Sunday was “Take a Hike Sunday” and DH and I headed out to Wisconsin’s Desert.  “Wisconsin has a desert?”  Well, we did, and now it’s called the Spring Green Preserve.  The preserve is another Nature Conservancy location being protected.  There is one 1.8  mile in-and-out trail (from parking lot to end of trail), so you end up walking 3.6 miles all told.  The first area, the desert is fairly easy-going though it is sand, so there are some “mushy” spots where you really feel your calves working.  After the “foothills” you head into forest and that’s not too bad until you get to the base of the bluff and have to climb.

I had to stop a few times on the way up because I was huffin’ and puffin’ pretty good due to the grade.  The temperature also rose as we climbed; even though you would think the desert terrain would be hotter, the breeze blowing over the land was very refreshing.  DH and I got to the top and overlooked the valley on the other side of the bluff in one hours time.  We forgot that we told ourselves to bring our camelbaks no matter how short the hike, and I needed water, so I started back down the hill as DH enjoyed the view for a little longer.

The Preserve was desert – sand as far as the eye can see – until the late 1920’s when the information board says that Red Cedars started to take over the landscape.  DH and I observed that there was an awful lot of grass and trees and old junk in areas, and our guess was that some brilliant soul decided to attempt to cultivate the land, tilled it up, planted grass and, well… the rest is history.

I enjoyed the hike in spite of the fact that I tried a new strength move (like this) on Saturday and my gracilis and sartorius muscles are SORE (yes, I looked those up)!  I had also run into the corner of a steel sink at job number two on Saturday and have one of those deep muscle bruises thinking about turning purple on me.  DH and I took a lot of photos, but apparently I was playing with settings too much and had a bit of “shake” going on, so not as many turned out as I hoped.

We then took ourselves on a Sunday Drive and headed up to Baraboo, stopped for lunch at the Little Village Cafe.  I had the Bloody Mary, ordered the baked goat cheese with olive oil, roasted veggies, garlic and capers (Mmmm!  CAPERS!) which came with a basket of sourdough bread (which DH shared) and a cup of lentil vegetable soup.  DH ordered a Chocolate Espresso Malted, the Potstickers and then we split a Grilled Tuna Steak Sandwich and a slice of Chocolate Walnut Pecan tart… it was horrible… nobody should ever eat that…. (because there will be more for me!!!)  Seriously, the food – everything – was delicious.  Lip-smacking, finger-licking delicious.

Lunch was followed with running an errand and then heading back home.  We meandered our way in the direction of home taking the Merrimac Ferry across the Wisconsin River.  I love the ferry.  Yes, it’s slow and on busy days you may have to wait 30 minutes to take the less than 10 minute ride across the river; it’s all good.

I was supposed to mow the lawn when we got home AND run for the 5K training.  I was so beat, I only picked one – I opted to get in my training, even though I didn’t really want to.  I can mow the lawn tomorrow.

(apparently I am experiencing technical difficulties with my photos….sorry!)