FEET!!: May 2010

Lunch

Ferry (pulled by cable)

Farmers' Market Scones for Breakfast!!

but the girl may still insist upon playing 4 hours of ultimate on a humid 90 degree day, which may lead to a burn worthy of an Alabama summer day. The southern girl may also be quite pleased with the heat-tolerance advantage she seems to have among Sconnies. Hypothetically speaking, of course.
Summer has arrived (hurrah!), and while it hasn't seen whitewater yet, my boat has at least been taken out of the basement a few times now. Classes are done for now; my pace in lab has become more relaxed (while I seem to be accomplishing more); and Madison is still awesome.
Took my bike out two weekends ago for the inaugural 2010 mini-tour (and first camping trip, wtf). Headed about 50 miles out of town to Devil's Lake State Park, which is really quite lovely. The weather out was kinda blah. Cold, rainy, gray, windy, etc. Not the worst conditions I've been in, but my companion didn't seem too thrilled. The rain was on and off, and about two-thirds of the way to the campground we (a) crossed a kinda big lake on a super-awesome ferry and (b) had lunch in the (kinda) sun. Road conditions weren't bad: traffic was moderate and the terrain was slightly-rolling until the very end (where we got some decent hills). We rolled in, got checked in, and began setting up our tent while we waited for the less-daring of the geneticists to arrive by car. As soon as the body of the tent was out of my pannier, it started hailing. Little hail, but hail nonetheless. As soon as our fly was over the tent, it stopped. Go figure.
The other 7 folks showed up, and after setting camp, we decided to go for a hike. Now state park trails in Wisconsin are kinda pitiful - and I say this in the most loving of ways. They're built to serve as XC ski trails, too, so they're wide, gently-graded, smooth, and occasionally even paved. A and I are much more used to rugged footpaths, so when a map says there's a trail at the end of a parking lot, we jump right on the game-trail-which-turns-creek-bed-which-then-disappears. Granted, we also realize our mistakes pretty quickly, but that would never keep us from scrambling up a super-awesome boulder slide to the top of the bluff (which is, of course, where the trail should be). Thus, shortly after finishing our 50 mile ride, we were crawling over ginormous boulders with human-sized gaps in between. And we would never want to leave a rather adventurous dog at the bottom of the pitch. I'd guess we spent 20 minutes or so climbing the bluff, and the views at the top were well worth our trouble. (Also, we found the real trail, the dog didn't drag anyone to her death, and our way up was a lot more fun than the real trail would have been.) Devil's Lake is bordered on the east and west sides with cliffs and some pretty nice rock. The north and south shores host campgrounds and picnic areas (complete with beaches). Once we found the trail (on the east side, if I recall correctly), we treked back down to the folks who had stayed behind. There was a delicious dinner, good rest, and equally delicious breakfast. I was a bit bummed when A and I headed to the lake to gaze at stars and the rangers kicked us off the beach. Perhaps it was for the best, since they refuse to turn off the lights in the parking lot by the water.
The next day was crystal clear and a great temp to bike in. We began the day with another hike. The car-folk turned back about a third of the way around the lake, and the bike-folk made a complete loop (since we're just that hardcore). The west side of the lake had some rather exquisite places to lie at the edge of the cliff and nap/stare out at the lake/etc. I was pretty darned amused when a little boy went by and announced, "One wrong move and she's a goner." We left the campsite between 2 and 3, went the wrong way for about a mile (adding some more hills), climbed a bit more, and then had a killer downhill. Twas grand, and just what we needed to mentally get over the unnecessary hills we added at the beginning of the day. There was a bit more traffic on Sunday, but the roads were still good, and we decided to ride along the outside half of Lake Mendota (one of the Madison lakes) to get into town a different way than we had left. The day ended pretty brilliantly with some shared southern food and a lot of ice cream. :)