We did it all...

Ice age trail hike.  Amy and I sneaked out for a backpacking trip while Emily watched Hazel (stitches), Oliver and the girls.  We met Jim our shuttle at 8 am on Thursday morning while I reassured Amy that axe murderers don’t generally drive Priuses.  He took us thirty minutes north for our SoBo trip and filled our ears with all the history of the trail and surrounding county.  The trip was relatively bug free and we logged about 18 miles on the Green Bush and Parnell Esker segments of the trail.  It was a woodland hike with dappled sunlight and beauty of a different kind.  We found golden chanterelles and saw a scarlet tanager on the second day.  The glacial kettle lakes pock marked both sides of the gentle rolling trail.  Water was from faucets at parking lots often multiple mile round trips from the shelters we we were required to stay in.  We stayed ad Dundee shelter the first night and had a nice big fire.  Amy met a spider, named it Same and ended up eulogizing it as well.  I had went for water and she had a guy and his dog come into camp.  Shying away only after he caught sight of her knife laying near her cot that she was napping on.  Day 2 found our bellies too full for breakfast, a regrettable mistake for Amy’s sugars once on we were on the trail.  We ate lunch and rested at Butler Lake, about halfway for the day.  When we left Amy was carrying about 6 pounds of water and I had 8 with another 4 pounds of wine.  It was heavy in the afternoon heat but also our last source of water for the rest of the trip.  We rested again at the spur trail to our shelter, 0.7 miles off the main trail.  We snacked and contemplated.  It was about 2:30 pm.  We could also hike all the way to the car about 3 miles east and be at a hotel by 5:30ish.  We chose the hot shower, having hiked and sweated our way back to the car.  We at ribs, looked at fancy cars, and found a cool bar (The Brown Bear) in Elkhart lake before heading back for a good soak in the hotel hot tub.  The morning found us home early enough to head to Appleton for Mile and Music, making for a diverse and enjoyable weekend of activities and adventure.