Inn at Lonesome Hollow

Dutchman's Britches

Nora and I are fortunate to live in the Driftless Area of Southwest Wisconsin, a rugged area of bluffs and valleys, relatively few people, and incredible scenery. Not only do we get to live in this wonderful place, but we also can greet and host hundreds of guests each year at our Bed and Breakfast, the Inn at Lonesome Hollow. Our B&B offers 160 acres of mostly wooded hill and valley, many gardens, a large pond, and a completely undeveloped ridgetop woods/prairie.

Spring Beauty

On Sunday afternoon the temperature was in the mid 60s, the sun was shining brilliantly, and we found ourselves in the midst of the earliest spring either of us can remember. Temperatures have been above average ever since the beginning of March. Trees are leafing out at least two weeks ahead of schedule. Maple syrup season has come and gone and the morels will undoubtedly be here early this spring. We decided it was time to seriously check out the wildflowers in the woods on our ridge. We left the coziness of our valley and headed upward 300 ft in elevation to our ridgetop 80 acres. We are not expert at plant identification, but with the help of a Wisconsin Wildflower Guide we noted purple and yellow violets, bellwort, spring beauty, wood anemone, dutchmens’ britches, bloodroot, pussytoes, and Greek valerian.

Crabapple Blossoms

We saw at least 20 flowering crabapple trees that were absolutely loaded with blooms. A few small trees were flowering, we think they are northern-hearty dogwood that mange to eek out an existence this far north. Mayapples were prolific in some places, but not yet flowering.

Down the Ridge Road

The paths through our woods no longer had the black and brown and gray coloring of winter, but were instead softened by an array of green hues on the newly emerging leaves. Turkeys were gobbling in the not-to-far distance. We walked past the quarter acre vineyard that John and Jamee planted with such loving care last spring and found it to be patiently waiting for warmer weather.

It’s a great time for hiking in Wisconsin woods. Turn off the TV, put on some comfortable walking shoes, and enjoy the best spring in a long, long time!

Tags: hiking, kickapoo valley, Southwest Wisconsin

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 20th, 2010 at 4:57 am and is filed under Wisconsin Outdoors. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.