Mississippi River Walk - Welcome to Iowa

Colorado or Bust, Days 36 through 38:

Illinois went fast.  Once I finished hiking the Hennepin Canal, there were just a few miles of road walking into East Moline, and soon I was crossing the Mississippi River and being greeted by Davenport Iowa.  The photo above shows my view of the Davenport skyline from approximately the state line on the double-decker Government Bridge in the middle of the river.

But let's go back a step.  That road walk into East Moline.  I did it on a Saturday.  The route uses Highway 84, Colona Road, because it's pretty much the only way to get across the Rock River into the Quad Cities other than on an Interstate highway.  Just across the Rock River from Colona is the town of Silvis.  And on the left is the entrance to TPC Deere Run Golf Course.

Now, I'm a casual fan of Golf.  I haven't played the game since the '70's, but I love watching it on TV.  What appeals to me is the serenity of people strolling in a perfectly manicured park.  They have microphones picking up the birds singing.  It's always so green and peaceful.  When my hiking route takes me past a golf course I often look in longingly, wishing the cart paths were part of my trail.  Sometimes they are.  The North Carolina Mountains-to-Sea Trail has an arrangement with the Indian Valley Golf Course along the Haw River near Historic Glencoe.  The trail runs right through parts of the course.  In Verona, Wisconsin, earlier this spring I followed the Ice Age National Scenic Trail as it runs through the University Ridge Golf Course, owned by the University of Wisconsin.  But today I was not expecting a golf course stroll.  The trail just follows the road past TPC Deere Run and continues onward.

But, as I passed (and I should have been aware of this), I noticed lots of activity, a big temporary admissions tent with pictures of famous golfers plastered on the front window, people getting off shuttle busses and going in, even though it was only 6:45 in the morning.

Turns out that the annual John Deere Classic PGA Men's pro golf tournament was underway.

Well, I had not planned any spare time into my schedule, but I changed plans in a heartbeat.  As I suggested, it's sort of a bucket list item, and I knew I would regret it forever if I just walked by and didn't take the time to check it out and make it part of my Personal Continuous Footpath.

I paid my thirty bucks, checked my camper's pocket knife with security, and marched in, intending to do a circuit of the course.  Here was my chance to stroll a world-class golf course in the best condition it is possible to get a golf course, while rubbing elbows with famous players.

The course fronts on the Rock River (glimpsed in the photo above) and takes advantage of some seriously hilly terrain.

The 16th hole is the 'signature hole', featuring panoramic views of the river from the green.

I walked the front nine backwards, and started early, coming to the 18th before any players had arrived.

It was a brutally hot day, so I took full advantage of the many concession stands to hydrate with $4 bottles of ice cold sweet tea.  I actually finished my circuit before the leaders teed off, but I had miles to go.  By the end of the day I reached the Mississippi River at East Moline.  Next day would be all Mississippi River Walk, All the time, on both sides of the river.  Here is a sampling, starting with a look at the channel separating Illinois from Arsenal Island, with the bridge crossing in the far distance.

Here's Centennial Bridge as seen from the Davenport side

And here's the more laid back Ben Butterworth Park area back on the other side in Moline, Illinois

The river was very high.  This spring it had flooded at near record levels--the fifth highest water level ever recorded.  

Wildlife, of course, didn't mind at all.

Nor did I.  Officially this road (part of the trail route) was closed.  I wonder why.  But no problem for the intrepid hiker.  It made for great wading.

Finally on the third day I passed through the half-mile-long river-front park in the town of Buffalo.  It doesn't have bike trail yet, but again, no problem for those of us on foot.

Here's the set of GPS Track maps covering days 36 through 38.

There's more River Walk to come, but not much.  Then, well you might say the trail starts to 'Hoover'.  But that's another story for another time.

Farewell to Wisconsin, Hello Illinois

Colorado or Bust, Days 22 through 25

My hike North to South across Wisconsin has been a trip.  It started in the fall of 2017 at the western terminus of Michigan's state-wide Iron Belle Trail in the twin border towns of Ironwood/Hurley.  I was chased off the trail that fall by snow and cold late in October somewhere near Wausau.  After a seventeen month hiatus, I came back and picked up where I left off and have now ended the Wisconsin 'traverse' at the northern terminus of Illinois' Jane Addams Trail in the midst of the worst of midsummer heat and humidity.

My Wisconsin sojourn largely followed the Ice Age National Scenic Trail through the heart of the State, but it made use of many lesser known Trails to connect.  Here in southern Wisconsin, that connecting trail is the Badger State Trail.  It's a rail trail, so open to bicycles, as is its extension into Illinois.  Even the Ice Age Trail makes use of it in several significant segments, including the walk through the quarter-mile Stewart Tunnel, hands-down the highlight of the trail.

The day I walked through was hot and humid, and inside the tunnel it was wonderfully cool, but foggy.  The fog is visible here spilling out into the sunshine.

The Badger State trail has mostly a crushed limestone surface, but the northern several miles of it are paved, from its terminus at the 'Velo Roundabout' where it connects to several other trails including the one to my birthplace in Madison, covered in the last report.

There are spots where the trail is out in the open with expansive views, high and low, of valley and stream,

and of the ubiquitous farmland.  Here a specimen oak stands vigil over a soybean field

Then there are serene shady spots where the trail cuts through forested hills.

Finally the moment had to come when I said Farewell to the Ice Age Trail.

It goes left, following the Sugar River State Trail, and I took the right fork, staying on the Badger Trail.

Twice in the days covered in this report, I was being chased by nasty thunderstorms and barely finished my day's  hike before being hit by storm-force winds and blinding downpours.

The small things along the way break up the long straight stretches that are inevitable on rail trails.  On these days they included Flowers, Fungus, and Foliage, namely some 'Fairy Triangles' spotted in trailside clover (to complement the fairy circles shown in an earlier report).

Here are the four GPS track maps for these four days, which took me from the suburbs of Madison, Wisconsin, to the little town of Orangeville.

From Orangeville I continue south to Freeport where the Jane Addams Trail ends.  There actually is an abandoned rail bed that stretches south out of Freeport to the Rock River at Dixon, but most of it has been taken over by private owners, it appears, and probably won't ever be made into the needed connecting trail.  So instead I'll be walking roads and a mile of pretty foot trail in a Nature Preserve to bridge the thirty mile trail gap between the Jane Addams Trail and the Rock River where I'll pick up the Hennepin Canal Feeder Trail.

Once I'm on the Hennepin trail, I'll turn west to join the route of the cross-country Great American Rail Trail and the older coast-to-coast American Discovery Trail (which coincide here) west into and across Iowa and into Nebraska.  These are the only trails that connect the multitude of hiking opportunities in the Rockies with those in the eastern US.  So I'm taking a deep breath and launching out into the vast flat expanse of the Great Plains.  One step in front of the other.

Hiking cradle to grave, with a stop at Uranus along the way - the comprehensive report

In my last report I revisited the home where I took my very first steps.  In this report I return to the spot where I took my very first breath.  It was at Madison General Hospital, now called Meriter, owned by Unity Point Health, 925 Mound Street in Madison, Wisconsin.  I know I was born there not just because Mom and Dad said so, but because I have in my possession the original hospital bill covering my delivery and my Mom's hospital stay, and it has the address on it.  The entire bill, covering nine days in the hospital, totaled a whopping $58.90.

The hospital has undergone several major expansions since I was born, so it was a challenge to try to roll back time and determine what parts were existing when I was born.  Staff there suggested that the 'old East Wing', now just housing offices, was probably the place, but after digging through information available online, I discovered the architect's rendering shown above, dated April 1949, which conclusively proves that what is now the 'east wing' was an 'addition' not yet built at the time I was born, so one of the older structures in the background of the drawing (red arrow) has to contain the actual room where I came into this world.  Most of those structures are still there, though I can't be certain that the room I was born in still exists.  I had to satisfy myself with circling the entire block, creating a perimeter through which I, as an infant leaving the hospital, would have had to cross.

My walk to Meriter culminated four days of hiking various short segments of the Ice Age Trail, and then some bike paths that come to within a couple blocks of the hospital.   Here are some of the highlights, day-by-day:

Colorado or Bust, Day 18:

After leaving my Sauk City childhood home, where I was also probably conceived, I walked busy US 12 for a half dozen miles until I returned to the Ice Age Trail at the Springfield Hill trailhead.  There I resumed the Ice Age trail route via road walk to the Indian Lake Segment.

That meandering segment features a nice walk beside the south shore of the lake and a route among cross country ski trails through the dense mature woods southeast of the lake.

More road walking took me to the new Liebetrau Segment, which is a pretty useless bit of Ice Age Trail, because it is not a through trail but an out-and-back stroll with a loop at the far end that dips into a woods.  But most of this segment is open grassy meadow.

Another short road walk took me to the Table Bluff segment, a pretty walk through open areas and oak savanna, ending in a descent off the bluff into the town of Cross Plains.

Cross Plains is the location of the Ice Age Trail Alliance headquarters building.

At the end of the day I dropped in for a nice visit, asked a few questions, and learned about a newly opened section of trail south of town - So I added that to the following day's agenda.  Here's the GPS Track for Day 18:

Colorado or Bust, Day 19 took me through the Cross Plains segment, now consisting of two parts separated by a walk past the HQ office.  The northern Hickory Hill part was very pretty, traversing some nice hilltop prairie and a woods along a steep slope.

South of town the new trail ascends to a ridge and courses through mixed pine plantation and hardwood forest and some open meadows.  Here's the prettiest spot, by my estimation:

From there, it's more road walk down to the site of an important future segment, not yet built, through a complex of lands owned by the State, the National Park Service, and Dane County.  The Cross Plains Interpretive Site has loop trails that are planned to become part of the Ice Age trail, and across the street the undeveloped Cross Plains State Park has some really pretty trails that meander between two access points.  Because there is an 'in' and a different 'out', this is a 'through trail' and so I walked it and was super glad I did.  It offers some pretty mature white oak savanna and a view of the quarry pit called Lake Katherine, that I passed on the road walk:

Here's a look at the GPS Track for this day.

Colorado or Bust, Day 20 took me to the west suburbs of Madison.  I first hiked the cute little Valley View segment, wedged among upscale suburban homes.  Here is its signature feature - a view from a high meadow out over the valley of the Sugar River.

Nice wildflowers along this little segment too:

A short road walk took me to the Madison Segment, which is entirely within a University of Wisconsin public golf course.  Then came the Verona Segment.  It is a mix of meadow walking, a bit of woods walking, and a stroll alongside a soccer complex.  A new footbridge crosses busy McKee Road.

I only walked half of this, north of where it briefly shares a course with the Military Ridge State Trail, a paved rail trail used more by bicycles than hikers.  Here I turned east where the Ice Age Trail goes west.  East lies Madison, and my walk to the hospital.  This trail features a scaled-down version of a walk through our solar system.  In this version, the hiker is traveling at roughly the speed of light, and I was whizzing past Uranus, and later Saturn and Jupiter, on Day 21.

The 'sun' is supposed to be an orb about 24 feet in diameter at this scale, and is located at the end of the Southwest Commuter Path in downtown Madison.  I didn't get that far, because the hospital is somewhere between Jupiter and the Asteroid belt.  But I'm getting ahead of myself.  Here's the GPS Track for Day 20, which brought me to the Quarry Ridge mountain biking park:

Colorado or Bust, Day 21:

Short day, walk along very pretty and very popular bike paths into downtown Madison.  There was even a glimpse of the state capitol dome as I got close to the hospital.

And, of course, I passed Saturn:

The route took me to the east end of the Military Ridge Trail, which the Fifty Trail uses in its entirety to take the hiker toward Iowa, and the north end of the Badger State Trail, which I will be using to head south into Illinois where I'll link up with the Hennepin Canal Parkway State Trail, which coincides with the American Discovery Trail and the newly established Great American Rail Trail.  I'll be picking up the Fifty Trail route in the opposite direction there to head into Iowa.  But I'm way ahead of myself again.  The point here is that six different paved bike trails, including the Military Ridge, Badger, and the Southwest Commuter Path that I took into Madison, converge at a unique 'Velo-Roundabout' in the suburb of Fitchburg.

Madison's population is probably the most bike crazy in the country.  As I walked toward the hospital, which is near the university, virtually every house had four or more bicycles chained to porch railings or private bike racks in the yard.  Seems nobody drives here.  Well, at least not in summer.

Here's the GPS Track for Day 21:

So now I've completed my mission in Wisconsin.  Now its all hands to the pump, all eyes on the final prize--the four places I lived in Fort Collins, Colorado between 1970 and 1980.

I've connected every place else that I have called home, cradle to grave.  Yes, that includes my final resting place, this cemetery plot in New London, PA,

I'll be right next to Mom, Dad, brother Jim, and my Grandma Ivis, God rest all their souls. That's grandma's gravestone in upper left and the mat set down at Mom's grave site.  Photo taken the day of her funeral.

The thought can make me a bit misty-eyed.  I'm the only one left to soldier on.  A lonely trekker, with no-one left to ask about my deep past, no-one who could answer the many questions I have about the house in Sauk City, no one with whom to share fond memories of times in the woods, like the 1963 father-son Canoe Trip to Canada's Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, or the 1965 family hikes through Yosemite Park, or lazy summers meandering the woods and fields surrounding my 1958-66 home on White Clay Creek National Wild and Scenic River.  Sheez - I could go on and on ...

… And so I do.  Onward to Colorado.