Monday, January 11, 2021

Marching with the Mammoth

 

Up before the rest I finished a book about Wrangle Island, the last foothold of the Wooly Mammoth and by the afternoon we were hiking along the Ice Age Trail.  The IAT is of course the yellow-blazed 1200 mile hiking trail that follows the southern most point of the Glaciers during the last ice age.  Four of us, the older two were busy, headed to the Eastern Terminus of the IAT in southern Door County.  Each journey starts with the first steps and we did a little left foot, right foot for the first few miles of the trail as it winds along the lake shore in Potawatomi State Park.  The ice was hanging off the cedars from the waves splash and I did find out that the shore ice wasn't able to hold my weight.  Only wet to the new it didn't slow us down at all.  Grace did point out "that I should have listened to mom" while shaking her head in teenage disgust at my actions.  We spent some time skipping rocks on the smoother portions of lake ice and listening to the cool sounds that emanated from our efforts.  The trail was pretty busy, but that is too be expected on a nice winter hiking day.  Our return trip was halted to watch two coast guard ice cutters bust up the ice in the channel.  On our way out of the park we even decided to swing into an Arby's for a quick bite, hadn't been there in over a decade and other than the curly fries we remembered why we had stopped going.

No comments: