and made great strides in the last few month. In fact, she just passed over 100 miles on the trail, 70 of which have come in just over two months. In fact, as I type this, she's on her way to knock off one of those glorious connector roads. I have been fortunate enough to join her on some of her trailblazing adventures. If we were scoring at home, this latest segment past would have scored high in the adventure column.
After parking our cars on both ends and meeting a very nice thru-hiker nicknamed Medicine Man, we headed south to north. Side note, I've been bestowed the trail name Tyke Hiker based in my affinity for hiking with kids and based in the trail, my wife might take the name Mosquito Meat. After a brief an very pleasant woods walk, we traversed two miles of unmarked beach path. We found lots of beautiful driftwood, an amazing array of butterflies, and a praying mantis. Luckily, we also found the solo blaze before venturing into the woods.
In the woods, I might have been scolded for attempting to catch every frog I found. Besides the frogs hopping around, we found fallen trees, underwater trail, and plenty of mud to keep us on our heels (and in the muck). In fact, the only thing we found in higher quantities than the frogs and obstacles were the mosquitoes. Wow! They did help us keep a steady pace along this otherwise magnificent ten-mile stretch of trail
In honor of our children who normally join us on our adventures, we stopped and posed with fungi and feather, two of their favorite nature finds.
Having started a nature kindergarten program in my public school, I love the concept of a school forest. I was more than excited to check this one out and based in what I experienced, I can't wait to check it out again. Besides the cute frogs and amazing trees, we found a painted rock (another favorite find of our kids( and traveled what might be the longest boardwalk we've ever walked.
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