Originally printed October 13, 2017.
Surprise, surprise!
That was my reaction when Mary Lourich, a good friend and singing buddy from the Milwaukee Symphony Chorus, asked if she could join me on Thursday’s hike in the Lodi area. We had previously talked about hiking together near Madison, her new home town. Unfortunately, the stars just couldn’t align correctly for us to do it. Now that my hikes were taking me north of Dane County, I had resigned myself to the reality that she wouldn’t be able to join me. So, I was very surprised and elated when she contacted me. My only concern was that she might be biting off more than she could chew. Thursday’s hike was going to be a long one – 10.5 miles. Was she up to it? Mary asked for a day to think it over. Yes, she felt she was up to the challenge. She and her daughter has been tromping around in the hills and mountains of Colorado over the summer, and she held up just fine. So, for only the fourth hike on the trail, I had a partner. Our plan was to meet at the end point of the hike. We’d leave a car there and drive to the starting point. Car#2 would be left there, and we would get started. Once we finished, we would drive back to the starting point. Then we would head our separate ways in our respective cars. Mary and I were to meet at 9:00 am. In order to meet her at that time, my trip app – Waze – said I would need to be on the road by 7:25 am. Seemed like too little time to me, but I decided to believe the technology.
Well, I didn’t help myself Thursday morning, as I had a serious case of disorganization, better known as head up my arse. Usually I pack as much as I can the night before such a trip. At the very least, I would have stuff staged and ready to go. For some reason, I thought I could do it on the fly Thursday morning. Big mistake! I was forgetting things left and right. Heck, I would have left the tent at home if Jane hadn’t asked me about it. As it was, I left without a blaze orange baseball cap(not a big deal) and without my GPS locator, which would allow me to make a distress call and be located in case of an emergency(VERY big deal). Jane very gently suggested that I put together a checklist for future hikes, since the gear I use doesn’t change much from hike to hike. I could only reply with a sheepish “Yes, you’re right.”
Oh yeah, I got started late, so that I arrived a half hour later than planned. I got off a quick phone message to Mary while I was stuck in morning rush hour traffic here in Milwaukee. As if I wasn’t fuming enough about the state of affairs, it started to rain – not heavily, but more of an irritating mist. No precipitation was in the forecast; What the heck was going on?
I met Mary at a little past 9:30. After apologizing profusely, I drove her to the starting point. We got started a little after ten o’clock. It was overcast, with the temperature in the high 50s to low 60s. Even with the light mist that came and went at intervals throughout the day, it was really good hiking weather.
Our first segment was the Lodi Marsh. I had a chance to eyeball this from a distance on my last hike, and I was really looking forward to discovering it. It was not absolutely flat country. My IAT Guide mentions “limestone bedrock ridges and drumlins that were shaped by the Green Bay Lobe, a portion of the most recent ice sheet that flowed from Green Bay to Madison 18,000 years ago.” I wish I had the skill to recognize the various land forms, like drumlins and eskers, as I experience them. The Guide also warned that the prairie country in this segment often became saturated after rains. Although it had rained earlier in the week, we lucked out on that. While the ground was sometimes soft and muddy, the trail was seemed easily passable to me. As I think about it now, that was the case with all the segments Mary and I hiked.
As we walked, Mary and I gabbed about what we were seeing. I really liked that, because she often saw things that I missed, like a fuzzy caterpillar she spotted in some low grass, or a spot in the prairie grass where it appeared a deer had been resting. As we continued to walk, we also caught each other up on family and how things were going in our respective choruses(Mary is now a member of the Madison Symphony Chorus).
While the Lodi Marsh Segment isn’t a loop in the strict sense, it comes close. We parked our car at a small lot that was actually the end point of this 1.8 mile segment and walked down the road roughly a quarter mile to start out hike. So, when we finished the trail, Mary had the opportunity to drop off some things in my car. Then, we crossed the street and started our next segment, the 3.2 mile Eastern Lodi Marsh. This segment had much more variety to it. We hiked through combinations of deep woods, savannas and prairies. Kudos to the many volunteers who have helped with the restoration and maintenance of the “several hundred acres of prairie and oak savanna.” I know from previous conversations with volunteers that this maintenance involves many hours of back breaking work cutting away undergrowth encroaching on the trail and pulling scads of invasive plants that manage to work their way into the prairie.
It took us a little more than an hour to complete this segment. After crossing underneath a railroad trestle, we began walking along Wisconsin 113 as we entered Lodi itself. We stopped at Lucy’s Family Restaurant for lunch. The restaurant got a four rating in TripAdvisor, and I think I would go along with that based on what we ate and how we were served. Actually stopping in a restaurant to eat while hiking is a real departure for me. Usually I pack a sandwich and scarf it down, along with some fruit, as I’m walking. It was really nice to get off our feet for a half hour. My only concern was that our muscles would tighten up too much while we were sitting. But, we limbered up and got moving in good order.
Lodi is an extremely very lovely small town of 3,050. Highlights for me were Spring Creek, a trout stream that runs right through town, plus several beautiful, Victorian style homes throughout the town center. In particular, I liked the circular turrets I saw on the corners of many of the homes. I also found the well kept gardens very charming.
West of the town’s center, Mary and I got a little off the beaten path. First, we missed a turn on the trail and walked several blocks out of our way before we realized our mistake and backtracked. Then, I think we were betrayed a bit by our map. We were supposed to follow a path through the woods paralleling the southern edge of a local golf club. Instead, we followed a street that became the southern edge of that club. This was supposed to lead to a prairie restoration behind Lodi Middle School and to the largest man-made structure on the IAT, a 150 foot long footbridge between the middle and high schools. Somehow we missed all of that. Basically, we put in the distance without the payoff. Frustrating.
Mary and I then left Lodi behind us and began a 2.4 Connecting Route to our final segment. Farmer’s fields surrounded us on both sides very nearly the end of the CR, where there was a cow pasture. Mary must be a Cow Whisperer, because they started to gather near her and moo loudly. Showing that she understood their lot in life, Mary proceeded to moo back at them. She was the Great ComMOOnicator !
Very soon, after this encounter, the CR ended and we started the last segment, Fern Glen. Basically, this was a matter of turning off the road, entering the trail, and immediately starting a steep climb through dense woods. This trail certainly demonstrated why it had a “4” rating for hilliness. Coming when it did at the end of the hike, we were both gassed from the climb. Yet, Mary managed to keep her sense of humor, as you can see from her picture at the top of this post.
What goes up must come down. Soon we hit the peak of our climb and began the not-too-long descent to our parking spot along County J. Throughout the hike, Mary was a great companion and a real trouper on the trail. She is one of my best friends, and I hope we have a chance to do this again.
My Days on the Ice Age Trail 