Guess what? It’s hiking season!
At least, it is supposed to be.
Few things are as nice as getting outside the first day of a Wisconsin spring and not wearing a jacket, hiking through a forest that you know if just about to burst into life. While we have had a couple of warm days this month, there have also been some spring setbacks.
Like an ice storm last Thursday.
Scott and I had made plans with ourselves to go hiking on Good Friday – what’s a good free day off of work in spring if you don’t spend it outside? We were unfazed by a little snow – I mean, we are the people who drove 6+ hours north in January just to get a little extra this winter – so even thought it was going to be a bit soggy, we decided to go anyway. We picked Madison’s Cherokee Marsh out of our 50 Hikes in Wisconsin
This park gets a lot of love from Madison residents, and I can see why: it’s in the city, easy to get to, and really kid-friendly. The marsh is a natural sponge for the Madison area, cleaning up some of the water supply runoff from nearby fields and parking lots before it makes its way into the Yahara River and into Madison’s Lake Mendota, Lake Monona, and others.
Our early spring visit paired with a late-season snow meant that there wasn’t much green to see, but the park was quiet and mostly empty, and the fresh snow allowed us to see some critter tracks that we don’t normally. We think these must be from a martin, but we’re not 100% sure.
The plus side to an ice storm the night before? All the trees looked covered in a delicate layer of glass, sparkling in the bright sun.
It was nice to get outside and experience something you don’t often get to see.
This is 9/50 in our quest to hike all 50 hikes from 50 Hikes in Wisconsin