Hike Up Pisgah Mountain, Wisconsin

August 12, 2003

We drove down to the bank of the Kickapoo River, still inside the Wildcat Mountain state park. There were lots of young folks in canoes, including these guys who brought their dog along. The river was shallow, wading depth, and wound around in the valley. The literature said it was 120 miles long within a 55 mile-long valley. There were lots of wildflowers along the bank of the river.


At left is a kayaker far downstream on the Kickapoo River. He can just be seen in the downstream view above left. Above right is an upstream view of the shallow, winding river.

We decided to tackle the 1.3 mile trail to the top of Mt. Pisgah since it was a nice afternoon and it promised a good view of the valley. We found ourselves walking on a nice trail of very soft, fine pine needles.

There was a rich collection of ferns along the trail which Brenda enjoyed. The fern with the circular pattern above is one that we don't remember having ever seen before.

It was a steep trail of switchbacks and gave us both a good workout. We found the distinctive leaves of our old friend the bloodroot plant on the trail, as well as wild geranium and some other plants which looked like plants we see at Bent Tree in North Georgia.

We made it to the top and had a wonderful view of the valley of the Kickapoo River and the surrounding farmland.

In the left view above you can see the bend of the Kickapoo River far below us in the center of the picture. That is where we had hiked from. We enjoyed being able to see the canoes on the river at this great distance.

At left above is a telephoto picture of canoes at a bend in the river, and at right is a view after we got back down to the river level. In the view above left is a rock formation to the right of the image with amounts to a "dell", a collection of flat plate rocks.

Brenda enjoyed the luxuriant ferns all over the area. These ferns at river level were particularly lush and stood almost head high to her in places.

After an exhilirating hike we headed back east along Hwy 33. We encountered several Amish individuals with their various horse-drawn vehicles.

Devil's Lake State Park
Index

2003
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