Wisconsin Geocaching Adventure
Out of the blue, the geo-husband asks me if I want to head to Wisconsin. It was early enough in the day. Why not have a geocaching adventure?
The area where we headed to is pretty unique. Who would associate waterfalls with Wisconsin? There were several geocaches in the area. Since we’re trying to grab 500 this year, we needed something of a power walk.
We began our trip at the overlook. The overlook is this narrow walkway that juts out from the ridge. For me being as afraid of heights as I am, it took a bit of courage to peer over the edge. The view was incredible. You could hear the water down river. We found the one geocache at this site, coming in contact with the dreaded poison ivy.
We backed track to the trailhead to head for the falls. Now, the hiking map we picked up warned 
us about the hike. It was short, but brutal. Brutal describes it perfectly. We trudged down the path, the air getting heavier and sticky the farther down we headed.
The closer we got, the louder the roar of the falls. The area was filled with people swimming in the river. We stayed back, feeling the spray cool us.
It’s an amazing sight. You just don’t expect to see something so grand. The falls was created 
in 1992 after the electric company pulled out the dam because the hydroelectricity wasn’t making a profit. This area is pretty rural, so it probably wasn’t a bad decision for the time. Besides, now there is the falls.
We grabbed a few caches along the way, before deciding it was time for lunch. There was still more to come though, including a reptilian encounter.
The area is well known for its trout fishing. The cool spring-fed streams provide the kind of solitude that a trout fisherman seeks. I can’t say I’ve ever tried it, but knowing this place is within driving distance makes me think I may give it a go.
We walked along the river trail. The first few caches we pretty easy, though we did have to douse ourselves pretty heavily in bug spray to make the grabs.
At the fourth cache along the trail, the geo-husband went to get the cache. Next thing I knew, he was shouting an expletive and a warning to “Get out!”
Apparently, two snakes were dangling from the top of the human-sized stump engaged in the act of getting better acquainted. What freaked my husband out though was the sound of what sounded like a ratter and the sight of a snake coiling. Needless to say, we made for the trail.
Those were the fifth snakes we had seen that day. I am not really afraid of snakes, but the possibility of something dangerous took the wind out of our sails. As we later found out though, it was probably a fox snake doing as good of an impression of a timber rattlesnake as you could want. We were in timber rattler range, just not the right habitat.
Well, we finished the day with 6 geocaches. As the geo-husband said, it’s on to the next.
