IAT 9-14-13 Milwaukee River Segment - Pike Lake Segment

Headed up with the family again.  They dropped me off at the parking lot on H where the old end of the Milwaukee River Segment is.  They headed off for Mauthe Lake and had a great time there.  I started hiking southbound.  Or tried to...  I forgot to cross over the bridge on H and couldn't find the trail on the other side of H.

I went straight here by mistake.

Eventually found the start of the new segment.

Eventually I found the new segment and really enjoyed it.  I didn't bring my camera so these are all taken on my cell phone, but I wish I had my camera on this trip.  The trail starts through some corn fields and then heads into the woods.  The it emerges with a great view of an open field.  They had already built one nice bridge and it looked like they were working on some others.

Started off through some tall corn fields.

After a wooded area the trail opens up.

Nice view along the trail.

This bridge was so new it still smelt good.

More bridges in the works.

End of the new segment.

After the new segment you hike a few feet on this bike path.

There is a turn off to the right that I almost missed.  Don't go over the wooden bridge on the bike path...

After that segment comes hiking through this ski area.  I could not find the trail for the life of me there.  Hunted around for awhile till I remembered the companion saying something about hiking up one of the hills.  Eventually I found a faded blaze on a telephone poll and made my way up the hill and found the trail again behind a little hut at the top.

Approaching the ski area.

Nice bridge along the way.

Getting closer.  Beautiful day out.

The trail marker at the entrance to the ski area.

Took awhile to find this blaze.  I hunted around for a while till I decided just to go up the hill and saw this.

Working my way up the hill.

The rest of the trail that day was rather uneventful.  Some good miles of trail though.  The connecting route down NN is terrible.  But other than that everything else was a good time.  I met the family for lunch and they headed down to Pikes Lake to hang out and hit the trails there.  They met me at the northern end of the park and we hiked over to the tower and then back to the lake.  From the lake there is still about 3/4 a mile left of trail in the Pike Lake segment down to HWY E.  I finished that up and we were on our way home.  The reviews of Pike Lake were not as good as Mauthe Lake.  But the kids did like the Astronomy trail there and the little worksheet they had.

Otten Preserve

Despite the power cables this was a really nice segment of the trail.

View from the other end of the segment.

Very cool portion of the trail.

Little mini waterfall.

Very cool area as the trail follows the water through the woods.

Cool bridge over swampy area.

Another ski area along a connecting route.

Speedway along the connecting route.

Heading through the town on the trail.

Not sure what was going on with this sign.  I think it was supposed to be covered.

Mileage marker in Pike Lake Segment.

Me at the end of the day