Today’s hiking adventures started at Ferry’s bluff, a State Natural area located 5 miles west of Sauk City.

 

This hike started off with quite the fright for me. No sooner than us getting out of the car, loading our backpacks and taking a few steps did we run into the BIGGEST frickin” snake I have ever seen in the wild!!!  I have a HUGE unexplained fear of snakes and there this guy was sunning himself between me and the trail! I vaguely remember my hiking partner saying something the same second my mind registered what I was seeing. Before I had a moment to collect myself my fight or flight response kicked into high gear and I was a few hundred yards down the road in the opposite direction. Funny how that happened without me even thinking about actually running.  If I had been alone at this point I might have just walk back to the city and called it a day! (the snake was way too close to the car to even consider getting back to it)

 

As I coward in the distance and tried to stop myself from trembling, my fearless hiking partner (let’s just call her Brenda for now) tried to move the snake out of the way so we could continue on with what we had come here to do. Unfortunately for me the snake had other ideas, it was quite comfortable laying in the sun and did not think it needed to move just for us silly hikers. SHIT! Time to face my fear (kind of but not really). Summoning up all my courage and using Brenda as a human shield I ran past that damn thing as fast as I could without making eye contact (or even looking at the slimy thing) to the trailhead, leaving the terrifying creature in my dust!

 

I have no idea why they scare me so much, just thinking about it now gives me the heebie-jeebies. I know it’s an unfounded fear but I still can’t seem to get past it. Needless to say I was pretty jumpy for the rest of the trip knowing that another one could be larking around anywhere along the trail.

 

OK enough snake talk! Back to the hike!

 

The trailhead starts off next to the WI River and follows around the foot of Ferry Bluff for about a quarter mile before coming to a split. To the right is the trail to the top of the bluff. It is fairly steep (20% grade) for about 300 feet but with all the ferns and wild flowers to look at you hardly notice. The bluff you’re hiking up to is called Cactus Bluff.

 

Once you make it to the top you are treated to a spectacular view of the WI River and neighboring bluffs.  We were very fortunate to see a few eagles flying around while we were up there.  This area is the site of a former peregrine falcon eyrie and is also a winter nesting site for bald eagles. It is closed from November 15 to April 1 to protect the nesting birds! 

 

After enjoying the view we headed back down and took a short hike down the trail that follows the river below the bluff.  Because of the whole snake thing I really did not want to stop here for lunch so we headed back to the car. Brenda went first to be sure the coast was clear!

 

We headed over to the canoe landing to have lunch on a sandbar but once out on the bar the clouds started rolling in and the wind started blowing. Not really liking sand sandwiches we headed back to the car to find a place to eat out of the wind.

 

We went over to the VFW Park in Sauk City to eat lunch on the shore of the river and were treated to a large flock of Pelicans! I had no idea there were pelicans in WI! We ate lunch, watched the birds and listened to distant thunder but never got rained on.

 

After lunch we headed over to Gibraltar Rock near Lodi. Gibraltar Rock is another State Natural Area with a section of the Ice age Trail running THROUGH it.

 

At the trailhead we hurried off without giving much thought to looking at the map other than noting that the “Rock” was about a half mile hike. (Rule #1 when hiking – ALWAYS know where you are and where you are heading!) Just past the parking lot the trail splits. A dirt path to the left and an old gravel road to the right, we took the dirt path. It is a very beautiful trail meandering up the hill side through hardwoods and pines.  After hiking what we were sure was over a half a mile we started to wonder where this Rock was. We kept thinking it must be over the next hill or around the next bend but it just did not appear, we continued on anyway.  At one point we stopped to see if we could bring up a map on our phone to get a better idea where we were but again all we saw was a trail description that said “Half mile hike to the top”. Knowing we had gone far over a half mile but not wanting to turn around we kept heading up.  Finally after what seemed like hours (but really not) we came to the top of the ridge and the gravel road that we past 2 miles ago.  Turns out we had taken the long way!

 

Apparently the trail we took was the Ice age trail and the gravel road is the trail to the top of the Rock! Both eventually get you to the same place but one takes you on a more scenic route.  The views from the top are beautiful, overlooking farmland and the WI River valley, well worth the effort to get there. The trails on the top are very close to the edge of some pretty steep drop offs without any railings so caution is advise

 

Instead of following the gravel road down we decided to continue to follow the Ice Age Trail back. Please NOTE – The Ice Age Trail does NOT loop back to the parking lot! After hiking a while longer we realized that the trail was not going in the direction we needed it to go to get back to the car. Since it was getting late we decided it best to back track back to the gravel road and get down the bluff that way. Once back at the trail head we took a good look at the map (perhaps we should of done this first!) to see where we went wrong.  It turns out the Ice age trail runs through the Gibraltar Rock property not around it!

 

This little mistake made for an interesting few hours but we never really felt lost and if we would have taken the gravel road route we would have missed out on a few hours of beautiful scenery. Hiking around the bluff instead of straight up is definitely longer but is a much nicer, more enjoyable hike. I would highly recommend taking the long way, just be sure to take the road back down or you might just end up hiking all the way to Madison.