Small Adventure: William O'Brien State Park

Trails, hills, river - lots of good stuff!

Ahhhh…the best thing in life is to get outside, see fun things, and trudge around while I listen to audiobooks (or podcasts)! Fortunately, I live in exactly the perfect state to make all of that happen - AND I have a state park pass that lets me in any time. Honestly, it’s kind of like being rich! (Well, in my world, it IS being rich! What else do I need???)

A couple of weeks ago I bundled myself, and a bunch of audiobooks, into the car and headed over to William O’Brien State Park to see what there is to see. This is one of our parks that is basically on the Minnesota/Wisconsin state boarder. So you can’t get to Wisconsin from here, unless you are determined to put some miles in your shoes. But it’s right there, if you feel a yearning to drive over and have a look. (Spoiler: it looks just like Minnesota, except with fewer jobs and politicians who are more bananapants.) (That was my experience, after living in Wisconsin for two decades; your individual perspective may vary.)

And here it was! I love to stop on the way in and take very fast pictures of the park signs. Sure, the pictures are always tilted or kind of weird looking. Does it seem like I care about that? I do not! I picked this up early in my Small Adventure travels, several years ago. I take a picture of something that has the name of the park, or the other thing I’m there to visit, so when I go back and happily review my photos I know what was taken in which location.

Plus: I just like doing it! It starts me off well at a new park.

Pro tip though: be sure you aren’t blocking other cars when the road is really narrow. We’re all out to enjoy the park; don’t be a jerk right from the start.

It always takes a few minutes to actually locate the trail - but look! I did it! When you hit the right parking lot, you need to figure out where the trail happens. Over there? Over here? Walk down a spur trail and turn right? It can be tough to figure it out.

Two things that I love that are new-ish (in the last couple of years) at the parks: the nice new signs, and the Avenza map app.

For the new signs: no, not the map. Every park, everywhere in the country, wants to hide your location. It’s a rare trail map that makes it easy for you to look at it, and poke a finger onto it and exclaim “Ah ha! Here I am!” Instead, it’s that nice sign in the lefthand photo that says HIKING CLUB TRAIL. Lovely! And ooooooh, a small sign with an arrow! Admittedly: here it was pretty obvious which way to go, because there was only one way to go. So: got it.

But do you know how many times I’ve stood at the intersection of five different possible trail options - and had zero idea where to go to stay on the Club Trail? SO MANY! That’s how many. Sure, you could argue that the paper map I had folded up in my pocket, that I’ve probably sweated through after about three miles in July, should be enough. Or that I should carry a compass, and wayfind myself by following the North Star. But I’m telling you that I’m the most day-hiker/weekend adventurer there is. I’m here to walk around, listen to my books, and to oooh and aaah over the lovely things I’m seeing. I’m not here to have an exotic hiking adventure.

So I love the new signs going in all over the parks!

AND! I love the Avenza maps app!

I was fully prepared to hate this. I loved my paper maps, filled with information on both sides of the sheet. I loved being able to fold it all up so I could only see my trail. I even liked stopping at the visitor’s center as I rolled into a park, and casually sauntering past the N00bs waiting in line to ask questions - as I snagged a map and moved along, ready for fun. I would guess it was expensive to print all those paper maps, and of course probably not awesome for the environment. But still: if they had asked me if I was prepared to give up my paper maps, I would have kicked and screamed and clutched my paper to my chest.

And then I used the app.

Remember when I referred to the past, and not being able to always figure out where I was? Well, those days are over! Even when you phone has no cell coverage, as it often does in parks. Even when you have it in airplane mode, to save your battery. YOU CAN SEE EXACTLY WHERE YOU ARE ON THE MAP! It is the most wonderful thing I’ve seen in a state park! (Aside, obviously, from the parks themselves, and the trails, and the hiking signs, and…well, you get it.)

LOVE IT!

Every park has a Club Trail, and most of them are in the three mile range. This one is a little longer. That sign above said 5-something. The booklet I have says 6-something. I wandered around a bit, and also cut off part of it; so I don’t have a good sense of how long it really is. But I’d say at least 5, probably close to 6 miles. And there are some hills. And, it’s not the most beautiful. But still, it doesn’t matter. It’s just fun to be out there!

I love to see architectural features when I’m exploring! I think this was a train track? Not sure, but it’s definitely pretty to see! And I felt like I was on an adventure when I saw this.

Not terribly relevant, but it reminds me of a place I would frequently stop on a train in Boston. On my way off to the trail, I’d stop at a Dunkin Donuts and grab a couple. (Obviously, there was one on every corner, so this was absurdly easy.) When I arrived at the place that looked like this, I’d stop and eat the first donut. I saw this small tunnel, and was immediately sorry that I didn’t have a donut. I consoled myself with a couple of gulps of blueberry Bai beverage. (Pretty good and all; but not quite a lemon filled powder sugar donut.)

Onward!

In the same spirit, I also love to find train tracks when I’m out and about! Now, I do drive a car, and it’s lovely to have the option to do it. But at heart I’m a dedicated pedestrian and public transit person. WHY aren’t there more trains, so I could easily pop all over the state without needing to drag along a car? Ugh.

Moving on.

So in the picture on the right, I’m trudging myself up a small hill toward the tracks. And in the left picture, I’m standing on the tracks and looking off into the distance. Are there actually trains that use these tracks? I’m guessing there are? They look like they are in good shape to me. This is my third visit(?) and I’ve never seen or heard a train; but of course that’s not really enough of a sample to know for sure. I’ll just decided: yes! Happy trains come by here fairly often!

Here’s another pro tip. I’ve been on several trails that run parallel to train tracks. If you zoomed off the trail, and up over the tracks, you could save yourself some time and energy. DO NOT take pictures when (if!) you do this! Walking on train tracks at a non-approved location is usually a federal crime. And sure: they may not care enough to track you down and throw you in jail. But have you read the news lately? They might just care a lot. Never take pictures of yourself committing crimes - it’s the most basic thing you can do to protect yourself. (Obviously: I’d suggest avoiding committing crimes, especially federal crimes, in general. But we don’t always have choices in that. So, just take care to the extent you can.)

I swear I’m even being deliberate in trying to tip the camera up on the right side - but I continue to fail at this! If you have been here a while, or if you flip back, you can see literally hundreds of pictures I’ve taken that all tip down on the right.

You know what? I don’t even care anymore! I’m quirky! That’s it! Probably anyone can take a perfectly straight picture! I’m doing this my way!

You can see here that it was not the most beautiful time of year - spring was contemplating bursting out, but had not really committed to it yet. And this trail is not incredibly stunning. But I liked it! I thought it was nice! It probably is more interesting in person than these slices of scenery really show.

Walking past water features or ponds is always nice. Walking down a tree-lined path is nice. Having the option to sit on a bench and catch your breath is nice. I’ve never been here when it was really leafy and green, but you can see how very nice it will be!

I felt like I had been hiking forever when I found this spot to rest. And I was worn out at this point! I’ve been struggling with some health issues, and a bananas amount of fatigue for the last couple of years. So yes, I can now trudge myself five or six miles on a trail, and I couldn’t do that last year. But I’m definitely sitting down and having snacks along the way. This was a nice place to sit!

I always worry about wasps in these wooden buildings. I’ve been stung by a few wasps, and I’m going to come down hard on the said of rating it as a “no fun” experience. I saw no wasps today, but it was too early in the year for them. Maybe keep a careful eye out when you trudge by this place, especially if you sit on the nice picnic table and enjoy yourself for a few minutes.

This is my new favorite travel tip: bring a JetBoil!

I traveled onward and spent the night in a surprisingly nice hotel, after visiting a very nice grocery store to collect food for dinner and breakfast the next morning. But I know that I need my hot tea! Many hotel rooms now have Keurig makers, to make coffee for you. But almost zero of them have tea, or any reasonable way of getting tea that doesn’t taste like coffee water.

Bring a JetBoil! Throw a few teabag into your overnight bag. Boil up some water, add a teabag or two, and you have a lovely experience right there in your hotel room. Or your cabin. Or a tent. I’ve spent many happy evenings in campsites, watching the sun going down as I sat and sipped some nice warm tea.

Travel should be fun! Don’t overcomplicate it. Just throw a few things you like into a bag, or the trunk of your car, and have fun! Small Adventures are for everyone; so go have one of your own this week!