Entry for May 10, 2008 - Donald Park in Mt. Vernon, WI

Kind of cool and overcast today, but rain was forecast for tonight and Mother's Day. Saturday morning would be the time for hiking.

The goal today is to complete a geocache series called Leopold Legacy. There are a total of 12 placed in area county parks, and I had logged 9 of them prior to today over the last 4 years. Two of the final 3 are just a short distance from each other in a swamp...err...make that wetland that runs along the south side of Madison, Wisconsin. No wonder I left them for the end, I decided to log them while the mosquitoes are still dormant. At least the walking to these would be short, then I can go on to the much more interesting 12th of the series.

We begin with the cache called "Leopold Legacy: June". This is in the Nine Springs E-Way (or big ol' swamp) just on the edge of an industrial section of Madison. To be fair, it is a pretty nice view when there isn't any bugs.

There is a spring that feeds that pool of water in the foreground.

There's the cache. Just a short walk in from the road where I parked.

The description of the cache said to look around for a homeless person encampment by there. I walked right through the hobo...err, homeless person camp on the way in.

Well, it's a pleasant view for the hobo...err, I meant homeless people.

Now a half-mile down the road off of a city bike trail is "Leopold Legacy: January". Still the same swamp...err, wetland. Not as scenic.

There's the cache hiding in some brush.

OK, less than a mile walked between those 2, and really am glad I got those out of the way now. "Leopold Legacy: August" is next, and in a park I am much more excited to visit. The rest of the Leopold Legacy series has been great, I'm just not a fan of swamps...err, wetlands near the city sewage...err, make that sanitary plant.

Southwest of Verona, Wisconsin and southeast of Mount Horeb, Wisconsin is little Mount Vernon. A couple of miles outside of that town on land donated by the Donald family is Donald County Park. Here is where the last of that series of geocaches is for me to find.

A couple of creeks wind through this land, and there is also adjacent land owned by the DNR for public hunting and fishing.

The birds just were hanging out today.

The GPS receiver is pointing at that big tree back there.

I believe that is the geocache I was looking for.

But wait, there's more. This is just near the beginning of the trail, and there is another different geocache further in. I also was a little surprised by the beauty of the land here. This is getting close to Mrs. Stef G's old stomping grounds.

Hmm, there's a lot of trail here.

How about a quick SLR photography lesson? I was shooting in this park with a 24mm prime lens (no zoom) using "P" mode (programed auto exposure) where the camera auto calculates an appropriate shutter and f-stop. Here is a photo using the camera's chosen settings of a mini-rapids.

Now expert advice normally is to shoot falling or fast moving water with a slow shutter speed (preferably with a tripod) so you can capture a sense of motion in the water instead of the stop-action displayed above. Staying in "P" mode, you can move the setting wheel and select alternate shutter and f-stop combinations to give the same exposure level. I moved it until I had a much slower shutter speed at 1/30 second - about as slow as I would want to take hand-held like this. Notice the difference in the water, it looks more fluid.

Now back to the geocache trail. Let's go up a hill and by some rock formations.
Portrait mode...

Landscape mode...

Both compositions looked good to me.

I actually could see the hiding spot from this point.

This one is called "Butterballs Gone Wild". I suspect there is turkey herd living in this park with that name. Never saw any of them today.

Just a couple of hundred feet away was some great views. The trees kind of make the photos look less spectacular than it does when you walk around. I love this park now, I will be back with my sister to hike the full trails later this summer.

I just kept finding more cool rock formations as I walked around on the trail system.

OK, getting to the end of this walk.

Took a pitstop while the opportunity presented itself. to make Chris Moy proud.

Back to the oIIIIIIIo

Turn around and see a typical southern Wisconsin rural scene.

There's the stats for walking in this park.

and here's the walk plotted on a map.

Add in the first 2 geocaches, I walked over 3.5 miles, nearly 3.75 miles. A nice workout with some up/down on the trail. I just wish that I had more sunshine for pretty blue skies in the photos.