An Ice Age Walk

An icy section of the Ice Age Trail.  Verona, WI
1/27/2018    dwm photo

Yesterday was a glorious winter day.  Brilliant sunshine, nearly 40 degrees, above zero.

While I worked out earlier in the day, nature was calling me out to experience this most unusual winter.

The trail dates back to the Ice Age; thankfully the weather wasn't of the same era.

Wisconsin's Ice Age Trail traces the outline of where the glacier stopped across the state.

It's 1,200 mostly connected miles from one side of the state to another.  The ends are way up north.  The bottom of the trail runs through Janesville in south-central Wisconsin.

Last year's prairie
grass lines the
trail.  (dwm)

My walk took me a half-mile south of County Highway M to the point where the trail was so muddy it felt like a good place to turn around.

Just fragments of our light winter was in evidence.  When the trail tracked east to west there was more ice on the south side of the walk.

Ice in the center of the trail was tough to walk on, so I tried to keep at least one foot in the grass where there was traction.

Last year's grass is waving above my head.  It won't be long before it is gone, either by controlled burn or decay as the new grass emerges.

Yesterday is in evidence on the prairie.  Dead leaves.  Husks from walnuts.  Leaves clinging to branches.

A small stream on its way to the pond.   (dwm)

Assuming we get some winter before spring arrives, a blanket will cover this land before yielding to warmth.

It will be a very muddy walk during the transition from winter to spring.  Then the new prairie arrives, springing from the earth and stretching to the sky.

I've walked the next stretch beyond this part of the trail, but turned around short of where it meets.  In the spring I'll complete this walk.

Besides, I hear there's goats further down the trail.