I was driving on Hwy 35 near the Lynxville dam a few days ago and in a 30 second drive by I counted five eagles. One day in December 2010 I crossed the Hwy 18 bridge travelling from Prairie du Chien to Marquette, Iowa. On that drive across the Mississippi and its backwaters I saw more than 10 eagles. These winter eagles congregate around any open water  to fish and enjoy lunch or dinner, maybe even breakfast. Eagles can be seen diving into the water and snatching a fish, or standing on the ice enjoying a meal, or circling overhead looking for a fish, or perched in a nearby tree just waiting their turn.

On Saturday, Feb 25, 2012, the Prairie du Chien Chamber of Commerce in conjunction with Effigy Mounds National Monument (located in Iowa a few miles north of the Hwy 18 bridge) will sponser Bald Eagle Appreciation Day. Activities will run from 9 am until 4:30 pm and will include a live raptor program, nature film, eagle photography, and a life size eagle nest replica. Outdoor viewing with spotting scopes will be offered. Prairie du Chien offers great dining and lodging, so come and make a day of it. Couple this with a trip to Cabelas Outdoor Store in Prairie du Chien, a long drive on Hwy 35 along the beautiful Mississippi River, or a drive eastward to the Kickapoo River Valley and the quaint villages of Crawford and Vernon Counties. Nice winter time in Wisconsin.

Southwest Wisconsin is particularly blessed with hundreds of cold water streams. This is the Driftless Area, a part of the midwest that was not glaciated during the last period of North American glaciers. This land was spared the glaciers and therefore it retained its rugged topography of repeated ridges and valleys. Karst geology underlies the Driftless Area and the porous sandstone and limestone rock spawns thousands of cold water springs that emerge on the hillsides and in the valleys. Between Viroqua and Boscobel, Wisconsin the springs combine and form a maze of streams that then find their way to the Mississippi, the Wisconsin, or the Kickapoo rivers.  

Superb trout fishing can be found in most of this area’s streams and small rivers: Knapp Creek, Tainter Creek, Reads Creek, Copper Creek, Citron Creek, Rush Creek, the Bad Axe River, the West Fork of the Kickapoo River, Sugar Creek, English Run, Mill Creek and many others. Brook, Rainbow, and Brown trout are found throughout these creeks. Many streams have been improved by Trout Unlimited and many streams remain totally natural.

Good dining and lodging is available. Tackle and guide service is available at the Driftless Angler Fly Shop in Viroqua. If you want a multi-species fishing trip, combine the stream time with time spent on the Mississippi River. On this section of the big river you will find big walleye, big northern, and big bass. In addition you will find that the Driftless Area scenery is just as good as the fishing.

On Sept 10/11 travel to Prairie du Chien and the Villa Louis to enjoy the annual Carriage Classic. The Villa Louis is one of Wisconsin’s state historic sites. It is a beautifully restored Victorian house that was home to Wisconsin’s first millionaire family, the Dousmans. The Villa has a long history of horse breeding and elegance and the Carriage Classic will bring more than 100 beautifully restored carriages to the grounds for demonstrations of horsemanship and carriage driving.

Carraige Classic at Villa Louis

Then on Sept 17/18 enjoy one of the best art festivals in the entire state, the Driftless Area Art Festival in Soldiers Grove. Eighty artists from across the Driftless Area will show their artwork – paintings, sculptures, pottery, woodcraft, photography, and jewelry. This juried art show will feature day long music performed by local musicians playing an eclectic mix of folk and bluegrass music that fits perfectly into the rugged landscape that surrounds the art festival grounds. 

While at the art festival sample local foods, wine, and beer as you stroll past the artists’ displays. Talk with the artists, all of whom make their home in one of the midwest’s more scenic areas. Stay for a few nights in a lovely B&B and maybe bring your fly rod along and spend some time in a local trout stream leaving your cares behind you.

The Kickapoo Valley has become a destination for silent sport enthusiasts. Opportunities abound for quality hiking, biking, canoeing, birding, trout fishing, …. Amish shopping and antiquing offer post-exercise options for visitors. The area is prized for its scenic motor touring routes as the local roads wind their way over and through hundreds of ridges and valleys. The land, scuplted thousands of years ago, is the attraction. There are no nightclubs, go-cart tracks, or neon signs but instead there are rugged bluffs, deer, turkey, eagles, and B&Bs.

The Inn at Lonesome Hollow offers beautiful B&B rooms, a cabin, and two bedroom suites and 160 acres of wooded hills, trails, and wildlife.

The Roth House offers grand B&B rooms in a restored Victorian house that sits right next to the Kickapoo River.

The Old Oak Inn’s B&B rooms and parlors feature elegant European milled woodwork and a large banquet room and space for any size private party. 

Soldiers Grove is a great base of operations for a day or a week of travel through the Kickapoo Valley and Wisconsin’s Driftless Area.

The Inn at Lonesome Hollow is a rural B&B located in the heart of the Kickapoo Valley in Southwest Wisconsin. Here, near the center of the famed Driftless Area nature reigns supreme. Here the landscape is one of rugged hill and valley, not boring flat land. Here the songs of birds are often the loudest invasion of one’s auditory sense. Here, in perhaps the oldest landscape of the upper midwest, a commitment for life seems most appropriate.

The planning of a wedding is most important for an outdoor wedding. Choose carefully the size of the reception tent. Thoughtfully plan for the caterer, the seating for ceremony and meal, evening lighting and music, and restroom availability. When properly done, such planning can produce a stellar event that everyone attending will remember forever.

These photos were taken at a summer 2010 wedding at Lonesome Hollow. Two hundred and fifty people attended, watched the ceremony at pond-side, then retreated to the back of the valley for wine, meal, music, and joyous celebration. It was a fabulous event.

For several reasons the fall colors are especially good in the Driftless Region of Southwest Wisconsin. The Driftless Area is very rugged and much of the land is heavily forested. Maple trees constitute about 50% of the Driftless Area trees and over time this percentage will increase (this bodes well for future maple syrup production as well). Also the terrain itself, a constant expanse of ridges and valleys, creates an environment in which there are wooded hillsides that face in every direction. This extends the time over which fall colors can be enjoyed. The south and west facing hillside will turn color first, followed by the east and north facing hillsides. Likewise the trees along many streams and along the Mississippi River will hold their leaves longer and produce fall colors after many other trees have disrobed themselves for winter.

Fall at Lonesome Hollow B&B

In the Kickapoo Valley fall is a great time to take in the Vernon County Fair and the Driftless Area Art Festival. Explore the shops of local Amish artisans. Walk through the apple orchards of Gays Mills and purchase locally grown apples, cider, and baked goods.

Gays Mills Apples

Fall is nature’s way of preparing us for the rigors of a Wisconsin winter. The Inn at Lonesome Hollow is located only a few miles from the Gays Mills orchards. Come over and spend two or three glorious fall days with us.

Nora and Pete

June 19 – for you outdoor enthusiats, travel to Prairie du Chien and take a Bald Eagle Cruise on the Mississippi River. The scenery is superb for river lovers: backwaters, bluffs, wildlife, and river towns. This cruise will focus on the bald eagles that call home to this section of the river. Call Mississippi Explorer Cruises at 877-647-7397.

June 19 – visit the famous Villa Louis in Prairie du Chien and participate in a hands-on cooking workshop - Breakfast in A Victorian Kitchen. Take a culinary tour of the late 19th century using the foods, utensils, and technology of the times. Call 608-326-2721 for details.

June 18-20 – if you like good food, live music, tractor pulls, sports tourneys and more, stop in Soldiers Grove at their Dairy Days. Great fun and tradition.

June 19-20 – enjoy Midsummer Fest at Norskedalen Nature and Heritage Center. Enjoy their beautiful grounds, hiking paths, gardens, and a recreated homestead of the late 1800′s. For information call 608-452-3424.

All of these events take place in Crawford and Vernon Counties, in the heart of the Driftless Area of Southwest Wisconsin. More area information is available at www.driftlesswisconsin.com.

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!

Kickapoo River Canoeing

The 2010 canoeing season is now open on the Kickapoo River in Southwest Wisconsin. A leisurely paddle down the Kickapoo starting in either Ontario, Wisconsin or Rockton, Wisconsin will take you through some beautiful Driftless Area terrain complete with large limestone and sandstone rock outcroppings and some good trout fishing opportunities as well.

The Kickapoo River is a class 2 trout stream from Wilton to Gays Mills. Good spots to fish are the junctions where small streams flow into the Kickapoo. Right now all trout fishing is catch and release, and there is a week that is closed to trout fishing in early May as angling transitions into the regular season. From mid-May through the end of September trout season is fully open and you can catch your own dinner.

Don’t attempt to canoe the Kickapoo following heavy rain. Too much water is funneled quickly by the surrounding hills into this otherwise lazy river. But most of the time you can just relax, paddle slowly, and enjoy great scenery. If you float south from Ontario, you will pass through a corner of Wildcat Mountain State Park and past impressive limestone outcroppings. If you float out of Rockton, you will float through a long stretch of the Kickapoo Valley Reserve, an 8600 acre parcel of public land (very much undeveloped) with great hiking and biking opportunities.

Spend two to six hours on the Kickapoo. Have a great local steak dinner. Lodge at one of the areas neat B&Bs, such as Inn at Lonesome Hollow. You’ll have a wonderful time.

Our favorite set of orchards, four in all, lie on Wisconsin Hwy 171 between the village of Gays Mills on the west and US Hwy 61 on the east. Sunrise, Kickapoo, Fleming and Hillcrest orchards have all been in business for many years. Some of these orchards have their own bakeries, and there is a separate bakery – Apple-icious Pie Depot. Apple pies, apple pizzas, apple donuts and way more are produced in their ovens daily.

Sept 26 and 27 are the dates of the annual Gays Mills Apple Fest. Festivities will include a flea market, arts and crafts show, live music, parade, and great food. Beyond apple fest weekend some of the orchards will stay open into December, making them a prefect spot to continue making apple and specialty gift purchases. The Inn at Lonesome Hollow - www.lonesomehollow.com – is located only a few miles from the orchards. Stay for a night or two, visit the orchards, and take in the spectacular fall colors while in the area.