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An autumn flower walk

Photo at left: Click for recent photos from the the Ice Age Trail.

Wonderful outdoor walking weather last week brought out large numbers of hikers.
We had 15 for the Tuesday walk and 28 on Wednesday. These are not records for either day, but with three new hikers on Tuesday it comes close.

Norwin took part of our Tuesday contingency to the John Muir biking/hiking trails to walk the extended white trail while I took the rest for a leisurely walk around beautiful Lake LaGrange, two thirds of the walk being on the Ice Age Trail starting on the east side of the kiosk at the parking lot.

Wayne Jenson, who manages the Burlington School Forest, came prepared to collect some prairie seeds, and the prairie on the west side of the lake was an ideal place. We walked slowly and stopped in that tall grass area while Wayne did his collecting.

At the prairie, and again by the lake near the north end, we met up with another group of walkers who were in the process of doing a photo shoot for a Wigwam advertisement.

The prairie, with multicolored flowers and tall grassed, and the lake made for great backgrounds for the shots of the models wearing the brand name clothing. We were told that the photos may appear on the Web in a few months.

The next day, I had a request for another flower walk so we divided up into three groups. Jim hiked at the Nordic Trails with his subgroup, Norwin took others to hike the Ice Age Trail from Highway 59 to Highway Z, and I led the 'flower walk'.

Other than a few asters, we were a little disappointed by not seeing many flowers at Prince's Point Wildlife Area, but more than made up for it by seeing lots of wildlife. On the way we slowed down for a deer by the road and stopped to observe many sandhill cranes in a nearby field.

When hiking, we saw garter snakes, ducks, sandhill cranes, great blue herons, blackbirds, a phoebe, and other birds. Our flower walk had turned into a bird walk!

Then we drove to the Scuppernong Springs Nature Trail to walk part of that pretty area with beautiful springs, streams, and the marl pits. On the way to the parking lot on Highway ZZ we stopped for two turkey vultures which were on the road having lunch on a road kill.

After Alice Brockman took a picture of them through my cars windshield Monica Barthel pointed out that there was a tree full of the buzzards at the side of the road. Alice loaned me her camera to take a picture of the buzzard tree which was on my side of the car.

Again we saw many birds on our walk, including a flock of cedar waxwings, a small warbler, and a great blue heron.

We were also rewarded by finding some bottle gentians near the parking lot and many beautiful fringed gentians in the lowland prairie on the other side of the road. We did have a flower walk after all. Most of the gentians were well past their prime, but a few nice specimens remained.

Happy trekking, Russ

Activities

Oct. 8-10, Mobile Skills Crew project in Taylor County. Volunteers to assist with trail maintenance. Contact Gary Klatt (262) 473-2187.

Oct. 9, 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m., 16th annual Kishwauketoe Harvest Celebration. Cookout, DJ for entertainment, hikes, etc. For more details go to www.kishwauketoe.org.

Oct. 10, 8 a.m., Hike at the Madison Arboretum. Meet at Converse home for carpooling. Contact Russ Helwig (262) 473-2187.

Oct. 20, 7 p.m.: Monthly meeting of the Walworth/Jefferson Co Chapter of the Ice Age Trail Alliance at US Bank, Elkhorn. Contact Russ Helwig (262) 473-2187.

Weekly Walks

We meet at 4 p.m. Tuesdays and 10:30 a.m. Wednesdays at the Highway 12 Ice Age National Scenic Trail crossing located about four miles east of Whitewater.

We include two or more walks of different distances on Wednesdays, and also do this on Tuesdays when desired.

All ages are welcome.

Note that a state park pass is required to park a car at the Highway 12 meeting place.

A daily or yearly pass may be purchased at the meeting place provided correct change is available.