We always enjoy our opportunities to spend time with David and Robert, who we have not seen since we were together in Italy just one year ago. They are here with us this week at the lake. So, it is time to report on events to date. With David and Robert, culinary delights are a standard part of our time together. Kathie made gazpacho one evening, and no, she is not slicing her palm open here.
Robert has been trying to progress a little farther each day through our Perplexus Epic.
So far, we have watched that amazing Hawkeye football game together, sporting events being something David and Robert typically do not care about. We also had an outing on our lake, with lunch over at The Landing. Then yesterday, we drove up into the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest to visit Morgan Falls and St. Peter's Dome. These two natural features are bonus parts of a hiking trail in the forest. Here is everyone but me as we depart from the parking area at the start of our 5 miles of hiking and site seeing.
Morgan Falls was the easy part to reach. It is a gorgeous 70-foot tall falls that cascades down from a high point at the end of a little box canyon. The granite rocks all around created this very cool, almost cold, spot in the woods.
This little guy was enjoying the water near the pool at the base of the falls.
And there were beautiful mosses growing on the rocks.
Trees struggled to claim a hold on the sides of the cliffs.
Eventually, we left Morgan Falls and began the hike to St. Peter's Dome––a 3.6 mile round trip over terrain that is quite rugged with steep, rocky sections that must be managed.
Yet, it was quite pretty all along the way. For example, I found these fungi near the trail.
The payoff was this very high granite outcropping, which sits at 1,565 feet above sea level. The trees here are not yet at their peak, but the colors in the forest below were emerging. To the north, you can see all the way to Lake Superior, and with the binoculars I took along, I could make out Ashland, Bayfield, and parts of the Apostle Islands.
Her new knees are working well, but we were all warm and tired after the climb up there, so some resting was in order before heading back down.
Here is Kathie after we returned to the fork in the trail that offers access to these two natural wonders.
We were all appropriately tired at the end of the day, but it was a good tired!
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