Took a friend to one of my favorite hiking spots....

Had a wonderful hike with my friend Mo and her furry friend Manny through Lion's Den Gorge...

On a warm(ish) winter Sunday, I finally got my butt back out on the trail. Thankfully had 4 wonderful companions, one of whom was an energetic little dog.

I guided my companions out west of Milwaukee, to the Emma Carlin trails, which, during the summer months, are flooded with mountain bikers. We only saw one fat-tire biker heading into the hills at the trailhead, didn't see anyone else the rest of the time.

It was great to see this little spot without the trees, the views peeked as the mountain biking trails took us up and down ridges.

We walked the Emma Carlin trails for about 3 miles, then cut cross country (hooray, off trail!) and linked up with the Ice Age trail, hiking a mile or so of trail I'd hiked this summer.

Watching Artie (the dog) rushing around between our group, making sure none of us got too separated was a good time. He'd tear off through the brush, spot one of us, then rush back to the rest of the group to let us know everything was okay.

All in all, it was a good, relaxing day.... a short hike that really satisfied my need to wander.

With this amazing Wisconsin weather (for December), I decided to get outside and wander today. My friend Amy decided to join and the two of us had an amazing little 4ish mile wander into the woods near Holy Hill.

As we wandered through the Holy Hill area, we climbed up on one of the blue-blaze side trails to the "Glacial Errata" This trial took us high up onto a moraine and gave some outstanding views. It's one of my favorite sections of the Ice Age Trail as a result.

We wandered through the woods and had a wonderful time just being outdoors in the beautiful weather. As we wandered down from the high point of the hike, the trail became very smooth and just wandered through the trees. It was the first time I'd hiked this section without leaves covering everything up and it allowed for some spectacular views.

On the walk back, we took the Yellow Blazes and wandered by a small frozen pool of water... I was a bit surprised that anything was iced over. Clearly it was colder there than it was in Milwaukee the last couple days!

All in all, the time outside was needed. I didn't really realize it until I was out there. A couple quiet and beautiful hours spent outdoors.

I ran into some of the locals while I was cruising along, getting used to my new PacerPoles and had to stop and take a picture or two.

About a mile in, the trail splits, and I decided to wander the "nature path" which was much narrower (compared to the wide-open ski trails) and gave me a bit of a better workout.

A half mile after that, the nature trail rejoins the wide open loops. My time cut short, I beelined for the observatory tower to snap a few pictures from the top. 

Another mile and a half later, I was back at my car and on the road... a little over an hour, 3 miles of walking, and happy I'd gotten outside.

Took a brief jaunt on Tuesday after work, wandered 3 miles in the Pike Lake segment of the Kettle Moraine State Park. Lots of nice little hills, narrow nature trail walking and a beautiful observatory tower which gives a great view of the lake and gives you a peek at Holy Hill to the south.

There are quite a few loop trails in the park, ranging from 2.5 miles up to a 5 mile loop. A portion of the Ice Age Trail also runs through the park (and overlaps these loops).