Category: hobby

  • walking on sunshine

    walking on sunshine

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    There were signs early Monday morning that the weather was going to be extraordinary, but I had no idea until I got out into it how glorious it would turn out to be. Sunny, calm, so pleasantly warm it could have been any day in the middle of summer. I just loafed along the trail… Read.

  • to be determined

    to be determined

    I want to spend the morning sitting on the sofa with a book, nursing a big mug of very black, very strong coffee. It’s the perfect day for it, cold and rainy and windy. Going out to do almost anything today would be no fun at all. I can stay in, I can stretch out… Read.

  • IAT – CLEANUP DAY! — 2/25/2026

    IAT – CLEANUP DAY! — 2/25/2026

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    Sometimes I hike a segment of the Ice Age Trail, but I don’t finish it. I leave it half done. I have the best of intentions to return to the segment to finish it off, but then I don’t. Now that I think about it, I’m like this with washing clothes, too. I can wash… Read.

  • IAT Devil’s Staircase / Arbor Ridge – 02/23/2026

    IAT Devil’s Staircase / Arbor Ridge – 02/23/2026

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    Today was a good day to walk a couple nearby segments of the Ice Age Trail. I wanted a segment close to home — an hour away by car or less — because I felt like doing more walking than driving this afternoon. Opening my guidebook, I started flipping through pages of maps in nearby… Read.

  • IAT Gibb’s Lake Segment – 02/07/2026

    IAT Gibb’s Lake Segment – 02/07/2026

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    Not too far from where I live, only about 40 minutes away by car, there’s a lonely little segment of the Ice Age Trail which winds around the eastern shore of Gibb’s Lake in Rock County. It’s one of those segments of the IAT that’s connected to other segments via a long road walk. From… Read.

  • IAT Scuppernong Segment – 02/04/2026

    IAT Scuppernong Segment – 02/04/2026

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    After hiking the southern half of the Scuppernong Segment yesterday, I went back today to walk the northern half. Conditions were much the same today as they were on Tuesday: Sunny, clear skies, a light breeze, temperatures in the twenties. Perfect, except for the temperatures. I dressed for cold weather, packed a lunch, and hit… Read.

  • IAT Scuppernong segment – 02/03/2026

    IAT Scuppernong segment – 02/03/2026

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    The only explanation I can come up with for going out to hike seven miles through the snow in sub-freezing weather today is this: It had been so effing cold for so long that 18 degrees F seemed like a pretty reasonable temperature to hike in, actually. No, really, it did. I stayed inside for… Read.

  • deep freeze

    deep freeze

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    Before the weather changed to plunge us into a subzero deep freeze overnight, I had the opportunity to tramp around in the UW-Madison arboretum yesterday while temps were still in the high teens. NOAA said it was 14 deg F but my dashboard thermometer said it was 18 deg F, which somehow seemed, I dunno,… Read.

  • IAT Stony Ridge segment – 01/21/2026

    IAT Stony Ridge segment – 01/21/2026

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    After almost a week of near-zero weather, the temperature when I got up this morning was a much more bearable 14 deg F! And it was supposed to get up to a balmy 20 deg F! We’re having a heat wave! I haven’t been out and about much in the past week due to the… Read.

  • IAT Eagle Segment – 01/12/2026

    IAT Eagle Segment – 01/12/2026

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    After spending all morning writing a blog post about yesterday’s hike along the Eagle Segment of the Ice Age Trail, I got the itch to drive back and re-visit it, maybe finish off the tail end of the trail I started yesterday, and walk a bit more of the trail on the southern end of… Read.

photo of the author and the author's best friend