Kicking Off the Mammoth Hike Challenge 2024

 

As usual in October since 2020, Travalon and I are doing the Mammoth Hike Challenge on the Ice Age Trail. I wasn't sure I'd be up to it today, as I'm still recovering from a cold, but Travalon said we could do flatter segments of the trail. We started out at the Portage Canal Segment. Here are some photos.

Businesses in communities along the trail participate in Trail Magic, where they give you discounts or free stuff if you mention that you are doing the challenge, so we found a place in Portage, the Canape Sandwich Shop, and had lunch there. My spicy chicken sandwich was perfect, with a kick but not too much, and I had it with a side of street corn. Travalon looked at the Ice Age Trail atlas and found another segment, the Chaffee Creek Segment, that was also pretty flat, so we headed there. This one had tunnels under the highway that went alongside the creek. Here are some photos.

Travalon was smart and wore shorts and a T-shirt, but I wore my Mammoth Challenge long-sleeve T-shirt and jeans, so I was getting way too hot. My FitBit said my heart rate was elevated, and I felt very thirsty and a little light-headed by the time we got back to the car. Travalon turned on the air conditioning full-blast, and he found two partly full bottles of water in his backpack, so I drank both of those and then started to feel okay again. Was that heat exhaustion? Usually I am not prone to problems with heat.

We stopped at a little park in Coloma, and Travalon took this photo of a train car.

Then we stopped at the wayside where the ferry crosses the Wisconsin River, and he took some more photos.

On the way home we parked on Bong Road, and Travalon took a photo of a field that is kind of a hill, with the shape echoed by "Mount Wank" behind it in the distance. I had noticed it when we headed out for the day.

Not long after we got home, Rich came over because the outlet I use right by my easy chair has been vibrating. I googled it, and it sounded like there could be an issue with a wire, so I was scared to use it. Rich determined that the cover was just loose, so the wind was blowing it around. Good to know that we weren't about to have an electrical fire, but the problem is that there is something open up near the chimney, which explains why I would feel a draft there in the winter. Rich said he will come back and go up in our crawl space to check it out sometime. Travalon grabbed dinner for all of us from Athens Gyros, then Rich headed out and we had a very relaxing evening.

Jilly Moose is visiting her parents, and she sent me photos of the pond near their house.

Anyway, Travalon and I hiked a cumulative nine miles today, and we got two more bonus miles for taking advantage of Trail Magic, so we are one-fourth of the way to our 44 miles. Hopefully we will get some more miles tomorrow and be well on our way to conquering this challenge!

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