Various Notes (Oct-Nov)

So, about a month ago, Ali and I took a pleasant ride out to Appleberry Farms for some gathering.  Windy, but the leaves were just turning, and I think I now have a new favorite cycling road.  Midtown had plenty of rolling terrain, good vistas, and clearly is popular among other cyclists (the bulk of the traffic was spandex clad).  For the record, apple picking is way nicer in a cold clime.  I think this was the first time I've been around apples at harvest where there weren't as many yellow jackets as apples.       

A few weeks later, we were having an awesome weekend w/ Ali's little brother, and I discovered that (a) Blue Mound's trail system is way longer than I thought (b) Wisconsin does, in fact, have snakes.  While I'm pretty sure we were just doing overlapping circles through the woods, the mountain bike trail we hopped on took a couple hours to loop back toward the parking lot.  The longest hiking trail advertised is 2 miles.  Apparently the mountain bike system is about 15 miles total.  It was another really nice fall day, but after the first snake got kicked up, I was watching my feet more than enjoying the views.  They were tiny brown/tan guys, about the size and color of a twig, and they were impossible to see in the underbrush (at least until you scared them). 

Chi-town this past weekend was super-awesome as well (even if I was a tad under the weather).  Did the whole museum/pizza/etc, and found/used the wonder that is the CTA pass.

Anyhow.  Next adventure:  using my food grinder for its inaugural cranberry salad.  Woo!

Badger State Trail to Illinois

 

Nice 90 mile ride to Illinois and back.  There was one point somewhere in the middle of the ride that had a higher elevation than the rest of the trail, and long, slowly-sloping trail to get there.  The redeeming part of the trail was the super-nice paving that went further out of Madison than any other local rail trail (I think).  The other big feature on the trail was a 1200 foot long tunnel (complete with curve in the middle of it).  It was pitch dark inside the tunnel, and the one blinky headlight we had with us didn't do much to help us see where we were going.  Pigeons have never been so creepy.  We had some good food and a fair amount of water, but it was a pretty warm day, and Ali was beat by the time we hit pavement on the way back.

The Wolf River (Section IV)

Schaffhausen and the Rhinefall

Today was pretty awesome. We started off with a lovely breakfast and headed up to the very north of Switzerland, to see the Rhinefall, Schaffhausen, the fort that protected Schaffhausen (Munot?), and Therese’s other aunt. We started out at the Rhinefall, which is a lot larger than it looks from the riverbank. There are two major channels that the water crashes through and several smaller channels closer to river right. We took a boat out to the island between the two major channels, and from the top of the rock/island, we could see the tons more (small) drops that lead up to the falls. While I would guess that the river drops about 30m or so, it was a little tough to tell through the mist and huge tails at the bottom of the falls. After a sufficient amount of time crammed on a rock with a ton of other tourists, we took the boat back across the river and then took another boat to a trail that goes around the top of the falls. On the cliff beside the falls, there’s a castle dating to the 1500s, which now serves as some restaurants and a youth hostel (hostelling in a castle sounds like fun). The cloud cover had been on and off by the time we went for our brief walk, so, of course, it began to rain when we were at the farthest point of our jaunt.

We eventually got back to the car and drove into town. We strolled through the old part of town and ate lunch above a department store (hooray for fruits, oats, and salad). The town was gearing up for the 1^st of August (Swiss Confederacy Day or some such) by hanging banners belonging to each of the regions/groups that joined to become Switzerland. The sun came out for the afternoon and shoppers followed suit. We headed up to a fortress that provided housing for all the townspeople in case of medieval attack, and it was very pleasant. We had a nice view of the town, the old city wall, and the Rhine from the top. There was also (amusingly) a small herd of deer in the ring around the fortification.

Back in the city, we stopped by a cloister with a beautiful garden adjacent to an equally lovely protestant church (the first of the trip, I think). From there, it was back to the train and Zurich. We had a few hours to get chocolate, a Swiss watch (not originally part of the plan, but good for getting rid of francs), look (unsuccessfully) for “Swiss-looking” espresso cups, and grab a (tasty) beer. Packed this evening, and off tomorrow.