Originally printed May 30, 2019.
On Saturday, March 25th, I completed my three days of hiking over the Memorial Day weekend with a five mile walk. This completed the connecting route between the Plover River and Kettlebowl Segments in Langlade County.
I awoke Saturday morning to a thick blanket of fog. Road walking in thick fog was not something I wanted to do, and I was glad that the sun quickly burned off the fog so I had clear sailing as I drove to the pickup point at the Mueller Lake parking lot. On Joe’s advice, I was choosing to hike this chunk from north to south, instead of the south to north direction I had chosen for the previous two days. By doing this, my car would be safely off the road and in a parking lot for the duration of my hike. Easy choice!
I met Joe at 8:00, and we made the quick drive to the starting point. Previously, I had noticed a Gold Star Family sticker on his van, and I worked up the gumption to ask him about it and to express my regret that his family suffered such a loss. He explained that he was a Gold Star grandfather and that his grandson died in Iraq. He thanked me for my words and expressed surprise that I knew the significance of the Gold Star designation. Once I got home, I looked up information on his grandson. Just a kid – 20 years old. A few weeks away from home. A roadside bomb. Incredibly, incredibly sad. Young men and women like this deserve our respect and prayers, and their families deserve our support and the peace that only God can give.
Once we reached the starting point, I quickly put on my pack and got started at roughly 8:30. It was already in the high 60s, brilliantly sunny and a little muggy. The first half mile or so of my walk roughly ran parallel to the Kettlebowl Segment itself. The dirt road was quite narrow, and the trees and shrubs that framed it on either side made it seem even more narrow. For a Connecting Route, this was pretty remote. I was in bear country; the DNR classes Langlade County as having an abundant bear population. All this factored into the decision to make noise – cry out, sing, what-have-you – before I rounded that corner and encounter that Mama Bear That Has Been Waiting For Me. So, I started to sing the responsorial psalm that I will be performing at this coming weekend’s Mass – “God mounts His throne to shouts of joy, a blare of trumpets for the Lord.”
My church’s music director would be so proud – or maybe not.
I didn’t see any bears, or any other critters that morning except a ton of songbirds. I was hoping to spot a porcupine – I had seen a picture a fellow hiker had taken of one in a tree – but I was not successful. On the flora side, I saw tons of wildflowers, especially trilliums.
In terms of terrain, this hike tended to be on the flat side. Like many of my Connecting Route road hikes, I was walking through wooded areas and farm country. Easily, the prettiest thing I saw on this hike was the crossing over Deer Creek. It is shown in the picture above.
In less than two hours, I was done. As I hoped, I had enough time to get back to the campground in Antigo, take a shower and change into fresh clothes for the ride home before the 12:00 official checkout time.
After a return trip to El Tequila for huevos rancheros, I was on my way.
My Days on the Ice Age Trail 