One word to describe this place at the particular time we went is MUD hole. Holy crap Phoenix and I were having one hell of time, honestly super surprised the trails were not closed.I mean there was no sneaking around the edge of the mud cause literally everything was mud. MUD MUD MUD lol Well not everything there was grass, snow and ice. Wisconsin knows how to throw everything at you.

Horrible shot of my leg but this is what I ended up looking like at the end.

Don’t worry Lapham Peak Unit of the Kettle Moraine State Forest is not always a mud hole just that weekend it was. Located in southern Wisconsin between the two major cities of Madison and Milwaukee there was no shortage of people. Being packed with hiking trails this is certainly a getaway from it all. Phoenix and I decided we needed a weekend adventure and I wanted to see what I was getting myself into terrain wise for next weekends trail run. After walking around the mud I was certainly very nervous for my run.

We arrived to the parking area around noon that day and it was pretty full to my surprise as we are very use to being either the only hikers or one of a hand full. You do need a state park sticker or daily pass. Very glad to see everyone getting out in nature though. There were people picnicking, having family gatherings, hiking, walking dogs, or just letting the kids burn energy. Very busy upbeat area.

Phoenix just woke up from a nap so I was hoping he would be ready to run all over and set a good hiking pace. That was not the case he was all toddler about walking, stopping almost every 2 feet to see what was going on around him. I will be the first to admit this is the hardest part of parenting yet the waiting or actually having to slow your own pace down, I’m not so good at that, I’m a very on the go person. I let him walk about a quarter of a mile like this till we hit the first mud hole. In the kelty he went and into the depths of mud my poor trail shoes went.

 

 

Our route was to hike as much of the 6.2 miles mapped out for my trail run the upcoming week but I got majorly sidetracked with the Ice Age Trail. I am madly in love with this trail so in love that one day I will thru hike all 1200 miles of the Ice Age Trail. Someday when Phoenix can carry his own gear or we don’t have to carry him would be extra nice. Plus the Ice Age Trail was more a single path which feels more like hiking to me then the wide ski paths.

Following those magical yellow blazes lead us to the observation tower. Which apparently we are lucky to have got to experience it safely as the tower has since closed. Phoenix kept pointing towards it and saying up so up, up and up we went. The view from the top was amazing literally seeing for miles.

Continuing to follow the Ice Age Trail through the park we happened upon the one and only backpacking campsite. A long spur trail leads you to a pretty decent camp spot with a privy! Best damn backpacking campsite I ever saw.

Another neat little thing about these trails is they were almost perfectly marked with easy to read maps!

 

Thanks for following along and being patient as I work on playing catch up with my blogs.

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