Brown County

Back when T & I were just dating, we didn't have a whole lot of money. So a lot of the things we did on dates were things that were super cheap, or free. Like going to a state park and spending the entire day. It's less than the cost of one person going to the movie--less than the cost of a Redbox Rental--to go to a state park.

We picked absolutely the best weekend to go, too. The leaves were still on the trees, but turning all kinds of fall colors. And the sky was so blue and almost cloudless. That made the drive down really nice, too, even though there was construction through a large stretch of it and we decided to take a detour. (Which, btw, I would never do on my own, with my less-than-stellar sense of direction. But since The Human Compass was driving, it was a fun adventure.) We ended up going through several small towns that looked as though they had stepped out of the 1950's.

And all along the way, I kept seeing these bushes. I don't know what they are and I didn't get a really good look at them, but they are really interesting looking. The leaves all fell away on the lower half of the bush and only the tops remain covered in leaves. Red leaves. Like the bushes were torches! I never saw a single one of these bushes that looked different than this one. Only leaves on the top.

T offered to stop so I could get a close up look at them, but I said no. After all, I will see them all over the state forest, right? I'll just get close up and take some pictures of the leaves and all then, right? Wrong. We saw this bush at the entrance to the park and then no others the rest of the day.

I'd really like to know what kind of bush this is, if anyone can tell.

Anyway, one of the best things about Brown County is the way you can get a really spectacular view from almost any place in the park. Like this one:

There are no trails on this terrain, so it's a bit rugged. (What I mean by that is, I was not in the mood to potentially step on a copperhead snake at that time. Well, I've never been in the mood to step on any kind of snake, really. But there are copperheads here. And timber rattlers. And cottonmouths. Although, I suppose the cottonmouths would be closer to the water.)

Speaking of water... One of my favorite trails here is the one that goes around this lake. We used to do this trail a lot. (This one and the one that goes by the fire tower. And we would climb to the top of the fire tower, and then back down, before returning to the stopping point. Ah, youth. Why did you leave me in this old lady body?)

It's Trail 7. We've done Trail 9 before, but I don't remember it. It looks like Trail 9 goes right up that hill, though, so Trail 7 it is.

You may argue that a trail with wooden bridges is not really a hiking trail. But it was rugged enough. And the bridges afford some really nice views of the lake.

And of my favorite view.

And, I don't remember all these steps. They might have put them in because of safety issues, who knows. And, you know, climbing steps is still climbing. So I count that as hiking, still.

Still more steps.

And then the sign was down. Just beyond this point we found a thermos that had been abandoned. It reminded me of that scene in Jurassic Park where Nedry backs over the sign and then doesn't know how to get to the pier. And then the dinosaurs came and ate him.

No dinosaurs here, right?

Right?

This part of the trail is new. It used to cut right through here. But that was before there was all this bog. They put these nice little sidewalks in to keep people out of it, I suppose. It also made the trail a bit longer than it used to be, since you have to go around the bog.

And at this point it occured to me that we were back at lake level again, after going up and up and up. I'm not sure how that happened, since we didn't go down any steps. It was a very gradual thing, I guess.

This bog is actually very pretty. Probably filthy with snakes, though.

There was, I am not kidding, either, chanting coming from down this path. Full on, 1970s-horror-movie chanting. I expected to see some cultists in Snuggies at any second.

Instead, we came to more steps up. And seriously, do the laws of physics not exist in this place? Because at this point we should be very close to where we started. So how are we going up again?

This little cabin is at the top of the steps. That is not where the chanting was coming from, though. We never did find that out. Not because I'm chicken and have seen too many horror films about couples getting killed by cultists in the woods, mind you.

It was just getting dark.