Timberwolf Trail - Trail Camera Captures - December 2019 Edition

Another month brought an array of visitors to the trail. Enjoy some of our pictures from the last month.

Doggy

See the bird?

Lovely fall snow

Woof woof

Night Rabbit

Snowstorm

Snow squirrel

Scariest creatures of them all. . .curious kindergarteners

Timberwolf Trail - Week 17 - 2019-20 Edition

Two days doesn't seem like a great deal of time to get a lot done. But in nature kindergarten, two days provides ample opportunity to work hard and play hard.

With s small but mighty blanket of snow expected to melt away soon,we had to enjoy some time in the white gold.

We were also surprised to see our newest nature gift. Over break, our tree man added new wood chips to our pile. The class thoroughly enjoyed digging and climbing their newfound treasure.

I took a few classroom volunteers out to our trail camera location to change batteries and memory cards. We also hiked around the trail to complete some observations. When you slow down and take a close look, you can find many interesting things. We certainly did. We found many tracks.

We found some saplings planted last spring glistening in the sun.

We even noticed unique patterns in the bark.

Inside, we inventoried donated recycled supplies that will be part of a special recyclable art and supply sale for Children's Hospital of Wisconsin.

We continue to monitor our eagle family. We've enjoyed seeing the first chick get bigger and bigger and are wondering about the viability of the second egg.

We also saw a flock of turkeys from the windows. We also noticed them later in our outdoor adventures.

Back outside, we returned to the wood chip pile, but this time it was to work.

With some areas of the trail in need of some tread repair, these trail stewards were up to the task, spreading chips and preserving the trail.

As we walked around to other parts of the trail and scouted new places to wood chip. On our way, the leafless trees showed off  a new find.

We also played. We reintroduced ourselves to the rock pile,

uncovered "dinosaur bones,"

scanned the forest for antler sheds,

and climbed some trees.

Two days may be short on time, but it can be long on memories.

Tyke Hike #71 - First Day Hike - Lapham Peak & Timberwolf Trail

As is now a family tradition, we participated in the First Day Hike at Lapham Peak State Forest. I was once again proud to lead a Tyke Hike for our local chapter of the Ice Age Trail Alliance. I must admit though, my eldest took the reins and led a lovely hike while I chatted with fellow hikers and took care of my younger children.

After a visit from Monty and a less than stellar pre-hike selfie. Twenty six hikers set out for the trail. I asked my oldest to count out the hikers and so e could present hiker #14 with an Ice Age Trail bandana as she was the official 2,000th hiker of the Tyke Hike program.

Speaking of numbers in the thousands, my family and I are excited to share that we are working towards the 1,000 Hours Outside Challenge in 2020. See 1000 Hours Outside Challenge for details.

As the winter temperatures increased, so too did the energy level of our youngest hikers, so off trail for natural play we went.

In our natural play adventures, we balanced, climbed, went sledding without sleds, and even found some turkey feathers.

We stopped at the butterfly garden and surprisingly enough, we didn't find any butterflies.

We did find some cookies and cocoa after the hike.

On the way home, the girls mentioned how much fun they had and wished they could still play, so naturally, another stop was in order. With school resuming tomorrow, I figured a stop at our outdoor classroom, the Timberwolf Trail, would be the perfect place to get more outside time.

We climbed some more, searched for tracks, and added to their nature stew, a necessary activity with every stop at the trail.

The youngest missed out on the Timberwolf Trail fun, but I am pretty confident he'll have plenty of time to explore nature in 2020. I hope you do too!