Monday, May 23, 2022

Jurustic Park

 

Eileen with some new friends
Day 2 (5/23/22)

While sitting in the parking lot of the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum we started perusing the internet looking for things to do in the area for an hour until it opened. We had already walked the downtown area looking for things to kill time but most everything was closed. Eileen found a reference to Jurustic Park. With a little more searching we found out it was about forty one minutes away in the wrong direction from our return trip home. We figured it had to be better than sitting and waiting for the museum to open so we took off in the direction of Marshfield not sure what we were going to find. Using the miracle of cell phone navigation, about an hour later we were entering the McMillan Marsh and the realm of Jurustic Park. At first it can be a little overwhelming. There are metal sculptures all over the place. Big ones, small ones and ginormous ones everywhere you turn. We made our way toward a building that looked like it was inhabited by a hobbit and found the office and gift shop. We started looking around and were soon welcomed by Nancy, the Lady of the House. She showed us around the shop and explained that when Clyde was finished with his current victims he would give us the grand tour. Soon we were on our way. Clyde is a born showman with years of honing his skills through jurisprudence. At eighty eight years young he still has a twinkle in his eye and a contagious enthusiasm for what he does. He will tell you that before retiring from his career as a lawyer he found his first fossilized metal remains in the marsh and started welding them back together. Many of the pieces are animated and he has a story to go with all of them. It is his world and he is their ring master. Some wiggle, some make noise, but all are candy for the eye. After the tour we went inside where Nancy demonstrated using the glass lathe. Perhaps because we were also artists before long it was like being with old friends. We talked about Nancy’s travels and their hopes for the future and what would become of the place. We hadn’t planned on staying long but by the time we left it was time to work our way home and the Leigh Yawkey Woodson would have to wait for another day. No regrets, it was a wonderful day.  

First Creature pulled out of the Marsh

Horses head with Hat

A Musical Couple

Bell Curves

Gong Turtle

A Soul Mate

One that Wiggles

The Pirates of the Marsh

Beware

Helidragon

Angler Fish

Another Turtle

The Shop

More Friends


Thursday, April 28, 2022

Hiking Rib Mountain State Park

 

View from the Top

Day 1 (4/26/22)

After a year of not blogging I decided I wanted to try to get back into it. On Tuesday we had to deliver some art work to the Center for the Visual Arts in Wausau. We decided it would be a good opportunity to get some hiking time in. Rib Mountain is a granite peak “monadnock” that sticks out from the otherwise level landscape. Its stunning granite formations make for a great place to take in some scenic views while hiking. When we arrived Tuesday evening it was unseasonably cold and windy. We still took the opportunity to climb the observation tower, do some recon and plan our hike for Wednesday. Although still cool, Wednesday brought on the sun and it was beautiful. After walking around downtown Wausau waiting to deliver art we headed out to the park. Because of the granite formations the trails at Rib Mountain can be somewhat precarious. There are very few even surfaces so one needs to be careful not turn an ankle. The scenery however is wonderful ranging from distant vistas, fern covered slopes to towering rock formations. The ski hill in the park only closed a week ago so there was still snow on the trails. In spite of our planning we overlapped a few trails but ended up achieving our main objective which was to hike out to the abandoned quarry. Even though it ended up being short of 4 miles it was equivalent to climbing 38 flights of stairs so all in all it was a good workout.

From the Tower

From the top of the Tower

Snow Covered Runs


Treacherous Trails 

First Green

Steep trail

More Snow

Early Ferns

At the Quarry



Thursday, July 25, 2019

Hidey Hole at Mauthe

A very weedy Milwaukee River

Day 1 (7/25/19)
We finally had a chance to get out kayaking today. It has been a busy summer but that is no excuse. The weather was perfect. When we first got to Mauthe Lake were greeted by a pair of cranes. We stop and photographed them for awhile before heading on in to the park. As we suspected the water was still high and we had to drive through water to get to the boat launch. This was what we hoped for because our main goal was to go to our little hidey hole which is only accessible with high water. In spite of the high water the river was very weedy. In the ten years that we have been going there I have never seen it this bad. I have some real concerns about the fertilizer washing into the river. It seemed to keep others out of the river however so we had it all to ourselves. We did manage to get to our hidey hole although it was quite different from the last time we were there two years ago. It also had much more growth and wasn’t as clear. You could still see the boiling springs on the bottom nevertheless which have always enthralled us. After coming back out into the river we headed upstream a bit farther but soon found it to weedy to continue. It is kind of sad because we used to be able to get quite a bit further up stream. Perhaps later this fall we may be able to check it out. It was probably far enough for our first trip anyway so we headed back down the river. When we got back to the lake we weren’t surprised to find that the wind had changed and that it was once again in our face just as it had been on the way out.
Our Greeting Committee

A Pair
High Water

The Bridge

Boiling Water

Video Taping

Water Lilies



Eileen in the Lilies

I love these but they are so hard to photograph

Kayak Yoga



Tuesday, July 3, 2018

Gerber three years later

Heading up the River

Day 1 (7/3/18)
It looks like it has been over a year since I have added anything to my Onion River Project blog. The truth is that for the last couple years we have not had a lot of opportunity to do any kayaking and the few times we have gone out I guess I haven’t blogged about it. We are hoping to change that this year. Our grandson turned five this year so we are hoping that wee can actually take him along on short hikes and start getting him used to it. He just finished his first year of swimming lessons and seems to love water. When we got up this morning it was a perfect Wisconsin summer day. There was hardly a cloud in the sky and the temperature was pushing toward the eighties. We had loaded everything yesterday so after breakfast we hit the road. We decided to go to Gerber Lake, north of Plymouth. It has always been one of our favorites and we had not been there for a couple of years. Little had changed when we got to the lake. We started across the lake headed for the strait that would give us entrance to the second lake. Before we got there we managed to scare up a Great Blue Heron so we spent a little time stalking him. They are one of my favorite birds. Finally he flew the other direction so we continued on to the other lake. On the far side of the other lake is a small river that flows into it. That was our destination. Because of our lack of rain the water was low and we wernt able to go as far up it as we had in the past. We went as far as we could and then headed back to the lake and I did some fishing while Eileen yaked around photographing all the curiosities. Gerber has always been a lake with many natural deadwood sculptures. Some our old favorites like “Naked Lady” had finally succumbed to nature and were replaced by others. We will have to get back there soon to spend more time looking at some of the new ones. We eventually had to make our way back to the dock but were happy the we had the opportunity to take in Gerber again.
Wade and Friends

Blue Heron

Eileen up the River

Peace Garden

Natural Deadwood Sculpture

Returning to Doc

Me up the River

Fishing

Water Lilies

Time to Relax

Another Lily

Big Lily Pads

More Sculpture

Through the arch

And of course Turtles