Up Hill

Last week the spouse and I spent four nights camping at Governor Dodge State Park.  Hiking at Governor Dodge was a an interesting contrast to our mid-September camping trip to Hartmann Creek in 2019.  At Hartmann Creek the campground was pretty busy.  At Governor Dodge there are two campgrounds, and we were at the smaller campground (if over 100 sites is small) on the north of the two major loops.  On Monday there were only nine or ten other campers on the north loops of the Cox Hollow Campground.  As at Hartmann Creek, we did a good deal of hiking, but there is a big difference--hills.  Gov. Dodge is in the driftless area, an area not touched by the four glaciers that came across what is now Wisconsin, with the last being about 10,000 years past.  That means hills and valleys on the hiking trails. It also meant a good deal of up hill hiking.  Hartmann Creek sits at the moraine, and is blessed with lakes, and hills, but its uphills are not as steep or as high as you will find in the driftless area.  

Gov Dodge Trail Map
Source:  WI State Parks website

We put on quite a few miles, and had some good adventures. On Monday, we had our longest day of hiking, first taking the Meadow Trail to Twin Valley Campground.  In an attempt to find a shortcut to the Cave Trail we meandered off the marked trail.  We took what was once, at least according to a sign, a service road, but was essentially a rock strewn drainage way that was probably used mainly by wildlife.  That route split into two animal trails.  The right seemed to end, but we took the left route and we finally found a major trail, which we assumed to be another part of the Meadow Trail.  But, where were we on the Meadow Trail?  We did not know, so we looked left and right, but turned right and from this spot hiked about 30 to 40 minutes or so to the Cox Hollow picnic area trail head.  The Cave trail is a loop off the Meadow Trail, but we did not find it.  When we turned left we thought for sure, given compass direction and estimated distance that we would come to at least one of the Cave Trail loops, but we did not.  Heck we came across a trail that was closed by a barricade but that trail was not even on the trail map.  I realized that would be the last time, on this trip anyway, that we would go off a marked and known trail.  The short cut I had planned fell short of its mark.

Out fall of Cox Hollow Lake Dam

On Wednesday we headed from Cox Hollow picnic area on the Meadow Trail and found the Cave Trail and took its full length loop that gives some nice views of Twin Valley Lake. We also took the detour route to the caves, which contain bats.  Due to Covid and white nose syndrome, the caves are closed, so we stayed distant from the caves.  It is interesting that we did not notice anything to indicate cave closure (except signs at the beach and the trail heads), which we thought was odd.  On the way back we had not seen the animal trail which we took to reach the Meadow Trail, but as luck would have it, given other landmarks, we realized we were probably only 200 to 300 feet from the southerly Cave Trail loop off the Meadow Trail.  Getting to the cave trail involves a long hike with a number of ups and downs, and watching out for both horse and dog droppings.  The Meadow Trail went through meadows, and woods, near marshes and had a few lake views.  

Rock Outcropping, common site at Gov Dodge

Upon arriving Sunday, since our campsite was not yet available, we hiked the Pine Cliff Trail, although we skipped the nature loop.  That trail was very busy, and the thing is we noticed horse prints, and feces, even though the trail is for hikers only. It was a crowded trail that late Sunday morning, showing how weekend use contrasts with weekday use.  On most of our hikes during the week we came across only a few other persons.

Land Girl Trudging along Stephen Falls Trail
to connect to Lost Canyon Trail

Many of the summer trails are for both hiking and mountain biking, and some are even shared, as is the Meadow Trail with horses.  Although we did not see any bikers or horses, we saw plenty signs of horses having been present.  Most all of these trails are used in the winter for cross country skiing.  To ski and bike you have to go a particular way, and often times we hiked counter to better be able to see potential bicyclist, if one happened to be present on the trail. The idea was to hike against vehicle traffic, as you would do on a street without sidewalks.

Rock Outcropping near Cave

We went counter to prevailing movement on Tuesday morning when we decided to hike the 3.3 mile Mill Creek Trail.  The trail description says "you will encounter several steep grades, but the majority of the trail is quite level."  Hence we were expecting some up and downs. However, to my spouse, it seemed that the trail was pretty much steep grades--all going up.  After a while she even started to "complain"about the constant uphill climbs we had encountered.  I was expecting to hear the common child question, "Are we there yet?!" Luckily she had her Fitbit on which she tracked the course and remaining mileage.  Perhaps technology dissuaded her from using "Are we there yet?!" Her calculation at one point of 1800 steps remaining, would turn out to be uncannily correct.  At this point she realized, if we had taken the loop as intended, we would be going down hill most of the way.  Of course, what goes up has to come down, but much of the downhill for us turned out to be a paved trail that connects the Military Ridge Trail to Cox Hollow picnic area.  The other few hikers we saw were all going the bike direction, that is uphill on the paved route and downhill on the trail.  Since we hiked Wednesday, our hiking of the constant uphills on the Mill Creek Trail on Tuesday did not dissuade her from hiking again. Or, perhaps, she really wanted to see the Cave Trail.  When I first introduced her to cross country skiing over 30 years ago, our first trip involved a major uphill climb right near the start. At that point, she was turned off to cross country skiing.  I hear about how I made her climb a big hill on cross country skis on her first cross country ski adventure every winter.  That occurred at Anvil Lake near Eagle River. Unfortunately, with snow, that long paved down hill run at Governor Dodge is for cross country skiers going uphill, but as I was walking down I kept thinking it would be a great toboggan run.  As we got back to the campsite, the Land Girl, did comment that given the wet conditions of the trail, due to all of the rain the week prior, perhaps going down hill would have been more dangerous due to possible slippage.

Near Stephen's Falls, someone left a bag
of garbage

Of course, we also hiked the Lost Canyon Trail and visited Stephen's Falls.  We have done that trail quite a bit, and it ran right behind our campsite, so we hiked down to the end of the campground to take the trail, but took a path short cut through the unoccupied site next to us on the way back. We hiked this on Monday afternoon, after our (mis)adventure.  Stephen's Falls became quite popular this past spring.  During the time the State Parks were open, but without requiring a vehicle permit, my wife showed me a photo of the main road and the parallel parking for the Stephen's Falls/Lost Canyon Trail, which had cars parked as far as the photo horizon.  Apparently not much social distancing.  Many of the cars at that time, and during our visit, were from people down south--our Friendly Illinois Brethren. 

View of Twin Valley Lake from Cave Trail

Land Girl was not pleased with the uphill climb on the Mill Creek Trail. But she soldiered through those and the other many topographic changes that are so prevalent at Governor Dodge State Park.  Sitting at the beach one afternoon I saw two people climb the hill to the Cox Hollow picnic area on their bikes with little or no effort.  While not near as steep as the trails or even other roads, it would take some good effort to climb. I then realized they had electric bikes, which are becoming more common as baby boomers age.  At Governor Dodge, as for me, I will stick with hiking, even if it is uphill, both ways.

Cave entrance