What with waiting for the delivery guys to bring our new washer and dryer, and then getting everything squared away in the basement so we could use our new washer and dryer, there wasn’t enough time left over on Saturday or Sunday to drive across the county for a long hike on the Ice Age Trail or through a state park, so I made do with a long hike through the Aldo Leopold Nature Center and, right next to it, the Edna Taylor Conservation Park. Both are just a few blocks from our house and both are just as nice for an afternoon hike as the UW arboretum.

It was a very messy hike, though. Temps climbed into the forties, melting the top inch or so of topsoil while the deeper dirt remained frozen rock-solid. The melted water, having no where to go, turned the trails into mud wallows, churned under the feet of every passing hiker. In most places, I could walk along the edges of the trails to avoid sliding in the mud, but there were long stretches with dense brush on either side of the trail, so I just had to muck it.