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:

Duck Egg

Color shots from Duck Egg County Park. This park is open to Equine and Hikers and in the winter time it is a great snow shoeing destination for those hikers that want to challenge themselves with the hills and the Bad Axe River.
We rode here more than once with our mules and I used a GPS device and we clocked out 9 miles of trails

This was just part of the main trail of lower Duck Egg. The Springville Branch of the Bad Axe River runs through it.

Charlie made friends with some trout fisherman. I doubt Charlie could ever 'not' make friends.

I took a few Infrared shots too. But I'll look at them later.

I had a busy weekend. College girls dropped in...not even kids from my own family...
more about that later!

Upset Tummy

The road to Duck Egg Park is twisted and bumpy. We were only about a mile from there when I heard Charlie get sick in the crate.

I couldn't stop or pull over. When descending Irish Ridge Road into the valley, there are really no shoulders to pull off on nor any room for error. It is steep and twisted with drop offs on one side and rocks on the other.

There was a big rig in the parking lot along with another Subaru. This lower lot also has room for a horse rig or two. Duck Egg has some incredible equine trails. If you like water crossings and steep hillsides, this would be the place.

Above is a map of the trails in Duck Egg. Hiking is allowed on the horse trails. Some of the trails would be extremely tough for a hiker, I've done them on mule back and the trails even gave our mules reason to pause.

After I parked, I got out Charlie's blanket and shook out the upchucked kibbles onto the ground. I attached Charlie's cord and we walked over to the Springville branch of the Bad Axe River. I just love that name. Bad Axe. It conjures up all sorts of thoughts.

Charlie was curious and I kept hold of the cord. The Bad Axe here is deep and very swift.

My intention was to walk with Charlie on his cord up the trail to the ponds.

The lower trail however is so deep in the valley that it was covered in snow. You can see by the tracks left by others that this is a popular place to walk. Charlie started to shiver and quiver so I picked him up and stuck him in my jacket.

We made it to the first foot bridge rather quickly.

I was hoping to set up the tripod and take a few interesting shots of the Bad Axe, but Charlie was a bit of a complication. I was pretty sure that he wouldn't be too curious to get into the small river, but then again, I wasn't sure.

I took a snapshot of the foot bridge and the equine crossing and moved on.

We got to the second bridge.

The waters are so clear. Even without polarized sunglasses you can see the rocks in the water.

Up and over the bridge we went to the ponds.

Charlie seemed to be doing quite well at this point so I set him down and walked into the cold wind. Charlie sniffed here and there and I had to watch him. Twice I caught him trying to wolf down old horse manure. I was pretty sure that wasn't something he should be eating.

We took a deer trail back over to the Bad Axe and I considered setting up some long exposures. I tied Charlie to a sapling to keep him out of the water while I pulled out my Nikon.

I took a few shots upstream and then downstream.

In my mind's eye, I had to try and imagine what this area would look like in a few weeks. Definitely worth a trip back without any hiking dogs.

I looked down and Charlie was trying to eat some plants. I told him no and packed up my camera.

We got back to the pond area and Charlie started acting as if he were going to retch again. I set him down and he began to eat icy snow. I offered him a drink of water from my bottle and he took some. Then he went back to eating crunchy snow and he started to quake.

Crap. I picked him up and faced the north wind that was blowing off the ponds and stuck him into my coat. Our adventure was done.

We crossed the foot bridge and got back into some shelter from the wind. Charlie retched and out came dog food and something slimy green. I poked at it with a stick.
Motion sickness and horse manure are probably not a good combination.

Charlie's puppy tummy was tight. He was miserable and I was worried.

Off we went, Charlie tucked in and me hiking hard and fast to get him back to the car.

We made it home without any more incidents. I drove carefully as to 'not' upset his tummy any more. When we got home Charlie spent most of the evening on my lap. He ate some kibbles and seemed to be doing fairly well by bed time.

This morning he is back to his mischievous self. Happy go lucky Charlie.

And it leaves me wondering if he will grow out getting motion sickness in his crate or not. It sure ruins an outing. I do know that he seems perfectly fine in a lap while traveling in a vehicle.

Perhaps there is another way of transporting him that is better for him yet safe for me as the driver.

I sure don't want Charlie crawling into my lap as I drive.

Charlie's upset tummy gave me quite a bit of worry.
I had one other dog who used to get motion sickness but she eventually grew out of it.

Next trip to Duck Egg.
It will probably be solo.

I didn't think those bridges would bring back such wistful memories, but they did...

Duck Egg Hike

With two inches of rain in the morning, I thought that it would be fun to go to Duck Egg and see the small creek running high and full of rain water.

What I didn't expect was the incredible barrage of small wild flowers that were so brilliant along the way.

At every turn we found some beautiful late fall wildflowers.

The creek was running high and I go this shot from one of the foot bridges over the creek.

Dennis found some cool fungi along the trail.

We found Maidenhair Fern with raindrops still on them. The fern was beginning to show its fall colors.

We hiked to the muskrat pond ....

and most of the trail was under water so we returned back to the second bridge and took a break and an apple snack.

Our busy day ended up with Grandpa playing catch with Dennis for a bit while Ariel spent time with Siera and Fred.

And our day was ... done....

Morris and I do 'Duck Egg'

Duck Egg County Park is not hard to find and has two entrances.  The upper entrance on the ridge and the lower entrance in the valley.

We chose to hike the lower end of the park and see if we could get some great views of the changing colors and get some shots of the Springville Branch of the Bad Axe River.

Bad Axe River...that name is just so cool.

Anyway the drive into the valley was beautiful and very very twisted.  You need good brakes and you need to be careful!

One of the more interesting things to try and do is take good photographs with a dog on a leash.

Some folks let their dogs loose but these trails are shared with equine and I really wouldn't want Morris to spook a horse.  I know I wouldn't want to be spooked.

We walked in the valley and admired the beautiful fall colors.

As an experiment I only brought my Nikon with a 50mm lens and my new pocket camera.

I however did bring my tripod in hopes of getting a nice shot of the river flowing.

We walked out to the 'big' pond where we saw a Muskrat who was rather unconcerned about us.

Morris seemed interested in the smells on the shoreline, but I wanted to keep any encounters between Muskrat and Morris to a minimum.

My biggest fear was that Morris would decide to get into the river which was running rather hard from the 1/2" of rain we had the night before.

He proved pretty smart about that.  Stuck his nose down into the river and quickly pulled back.
After that I wasn't too afraid of losing him to the swift current.

I used my very dark ND filter and was able to set up a shot by one of the foot bridges.
I let Morris loose and he stayed near.

This view is from the horse crossing.  It was a hard shot to get as the light kept changing.

Then we found a small trail that led us to the edge of the river that was off the beaten tracks.

This was a very neat spot and I would like to return without my 'helper' to worry about.
The current was running pretty hard.

Then we set up at the second bridge to take some shots.

Note that my camera assistant is making sure no one disturbs us while we are on top of the slightly bouncy bridge.  He actually stood very still so I could take some timed exposures.

What a great dog!

Facing downstream 30 second exposure.  Edited for a bit of fun.

Facing upstream.

This is the only place I regretted not having a wider angle lens.  But I still ended up happy with this shot.
Morris stood quietly while I packed my things up and we started back down the trail towards the parking lot.

Old Dog Morris was dragging his butt by the time we made it to the Subaru.

I asked him if he thought this would be a good place for him to bring his buddy Teslin.
He really didn't answer.

When he hopped into the car .... 

...he fell immediately asleep and snored most of the way home.