This Is Drivel

Category: travel

  • cannonball

    cannonball

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    Went for a short walk along the Capitol City Trail and the Cannonball Path, two paved cycling/running/walking paths I’ve biked on often but have only rarely walked on. There’s an interesting little connecting path where the two mail paths pass close to one another, near Ashbourne Pond in Fitchburg. I don’t use it much when… Read.

  • arboretum amble

    arboretum amble

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    Ambled around the arboretum for a couple hours this morning just because it was such a beautiful day and I didn’t have any other commitments. When I visit the arboretum, I always try to include a stop at Big Spring. It’s a really lovely spot. Read.

  • flashback – The Pennine Way ’86

    flashback – The Pennine Way ’86

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    I took a week of leave to hike the Pennine Way while I was stationed in the United Kingdom. Read.

  • flashback – Boundary Waters ’83

    flashback – Boundary Waters ’83

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    I went back to the Boundary Waters with a buddy from my hometown. I was smart enough to write the date on the back of one of the photos: 1983. This is from a box full of photos which I was certain I had lost. Finding them again was the highlight of my day. Read.

  • flashback – a trip to the Boundary Waters

    flashback – a trip to the Boundary Waters

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    As a wee lad, I was in a semi-official Boy Scout troop. Our troop leaders, Dave Sabrowsky and Cliff Stern, were somehow confident enough in our abilities to take us on a trip to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area one year. I wish I could remember exactly which year — possibly 1978? I’m pretty jazzed… Read.

  • IAT Cross Plains/Andersen Preserve – 10/08/25

    IAT Cross Plains/Andersen Preserve – 10/08/25

    By 1:30 pm I was done walking the Pine Road loop and I still wasn’t ready to head home, so I went for a hat trick — three hikes in one day. According to my guidebook, there was a nearby hike on the IAT I could walk as a loop, so I headed south to… Read.

  • IAT Pine Road / Table Bluff – 10/08/25

    IAT Pine Road / Table Bluff – 10/08/25

    After walking the main two-mile leg of the Table Bluff segment and returning to my car, I still had plenty of time for another short hike and started thinking, “I drove all the way out here, so why not see what else there is?” Luckily, I brought along my official IAT guidebook, so I could… Read.

  • IAT Table Bluff segment – 10/08/25

    IAT Table Bluff segment – 10/08/25

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    I finally checked the Table Bluff segment of the Ice Age Trail off my to-do list. I’ve been up in that neck of the woods many times — I hiked the Indian Lake segment just a couple weeks ago, and the lower half of the Cross Plains segment twice, but for whatever reason I kept… Read.

  • IAT Straight River Segment – 9/10/25 to 9/14/25

    IAT Straight River Segment – 9/10/25 to 9/14/25

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    Three weeks ago, I spent five days with dozens of other volunteers helping cut a new trail through the woods near Luck, Wisconsin, for the Ice Age Trail Alliance. This was my first IATA trail-building event. I’ve been walking the Ice Age Trail for a couple years. The trail stretches around what had been the… Read.

  • IAT Indian Lake segment – 09/28/2025

    IAT Indian Lake segment – 09/28/2025

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    It was such a beautiful day today, I had to get out for a walk, and I wanted to walk a trail I hadn’t visited before, so I drove north and west to check out the Indian Lake segment of the Ice Age Trail. I didn’t walk the full length of the segment so I’ll… Read.

photo of the author and the author's best friend