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Beulah Bog home to a variety of unique species

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

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I arrived early Nov. 2 to meet up with Ann Day and Kim Krause, who have previously hiked with us. Day and Krause write for Associated Content.com, a Yahoo Internet publication. They are planning to write an article about the Ice Age Trail and our walks and they wanted to take some photos before the scheduled walk.

We started out walking on the Ice Age Trail toward Lake LaGrange and when the others were arriving, I called Norwin Watson to tell him where we were. He then led the rest of the walkers on the same path.

I doubled back a bit to meet them, while Day and Krause kept ambling along the trail. All nine of us met up again at the intersection of the Ice Age Trail with the return trail to our meeting place. Watson joined Day, Krause and me to take the return path, while the other six hiked farther on the Ice Age Trail before returning on the horse trail.

The next day Meg McCormick and Ellen Davis took the majority of our walkers to the Nordic Trails while the remaining nine of us carpooled to hike at Beulah Bog. This is a state natural area located off Stringers Bridge Road that has many interesting species of plants, including pitcher plants and cotton grass. After waking to the bog and trails in the upland woods, we logged a bit less than two miles on our pedometers.

We then continued our adventure at the Vernon Wildlife Area just north of Mukwonago. We parked at the lot at the end of Frog Alley Road and walked more than a mile southward on a berm before the trail turns west along the railroad tracks on the other side of the marsh. The trail ends in woodland at another parking lot near the Mukwonago water tower, about two miles from our starting point. We returned on the same path we came out on.

We saw a few flowering plants, lots of cattails, quite a few wetland birds, a pheasant, a northern pike and a school of baitfish, one person rowing a boat and two trains.

Hunting is allowed in the marsh, and as we began our return walk we heard a few gun shots to the west. We figured that it was from pheasant hunters.

Shortly thereafter one lucky pheasant kept running in front of us on the trail through the woods. It would stop and keep us in sight all the way to where the berm begins before taking a side path where it disappeared into the tall wetland vegetation.

Happy trekking, Russ

Activities

Regional Ice Age Trail meeting, Nov. 7: Meet from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Heartland Village Hall, 210 Cottonwood Av. See the calendar at www.iceagetrail.org to register and link to map. Contact Brad Crary, IATA Eastern Field Rep. (262) 370-2995.

Trail maintenance, Nov. 13: Meet at 9 a.m. at the Highway 12 trail crossing. Contact Gary Klatt (262) 473-4973.

Planning and potluck meeting, Nov. 14: Join the Annual Hike/Planning/Potluck meeting at 10:30 a.m. for the Walworth/Jefferson County Chapter of the Ice Age Trail Alliance. Meet at Judy Wildermuth's home on Engel Road south of Whitewater for hike, or 1 p.m. for planning. Potluck lunch at noon. Contact Judy at (262) 473-2415.

Walworth/Jefferson Count Chapter meeting, Nov. 16: 7 p.m., Join the local chapter of the Ice Age Trail Alliance at 7 p.m. for a meeting at US Bank, Elkhorn. Contact Gary Klatt (262) 723-2625.

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.