Duck Egg walk... & Charlie

 Sunday was very windy and a bit chilly in the morning for those used to 80 degree weather. It was in the 60's when Charlie and I went to Duck Egg. Really, I don't know why it is named that, but it is a county park with a huge dam that was built ages ago to deter flooding from the Springville Branch of the Bad Axe River.

In the 1950's this Bad Axe branch wiped out most of a small town called Newton in a flood with a mere 4" rainfall that came down hard.

I chose to walk through lower Duck Egg because it is easy to get out of the wind while in the steep valley. I decided to go early in the day to check out the leaves and the light. That first shot is from the trail looking up at the west ridge above the valley taken with my cellphone. The colors look pretty flat but the light wasn't that great.

It didn't matter, the air was crisp and Charlie was having a ball. 

He does love cool morning walks.

Thank goodness he went up on the foot bridge where I could stand on the ground and get a ground level shot of him. He has 3 inch front legs. Seriously, how can he hike like he does?

The vet said to keep him active and let him be a dog and not a couch potato. Charlie seriously loves his cuddly blanket and snoozing on the couch.

He also loves snoozing on a chair we have for him. In the morning when hubby and I are having coffee together, Charlie jumps up here and curls up. 

The walk was quite nice. Not as nice as the spring walks I take there to find bluebells and so many other wild flowers, but still very quiet and pleasing. The winds whistled above us on the trail.

We eventually made it to the pond and I was surprised to see whitecaps on it. The wind was gusting so hard there were waves on the valley pond.

On our way back to the car, we encountered a young man carrying a bucket, a fishing pole, and to my utter surprise, what looked like an AR-15. 

"Holy Crap," I said to him, "are the fish so huge out there that you have to shoot the suckers???"

He laughed and said, "No. I'm going to catch some fish and hunt squirrels on my way back." He smiled and nodded at us and continued on. They make AR-15 style rifles that are .22 caliber. But I've squirrel hunted a lot and you don't need an automatic to shoot them if you are going to eat them.

I carried a single action bolt kid sized .22 when I squirrel hunted. Generally you only get one shot to get the job done.

I shrugged and kept my thoughts to myself.

I was out to enjoy the scenery and the fresh air and that is what we did.

Rain, Morels, Yard and Whatnot

On Monday I went hiking at Duck Egg with the intent of searching for Morel Mushrooms.

Instead, I found some amazing bluebell fields.

I also found False Morels.

Lots of them! All over the place!

They are pretty interesting and sort of wickedly cool.

 

They are different from Morels in that they are solid through and through and not hollow like a Morel is.

Hiking in Duck Egg is a crazy sort of adventure ... that is, if you can make sense of the signs:

The signs are getting better than what they used to be though:

The trails basically circle around the dam which protects areas from flooding. The altitude changes from the ridge to the valley are about 300 feet. Trails zig and zag up and down steep hillsides. The horse trails are really quite wonderful and will make the equine work hard. Hubby and I used to ride Duck Egg quite a bit.

I did find 3 Morels the next day in our woods.

They hide! Actually, because of the garlic mustard 'invasion' they are getting pretty hard to find:

With all the rain and the warmth, the plants are growing with great gusto and soon it will be very hard to find the delicious fungi.

The last few years were too dry or too hot for good Morels to appear. The conditions have to be just so and their are quite a few other factors and conditions that have to be met for them to flourish too.

I do like Morels, but I won't dedicate my days to hunting for them as I have so many other duties to attend to.

I went out to the Meadow to look under the old apple trees for Morels and I found a broken Turkey Egg. So they are nesting right now. 
 

I stopped by the Hawthorne Trees to see how they were doing. They are flowering now. One of the trees still has reddish leaves with buds, but I found this one in full bloom. Note the thorn! 

I still think these are amazingly beautiful trees.

Duty keeps calling in the form of mowing the yard. Hubby has an old zero turn mower that has a deck that has to be flipped in order to clean it properly.

We did get it flipped and it is always a total B--tch to get it flipped and back together properly. With his lack of ability for doing any heavy work, it is proving to be near impossible to get it done. I've cleaned it and now it has been sitting for 3 days not ... quite put back together.

I have a little self propelled mower and have been doing piece by piece mowing when I can between rains and foggy mornings. 

I have a notion to just run a temporary fence over certain sections of the yard and let the equine do the work at least for this growth period.

I did that in the 'lane' which is a hilly grassy lane between two pastures. The gals picked it pretty clean and then I mowed what was left. I have hoof impressions in the lane but the grass is no longer knee high.

...Hey...it has been done before!

Photos from many years ago.  2006 and 2008. I think hubby was in the hospital at these times and I couldn't keep up with mowing because I worked full time and drove to Madison to see hubby on my days off.

However...I learned not to hang laundry out when they were in the yard...

The yard never was worse for wear and they did a good job.

A large perfectly mowed yard is very underrated. I guess I shouldn't complain though, last year we mowed the yard 4 times all summer.

The rain and frustration are welcome.

Ephemeral

 Ephemeral: Lasting for a short time; short lived.

Dutchman's Breeches:

April 24th 

Duck Egg County Park

Rue Anemone 

April 24th 

Duck Egg County Park

Rue Anemone

April 20th 

Our woods

Spring Beauties

April 25th

Our woods

[Sorry, I just can't get enough of

these wild flowers!]

Spring Beauties

Our woods along the trail

April 27th

Blood Root

April 24th

Duck Egg County Park

Trout Lily

Tainter Hollow DNR Land

April 27

Meanwhile in the tree department.

I think the oaks are ahead of themselves this year. They usually are after the maple trees. I was going to go out and take a peak at the oaks and the maples along with some bushes this morning, but it looks like we'll have a long rainy day instead.

Never on a Sunday

I finally got off the farm and out for a hike! Whoo Hoo! I got out to Duck Egg County Park. 

The footing wasn't very good. I would have done better with snowshoes which would have floated me over the rough tracks. Another rookie mistake.

I still made it from the lower parking area and out to the pond.

Photos from crossing one of the footbridges over
Springbrook Branch of the Bad Axe River.

My whole idea was to do a morning hike, stop in town at the Walmart and grab some groceries, grab some gas, and my last stop was to be Culver's for a nice salad and a Shrimp Dinner for Rich.

Walmart was a mess a total mess. Apparently they are getting ready to remodel also. Which made the weird Sunday crowd even worse. Everything was in the wrong place, departments were shoved together and some of the food shelves were empty.

It threw me for a total loop. I hurried through and got what I just barely needed and got out. I wanted to smack myself in the head for going on a Sunday during the middle of the day. 

I got into Culver's and got in line to order. There was that Sunday crowd again. Nothing against OLD folks, but wow. An old fella at the order counter was getting his undies in a bundle. It was super busy. I stood quietly waiting.

The old fella got loud and started cussing at the young man behind the counter who was desperately trying to figure out how to make up an order of 2 Pints of coleslaw and how to charge him. The old grumpy dude got louder and started to yell. 

I thought Dude! Coleslaw doesn't come in pints at a fast food place!

He started yelling for a Manager and indeed the Manager came out. At the same time one of our local fire fighters walked around to the counter and asked the elderly guy if he was okay. The old guy started getting loud again. It was a grand scene.

Long story short. The Manager calmly told the old grouch that he would not serve him today and he was sorry that he had trouble but he could not serve someone who was verbally abusing his help and causing a problem in the order line. It was done politely while us onlookers felt like grabbing the old sour puss and tossing him in a dirty snow bank.

But we didn't. The grouch was calmed down and shown the door and we all just looked at each other. The Manager addressed everyone in line with an apology and asked us to enjoy our meal and weekend.

Huh.

Just as I was ready to place my order, a lovely elderly lady with a cane brushed me aside and placed her order. I say lovely...because surely I don't think she even saw me. Besides, she was dressed up as if she'd just come from church. 

Finally, I got my order placed and walked out to the car. Forget the gas! I was headed home.

I thought to myself ... Now I remember WHY I -- don't go do things in town on the weekends.

And this song popped into my head....
I recall my mom and us singing this in the car.
Connie Francis---->

Never on a Sunday

And of course, now I can't get the song out of my head.

Duck Egg

 Wait ~ Whut??

What is a Duck Egg?
Silly, it is an Equestrian and Hiking County Park in Vernon County!

Photo from Vernon County Website

There is a lower Duck Egg and and Upper Duck Egg. It is a 707 acre piece of property with a flood control dam for the Springville Branch of the Bad Axe River. More reading about it at our Vernon County Land and Water Conservation Site ~ here: Duck Egg.

Our county has a few parks like this which makes our area pretty unique. We love our streams and rivers [trout fisherman like them too]. The streams and rivers over many years have caused floods and dams were built to lessen the risk.

Our parks are free and have trails that are beautiful to enjoy. Generally I visit Duck Egg in the spring and the fall. In the spring, the lower Duck Egg trail presents with so many of the first spring flowers. They are right alongside the trail and are easy to find.

I have ridden all the equestrian trails back in the day and would like to explore hiking them in the future. Here are some shots from a previous post in 2020 where I recap our history of riding and exploring Duck Egg.

The equine trails are kept up by riding clubs which I find amazing. The lower trail must have once been a road as it is wide and mostly flat with some places where it is muddy. 

Recently a group of volunteers added hand rails to the foot bridges over the Bad Axe. I think it was a nice touch even though the lack of hand rails never bothered me.

The equine trail through a the river on the side of the bridge. The crossings are solid with no surprises.

Charlie and I just went for a walk from the parking area to the pond and back. I wanted to see what was blooming after our crazy weather last week.

We were not disappointed.

Blood Root

Dutchman's Breeches

Hepatica

Anemones

I am always so surprised and pleased to see this one spot of wood anemones that literally blankets the forest floor. It is simply stunning.

I'll have to make a trip back this weekend if the weather is good as the area with Virginia Bluebells had plants just emerging.

Charlie and I crossed the second footbridge and walked to the pond. 

We went out to the Bad Axe and climbed out to the large rock that resides in the middle of the fast flowing water. 

A few years ago, a friend of mine brought their young dog who jumped off the bridge into the fast flowing stream. The dog was swept away in the current but made it safely to the bank about 50 feet downstream after both the dog and owner panicked.

Charlie won't jump into the stream. He is old enough now to know better and he has an aversion to deep water anyway.

We scouted out a deer trail and went up along the river to a spot I hadn't explored before.

One of the signs along Lower Duck Egg. It always makes me laugh and tilt my head. I think they are working on replacing it. It used to have a map showing where the Loggers Trail met up with the Duck Egg Trail. 

Charlie and I followed the path worn down by trout fisher-persons along the Springville/Bad Axe branch back to the parking area after we crossed the bridge.

I've got so many good memories of hiking this very trail with Mr. Morris over the years hunting spring flowers and fall colors. I can't help but think of that each time I go. This park is also the place that hubby and I rode frequently on our mules during the last years we rode together.

I don't know why it is called Duck Egg. I've done a search on it and never got an answer. The park is reviewed over and over by fly fishermen and trout fisherpersons as a wonderful place to go.

Me? I just like it for a nice easy walk on the lower portion. If I want a strenuous hike I do the 4 mile loop that gives you and ascent of 709 feet from the dam to the top of the ridge. Duck Egg valley is steep!

Duck Egg and I have been friends for many years...

Morris on the foot bridge in 2014:

The Spring Rise

It is mid April and the weather has been quite wonky. Normally, the Maidenhair fern doesn't rise out of the forest detritus until the end of April or the first week of May.
This is a photo from 2018.

I visited Duck Egg County Park on Friday with Bill and took him on my favorite trail to hike. It drops into the steep valley and then makes a zig zag back up the hill to a look out.

It was a great hike, we ran into several trout fisherman who asked to pet Charlie. Charlie was beside himself at seeing people. I think the hardest thing for him the past year has been the lack of seeing folks!

So without further ado.... I'm just going to label the photos I took.

Hepatica found on NE hillside.

False Rue Anemones found in the bottoms by the ponds.

Spring Beauties aka Virginia Pinks south facing hillside.

Maidenhair Fern curls south facing hillside.

Mayflower/Mayapple ... all over!

Ostrich Fern curls. East facing hillside, deep in a ravine.

Dutchman Breeches. NE facing hillside among some very shaded areas. Midway up from the valley.

Okay. Not a plant but the red speck?

Get grossed out....

A Juvenile Chigger!!!

Found in leaf litter in a moist area. I did have a 60mm macro lens and really zoomed in for your viewing pleasure. 

Views from the Lookout. Duck Egg Dam in Infrared.

Zoomed in ... not IR.

You can see the much used and loved picnic area for hikers and equine folk under the giant oak tree.

Overview of the valley. And yes the water DID reach the top of the dam in 2007.

And last...because the sky was so incredible and interesting. Some Infrared shots of the prairie.

Charlie, our Trail Master and Fearless Leader.

Duck Egg Upper Prairie Trail.

It actually is a pretty neat trail once the summer prairie flowers start to blossom.

Duck Egg is a hiking and equine county park. The West Trails are for advanced Hikers and Equine Riders as the trails are very steep and very rough with several water crossings. Map.

We have ridden that section and indeed our mules got a great workout. This ended up being our favorite place to ride in the last years that Rich still wanted to trail ride.

Photo of Rich riding Siera through the Bad Axe River. This was at a time when she had decided that water would kill her. She got over it after this ride. Photo 2009.