Bike & beer

One of the things that I both like and dislike about fall in Wisconsin is the sense of urgency.  You just don't know when the weather is going to turn (usually it's earlier than I want), and that means every nice weather weekend in fall has to be respected and used wisely.  A nice Sunday rolled around in late October and it was hard to resist getting outside for a potentially last hurrah.

We decided on a bike ride to a winery and brewery on the Fox River State Recreational Trail.  The trip would involve a 16 mile round trip with Ledgestone Vineyards and the newer Gnarly Cedar Brewing Company at the same location as our turnaround point.  We set off from the DePere dam on the Fox River and headed south to Greenleaf.  Most of the leaves were already down from the trees and the first section of the trail is partially urban, but it was a nice ride with moderate temperatures, ample sun, and not too much trail traffic.  We reached our destination and enjoyed some beers while watching a very hyper golden retriever play in the yard with his human friend.   It was even nice enough to sit outside and enjoy our beers!  After our break it was time to hit the trail for the return trip north.  An enjoyable afternoon of some pretty decent exercise (flat trails = constant peddling), some nature time, and a new brewery.

As it turns out, we've had the wettest September on record, the snowiest October on record, the snowiest Halloween on record, the wettest year on record, and the snowiest start to winter in 124 years.  Looks like a fun (interesting?) winter on the way!

Beautiful day at Ledgestone Vineyards!

The namesake of Ledgestone Vineyards is the Ledge- a geologic formation of dolomite rock that almost looks like a little mountain if you squint really hard!

And here's the neighborhood park less than 48 hours later on October 29!

Jersey does Titletown

Mom and Dad came out to visit us for a long weekend at the end of September.  We had a busy and fun weekend that included a Packers tailgate, antiquing and cheese shopping, day trip to Door County parks and shops including brunch at Al Johnson's Swedish Restaurant, a tour of the UW-Green Bay campus, a visit to the Green Bay Botanical Garden, and a trip to Shawano County (pronounced SHAWN oh), the barn quilt capital of Wisconsin, for sightseeing and the Sunday flea market and car show.  And no visit is complete without a trip to Culver's for lunch and ice cream.  We also had to work in a traditional Wisconsin Friday night fish fry dinner, and none other than Jordy Nelson walks in with his family and is seated right behind us.  Awesome!  The dinner got even more fun when a lady at a table across from us bet me $5 that I couldn't finish the meatloaf dinner I ordered, so I looked up and told her, "you're on!"  I did finish my dinner and she insisted on giving me the $5 to make good on the deal.  I paid it forward and bought a tin of boy scout popcorn at our next shopping stop.  Always a lot of fun to show Mom and Dad a good time in Titletown!

Go Pack Go!  High rollers tailgating at Lambeau- we left just before the game started and made it back home in time to watch on TV as everyone got evacuated out of the bowl for a thunderstorm.

Late season at the Green Bay Botanical Garden 

Views of Lake Michigan from Cave Point County Park, Door County 

Onward Phoenix!

I have neglected the blog again.  It's been a very busy spring this year, including some travel (2x) back to the east coast for the first time since the holidays for a family visit at the Jersey shore and a trip to Maryland for Scott's friend's wedding. And probably the biggest piece of news is that I have a new job!  I started in mid-June as a research specialist at University of Wisconsin-Green Bay (Go Phoenix!).  I am coordinating several fish and wildlife habitat restoration projects in the Bay of Green Bay, which I will share more about when I have more details and cool photos.  These projects will get me back out into "the field" (i.e., what we conservation people call outside) more often, but it will be more like knee (or waist) deep in the bay and also driving a boat.  Awesome!  I also get to work with many of the same people from my previous jobs and I had a short stint at the university about a year ago as an instructor, so at least everything isn't completely new.  Very excited to have work in my area of expertise and to be back in the university setting, but needless to say it has been an adjustment back into the full time work force and trying to keep up with summer activities, classes at the gym, gardening, and keeping Teddy busy!

In May, I had the change to welcome my first visitor to WI besides my parents!  My college friend Rosie flew out to visit for Memorial Day weekend.  We had a great time touring Lambeau Field, visiting one of the largest dairy farms in WI (thanks to Rosie's dairy connections!), and auto touring/lighthouse touring/wine tasting the Lake Michigan shoreline.  We even stopped at a winery we had not been to yet called Cold Country Vines & Wines in Kewaunee- it was great and we will definitely be back!  It was wonderful to catch up with Rosie, and to "share" Wisconsin with her.  We pretty much covered it: dairy farming, cheese and wine tasting, microbreweries, lakeshore, lighthouses, and even lunch at Culver's (can't miss that!).  Whew!  Now that we have been here for just shy of 3 years, we know enough to be half decent tour guides.  Book your trip today, great rates (i.e., free) and we have lots of openings in the schedule (....as in no bookings until Mom and Dad come back out in late summer).  Thanks for visiting, Rosie!

 Nice off-season afternoon at Lambeau

Nittany Lions experience the Lambeau Leap!

Point Beach was early season chilly, but beautiful! 

Wine tasting at von Stiehl Winery in Algoma

This spring has been very rainy and, early on, it was pretty cool. We planted the garden during the last few days of May once the frost danger ended, and have only had to water a couple of times since due to all the storms and rain over the last month.  Nearly all of the plants seem to be doing great, and we really have a handle this year on the weed management and garden plot set up (thanks to my UW-Extension gardening courses!).  This year we have: onions, lettuce, kale, redskin potatoes, bell peppers, hot peppers, winter and summer squash, tomatoes, and peas.  So far, so good!  It should be about another month before we have veggies.  So hard to be patient!

Early stages of the garden- mid-June

Also looking forward to getting to some Bullfrogs baseball games soon- we haven't made it out yet, but hopefully schedules will settle in here and the excessive rain will stop...and we can get in some nice evenings at the ballpark.

The other season of Door County

We had an ice fishing charter trip planned up in Door County for the first weekend in March (which is normally a fine time for such a trip), but the weather conditions this winter did not support much ice coverage in most places that normally see pretty good conditions.  Many events in the region, such as the Battle on the Bago ice fishing tournament and the famous American Birkebeiner cross county ski race up in Hayward, were uncharacteristically canceled this year.  So naturally, but not unexpectedly, our ice fishing trip was also cancelled the the week of the trip.

Nonetheless, we went up to Door County anyway since the plans and lodging were already in place. Overall it was a great time to visit with reduced crowds and traffic, but many stores, restaurants, and farm stands were (of course) closed for the season.  The weather was mostly cloudy, but very tolerable in the upper 30s and low 40s.

We started our visit at Cave Point County Park and Whitefish Dunes State Park for some hiking.  Both sites had really limited ice coverage as compared to even the last couple of years we have been here.  There were not too many people out compated to summertime- we even were able to walk on the beach at Whitefish where the ice shoves normally would be piled high by now.

Cave Point County Park

Whitefish Dunes State Park 

Anyone want to take a dip in Lake Michigan?  Icy water!

Next we stopped at Stone's Throw Winery for a tasting, a new winery for us.  Their grapes are mostly sourced from California, so they have a lot of the drier wines that Scott likes.  It was a neat winery in an old barn, and a nice property.  They have boccie ball courts and a pizzeria that are open in the summertime.  We then stopped for some delicious sandwiches at Coyote Roadhouse right on Kangaroo Lake, the largest interior lake in Door County.

Stone's Throw Winery near Bailey's Harbor

Next up was Door County Brewing Company in Bailey's Harbor- a favorite for Scott!  They were actually quite busy and we had to use overflow parking.  While we were there, we started planning out the rest of the day- I discovered that there was an Aldo Leopold Weekend reading event of A Sand County Almanac at The Ridges Sanctuary just down the street.  Although we've been by the visitor center a number of times, we had never stopped in to see the nature center, so it was a good excuse.  We enjoyed the nature center and store, and then popped into the reading event, intending to stay for about 15 minutes, but stayed over an hour until the end.  Good thing we did because the last reader became a bit emotional and grabbed me in the front row to finish his reading for him.  We will definitely be back later in the year to walk the trails!

Door County Brewing Company, Bailey's Harbor

We checked in to our condo at The Landing Resort in Egg Harbor, which was very nice (and the off season price was too).  We had a view of the woods and a nice living room and kitchenette.  We ventured out after dark for dinner intending to hit up a restaurant that was supposed to be open for the off-season, but it was closed so we went with Wild Tomato as an alternative for pizza.  We got there late enough that there was some seating, and the wood fired pizza hit the spot!

The next morning, we were off to the famous Al Johnson's Swedish Restaurant for breakfast and lucked out that there was immediate seating- we were also lucky they were open because they had been closed the previous week for renovations.  Lingonberry tea and eggs benedict, as usual!  Next up was a quick ride through Peninsula State Park, one of the hottest spots in Door County in season, but very quiet this time of the year.  Half of the park roads are closed for winter (including the area where the lighthouse is located), so we just auto-toured and stopped a few times to check things out. Two more winery stops, Harbor Ridge Winery and Simon Creek Vineyard & Winery, proved to be the best ones of the trip!  Harbor Ridge actually has a cheese tasting shop right next door- yum!  After tasting some award-winning cheeses from Wisconsin, your standards will be high enough that other cheeses will just not suffice.  Expensive habit, but we did buy a small piece of merlot cheese that was too good to pass up.  Simon Creek actually had some of their vineyards on site, so it reminded me of a lot of wineries I have been to in Pennsylvania and Virginia.

Eagle Panorama Overlook, Peninsula State Park- open water in the distance

Cheese tasting, anyone?  We tasted a couple of the world champions inside! 

Last stop of the trip was a 3 mile hike at Potawatomi State Park from the campground up to the viewing tower (which is closed) and back.  We didn't see another person- or any wildlife, other than tracks. A nice solitude winter hike to enjoy a quiet park.  The overnight trip provided a great chance to visit our parks and check out lots of new places!  Until next time...

 Ice Age Trail in winter

Sturgeon Bay still looking frozen, but lots of cracks and thin ice visible

To the edge of the Northwoods

Last Saturday was another fairly nice day for this time of year, meaning partly sunny and low 50s, so we decided to take a drive in the northwesterly direction- an area that I have really not explored yet. Scott gets to travel all over Wisconsin for work, so he has experienced most of the different terrain plenty of times even though he can't usually partake in the touristy stuff.  The Northwoods (a.k.a., Up Nort, the 'h' is silent) is generally the term used to describe north central Wisconsin- few people, lots of pine trees and lakes, expansive National Forests (the Chequamegon-Nicolet NF, good luck saying that one! SHE wah meh gon-NICK o lay), and some different wildlife (including wolves!).  It supposedly looks a lot like the UP of Michigan just to the north.

We drove an hour to the Village of Crivitz, self-described as the "Gateway to the North."  All outdoor outings should be accompanied by a sample of adult beverages, so we made a stop in town for wine tasting at the Falling Waters Winery, so named because of the tour of 14 "waterfalls" in Marinette County.  The wines were very good and spanned the gamut from dry to sweet, so everyone was happy.  I place "waterfalls" in quotations because they are very small waterfalls by mountainous standards, but I am willing to give flatlanders their waterfalls.  We have not seen any of them, but will make a point to do so next time we are in the area.  The photos in the tourist information look nice (see some here), but I'm sure the waterfalls are quite busy in the summertime.

After wine tasting, we drove 20 minutes further northwest to visit Governor Thompson State Park. The park was just established around 15 years ago, so it is fairly new as far as parks go. The park office and restroom facilities were brand new buildings, and the campground also appeared to be fairly new. The park provides water access to Caldron Falls Reservoir (a dammed section of the Peshtigo River), several boat-in campsites, three loops of car campground, and a trail system of fire roads.  We hiked around 6.5 miles on both the Otter Trail overlooking Woods Lake and the Thunder Mountain Trail that lead to several rock outcroppings and Huber Lake, which is surrounded by private camps.  And there actually is a Thunder Mountain, which is kind of mountainous!  Everything was very dry since this is the middle of fire season right now, and all the pine needles make for crackly walking.  Basically, conditions are ripe for fire since there are no leaves on the trees yet, lots of dry vegetation around (although we had snowpack for the most of the winter, it was gone early), and moderate to high winds desiccating the leaf litter quickly.  Things should green up soon since we've had some decent rain of late.

Otter Trail 

Beach at Woods Lake 

See it out there beyond Huber Lake?

We did not see anyone else on the trails until we were leaving- pretty quiet!  The campground has come up in my searches for reservable campsites before, so perhaps we will check it out for camping sometime.  Now we are in the rush between the arrival of spring and the start of mosquito season when outdoor recreation gets a little more challenging.  No wolves or other wildlife to speak of, other than a curious red squirrel that was not very red.

“I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.” -John Muir

Gotcha Day

We celebrated Teddy's first "gotcha day" (his birthday, since we don't know his real birth date) last week on November 12- it's hard to believe it has been one year since he came home!  He was happy to get a new toy and some Frosty Paws ice cream for his special day.

Cub Scout Teddy on a rainy Halloween 2015

Happy Gotcha Day!

The generally nice weather has continued, so we have been out to hike or bike almost every weekend.  Two weeks ago we hiked a new section of the Ice Age Trail segment within Point Beach State Forest.  We had already completed two other sections on previous visits, so this 6 mile out-and-back section would complete the Point Beach Segment.  Teddy went along with us for the hike through the State Forest and for a loop through the Rahr Memorial School Forest.  The Manitowoc Public School District owns the 300 acre property that is used for school learning exercises, field trips, and programs, and is open to the public.  Such a neat place!  We finished the hike around mid-afternoon and headed out quickly since it is deer archery season and public lands get pretty busy with hunters, even on Sundays.  We opted for a quick walk on the pet beach (Teddy is afraid of waves) and Rawley Point Lighthouse photos before heading out.

Hiking the Ice Age Trail at Point Beach State Forest, Rawley's Point Lighthouse

We recently became wine club members at Captain's Walk Winery in downtown Green Bay, and had our first social event earlier this month.  We picked up our wine selections for this quarter, had glasses of wine and appetizers, and checked out the "Captain's Quarters" wine club member lounges.  We signed up for the club about a month ago when we stopped in for a tasting and got to talking to our wine server Joe, who used to live in Gettysburg and happens to be a big history buff.  Scott especially enjoyed talking to him about all things Pennsylvania and the Civil War.  Looking forward to visiting Captain's Walk more often (especially since one of my workplaces is right next door...tempting).

 Captain's Walk Winery

Catching up

Sorry for the almost month-long break from the blog- life has gotten a little busier over the last couple weeks which leaves less time for fun stuff to write about. However, fall is almost here so there should be plenty of camping adventures, festivals and the like to keep us busy on the weekends before winter sets in yet again.

My job has got a lot busier in late August because we are now in the herbicide treatment season for Phragmites, and we are up against a moving target of the first hard frost, which could come any time in October (which means the work has to be done in time before a date we don't know).  The plants start to store energy to make it through the winter in the late summer/early fall, and that makes it a really good time to effectively treat them with the herbicide.  Lately every day has been packed with trying to set up contractors and get the last minute arrangements in place.  I can't say I've ever had to make arrangements for a helicopter to take off and land before!  We expect to get started this week and should be able to finish by the end of the month, if the weather cooperates.  We had rain last week and winds so far this week, which are the two things that make it a lot harder to get the work done.

To top it off,  I started a second part time job after Labor Day at the Bay-Lake Regional Planning Commission, also working with managing Phragmites on a different project- this one funded by the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (from EPA) to promote recovery of the Green Bay/Fox River Area of Concern, which has been impaired due to historic pollution from industry in the area.  I will also be developing some outreach programs for different audiences, and already have attended a couple of meetings in just a week of work.  So far, so good.

So then once I was working full time, I accepted a last minute third job teaching a biology lecture class this semester at University of Wisconsin-Green Bay!  I start the animals section of the class on October 26 (the first half of class covers plants).  While I am pretty busy right now, all of this work will be over by the end of the year, so the chaos will be relatively short-lived.

After a quick flight "back east" to PA over Labor Day weekend for my dear freshman roomie's wedding (congrats, Karen and Brent!), Mom and Dad came to visit last weekend on their way to the UP (Upper Peninsula) of Michigan for their vacation.  We had a nice visit and nice weather- we spent one afternoon up in Door County visiting Door 44 Winery, Door Peninsula Winery, and Door County Distillery, and checking out the shops and lighthouses in Sturgeon Bay.  And of course, a trip to Culvers!

Sturgeon Bay Pierhead Light- much warmer than last time we were here!

 

 Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal Light- on an active Coast Guard Station

We finished off the day watching the sunset at Potawatomi State Park.  The view from the shoreline was great, but the climb up to the top of the observation tower made it even better!

Sunset behind Green Bay

April snow showers bring May flowers

We finally have warm temperatures, green grass and spring flowers!  The longest awaited spring arrived with the calendar.  May is here!

The last couple of weekends have each included a long walk on the Mountain-Bay Trail.  We usually walk a quieter section further out of town that has more scenery and lots of wildlife- we always see deer, turkey, and even had a barred owl yesterday evening.  We startled the owl off the ground near a wet area and had a great view in a nearby tree.  Teddy has a blast sniffing out all of the deer trails. 

Moonrise along Mountain-Bay Trail

We also visited a couple new local wineries, including Duck Creek Vineyard & Winery in Denmark and Kerrigan Brothers Winery in Freedom.  Neat story about Freedom- in the mid-1830s, a freed black slave named James Andrew Jackson was one of the founding members of the town.  The townspeople wanted to name the town "Jackson" in his honor.  He declined, simply stating that the town should be called Freedom.

Yesterday we visited a Civil War exhibit titled "When Neenah Came Marching Home" sponsored by the Neenah Historical Society at the Smith Octagon House in the City of Neenah.  Side note- if you ever happen to pay attention to manhole covers...check one out the next time you think about it because many of them were produced at the Neenah Foundry.  The exhibit highlighted the experiences of 300 men from Neenah that fought in the Civil War, and especially what life was like when the survivors arrived home (84 of the 300 died in the war).  A lot of people don't realize that Wisconsin was a state at the time, and a number of soldiers served and contributed significantly to the Union campaign.  One notable Neenah veteran you may recognize- Pvt. Charles B. Clark, who later became a founder of Kimberly & Clark and a local politician.  The exhibit was small but very interesting- a good event to kick off Scott's birthday week.  One highlight was a regimental 35 star flag, found many years later on a shelf stuffed into a shopping bag, and carefully restored for its preservation.

 When Neenah Came Marching Home exhibit

 Octagon House, Neenah

Regimental flag and C.B. Clark's frock coat

Neenah Lighthouse at Kimberly Point on Lake Winnebago

I am looking forward to participating in the Great Wisconsin Birdathon with a group of coworkers on May 15th and 16th.  We will spend 24 hours (well, not a full 24 hours- we are going home to sleep in between!) identifying as many species of birds that we can in the Green Bay Area.  We have a number of visits planned to places that you have already read about, such as Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary, Sensiba Wildlife Area,  and Barkhausen Waterfowl Preserve to attempt to view lots of waterfowl, wading birds, warblers, and forest and grassland birds at the height of migration.  The event serves to raise money for important bird programs in the state, from Bird City Wisconsin to the Breeding Bird Atlas to conservation programs for endangered birds such as the Kirkland's warbler.  If you would like to support my team, the Green Bay Quackers, in our effort to raise money for bird conservation, please visit my fundraising page here.  Donations can be a flat rate in advance OR a pledge for each species that we observe on Birdathon day.  A donation of any amount makes a big difference for the birds of Wisconsin!

Last Day of Winter and a Lakeshore Tour

Mom and Dad came to visit to celebrate my birthday last week, and Scott was able to take a day and a half off during the week (since he worked the previous weekend) to visit with us too.  My parents had visited in the Green Bay area last September "on their way" out to the Grand Canyon, and we did a trip up to Door County for their first visit.  This time, we introduced Mom and Dad to Culver's for lunch (Wisconsin fast food including fried cheese curds, by request, and homemade custard!) and showed them around town a little bit- a walk on the Mountain-Bay State Trail, the Fox River in downtown Green Bay, Grassy Island Lights at the Green Bay Yacht Club, Cabela's, and the wolves at Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary.

  Enjoying the Mountain-Bay State Trail

The main attraction was a Lakeshore Tour along Rt. 42 northward from Manitowoc to Algoma, to check out some towns Scott and I had visited previously during separate trips out to the lakeshore.  We started at the USS Cobia (a WWII submarine) outside of the Wisconsin Maritime Museum in Manitowoc.  The day was actually pretty chilly and quite windy on the water- so the one real walking excursion we took out to the Kewaunee Light (about a 15 min walk each way) was a little too frigid.  It was definitely a lighthouse-themed day since we saw 4 lighthouses: Manitowoc, Rawley Point (in Point Beach State Forest), Kewaunee, and Algoma, and stopped for lunch in between at the Water's Edge Restaurant inside the Lighthouse Inn in Two Rivers, right on Lake Michigan.  Scott and I had eaten at the Gull's Nest Lounge there following a camping trip out that way last fall, and it was just as delicious this time.  Our last stop of the day was the von Stiehl Winery and Ahnapee Brewery (next door to each other) in Algoma for some wine and beer tasting, and a few bottles to go, of course.  Oh, no wait...our last stop of the day was Culver's for an ice cream!

Manitowoc Light

 Rawley's Point Lighthouse, Point Beach State Forest

 Kewaunee Light

 Algoma Light (looking nice and bright following the paint job last summer)

Teddy had a coupon for a free first day of daycare at The Animal House (the pet center where he is taking his training class), so he had a great behavior assessment report and a fun day playing with the other dogs at daycare while we were gone.  Aside from needing a bath when he got home, he looked (and slept) like he had a great time!

We had a great visit (and I had a great birthday lighthouse tour, on a Thursday!) even though the temperatures were closer to seasonal rather than the gorgeous weather the week before in the 50s and near 60s.  Here's hoping spring is on its way!