My feet have been rejuvenated with my day off doing chores. Usually my left heel is sore in the morning and takes about 10 minutes to warm up. But today it’s not stiff at all is ready to go as soon as my feet at the floor.

And the feet hit the floor early today because I want to try and get as early as start as I possibly can. Breakfast starts at 6:30 so I’m awake and showering by 6:00. I managed to get the pack completely packed before 6:30 so as soon as I’m done with breakfast I am ready to go. And it was the same sad breakfast as yesterday.

The weather is cloudy and I was expecting it to be cool. But it is anything but cool. It is actually quite warm and muggy. In less than 5 minutes I am already saturated with sweat.

I have about 1 mile to rejoin the trail from where I left it to get to the hotel. For about the next 8 miles to town I will be following a bike trail.

As the trail winds through town, I come across a sign that tells me how far it is to each terminus. I have come 324 MI and have 776 left to go. I am also at the most southern point in Wisconsin that I will ever be on this trail. From this point on I will be heading north while still drifting Westward.

The downtown area is nice to walk in. The trail is along the Rock River and there are little shops and plazas everywhere. It seems like most of the shops are on the other side of the river.

Something just dawned on me this morning. I think so far the trail has routed me at right adjacent to about six or seven elementary schools, middle schools, or high schools. Isn’t there some laws for registered sex offenders that they can’t be within a certain distance of a school? If that is true then how would a registered sex offender be able to hike one of these trails without going off route? And what would happen if they accidentally got too close and someone found out? Creepy, I know, but I don’t ever think I’ve seen this many schools on a hike before.

Just before leaving town there is a restaurant just a few blocks off the trail. It is only 10:30 in the morning but they opened at 10:00. I sit there for about 5 minutes contemplating should I or should I not. I have plenty of food with me in fact probably too much. But it’s hard to resist a fresh sandwich. So I decided to go ahead and track up the hill and check out the restaurant which is actually a bar. I wanted an Italian beef but they are out of roast beef so a Ruben it is.

By the time I get back on the trail the clouds have cleared up. So it is not only muggy, now it is also hot and muggy. I am also feeling a little overfull, so I think my choice to eat lunch so early was a mistake.

The last section before leaving town is a park with a boat launch and lots of recreation areas. The trail leaves a park up a steep staircase to take you to a stream that is stacked with many tiers of boulders that they call the devil’s staircase.

I wasn’t in the mood for this climb because I am full and all of the rocks are wet. Most of the rocks are dolomite and they are very slippery when they are wet. Even the dirt has mold growing on it and you slip all over the place.

The trail exits that area and skirts around the edge of a golf course to go into another park area. This park has an 1840s pioneer cabin and there is also a building that has a fountain running continuously for drinking. I think I drink water there for about two solid minutes. And it is good and cold.

When I exit this park, it will be road walking all the way to the last park where I will be camping tonight. It’s probably 10 miles or so of road and that would put me at the park somewhere around 5:30 which is a good time to stop.

Most of the roads are very lightly traveled but they have pretty poor shoulders on them. I take a break when I find some shade at about 2:30 and make my coffee. But this time I just make it cold and don’t bother to heat it up. I am feeling pretty tired but within 15 minutes I have enough energy to keep trucking.

When I get to the next intersection and look at the map I see that it looks like there is a road that angles a little bit and could shave a half a mile off the route. This is one of the green sections so it is a connector and you’re able to make your own route if you want to.

I decided to go ahead and stick with the official route instead and soon regret it. One of the roads they have us on for a little over a mile has a tremendous amount of traffic and absolutely no shoulder. It is about 30 minutes of the most miserable road walking yet on this hike. It’s county road H if anyone cares.

The rest of the road walk go smoothly, but the last mile it begins to rain lightly. The good part is at least it is now much cooler and much breezier so my sweat begins to evaporate finally. I make it to the park just before 5:30 and head towards the hiker section that has a hand pump. Comments in the guidebook say that the hand pump is missing a handle, and indeed it is. It is about a quarter mile over to the equestrian side which has its own water pump, so I head that direction.

The equestrian side is much nicer. They have a covered pavilion with four picnic tables and their pump is electric. You just put your bag under the spout and turn the timer and it shoots out water at tremendous speed. The only bad part is that shoots out rusty water. Even after filtering it doesn’t taste very good. I arrived with about a half a liter, which is enough to cook with, but I will have to be drinking this water tomorrow during my hike.

Shortly after I arrive at the shelter it starts to rain, which I was expecting. The last forecast I was able to get said it would rain on and off till about 8:00 p.m. so I will basically do everything short of set up the tent under the pavilion and then set up my tent at the last minute. Luckily it is breezy so there are no mosquitoes even though there were some along the lake getting here.

A group of four girls arrive with horses as the rain intensifies. They are troopers. They keep gearing up and head out into the rain. If you love riding horses then I guess you love riding horses. Just like if you like hiking you like hiking whether it’s raining or not.

The cell service here is almost non-existent, so to wait out the several hours before dark I will have to entertain myself the old fashioned way – with a stick and a hoop. Not really. I have only listened to music one time on this trip. And for some reason I just don’t feel like listening to music now.

Emotion of the day, Regret

It’s amazing how the effects of one bad decision can last with you for so long. I do regret stopping to eat lunch so early. I missed out on the opportunity to lighten my pack and I made myself over full and uncomfortable for several hours of hiking. At least it’s a lowercase regret and not an upper case regret. The sandwich was still very good.

The bad news for tomorrow is I will pass by places both at lunch time and dinner time so I will have this dilemma two times tomorrow. Stay tuned to see if I I’m able to learn from my mistakes or not.