Devil's Lake trail run, brunch and chill

We had planned to get in a long run on Sunday.  Our Philly Rock N Roll half is coming up and we needed to get in a bit of distance.  We were shooting for 1.5 hours and headed out to an area called Devil's Lake State Park.

Devil's Lake State Park is a state park located in the Baraboo Range in eastern Sauk County, just south of Baraboo,Wisconsin. Devil's Lake State Park is the biggest state park in Wisconsin.^[2] It is around thirty-five miles northwest ofMadison, and is on the western edge of the last ice-sheet deposited during the Wisconsin drift.^[3] This 9,217-acre (3,730 ha)^[4] state park is known for its 500-foot-high (150 m) quartzite bluffs along the 360-acre (150 ha) Devil's Lake, which was created by a glacier depositing terminal moraines that plugged the north and south ends of the gap in the bluffs during the last ice age approximately 12,000 years ago. The sand at the bottom of Devil's Lake is thought to be deposited by glaciers. Devil's Lake is situated in the Baraboo Hills. The Baraboo Hills are thought to be much older than Devil's Lake itself; they are approximately 1.6 billion years old and were once part of the Baraboo Range which is thought to have been taller than the Rocky Mountains.

Devil's Lake is an awesome State park. It has beautiful lakes, trails and is so clean.  We started at the park headquarters lot and headed out on the Tumbled Rocks Trail.  Tumbled Rocks Trail winds through huge boulders that have fallen to the shoreline of Devils Lake.

  We got to the end of TRT and merged onto Ice Age National Scenic Trail.

DEVIL'S LAKE IS A STATE PARK BUT THIS TRAIL IS A NATIONAL LANDMARK.  THIS ALLOWED US TO USE OUR NATIONAL PARK'S PASS TO GET IN. $11 SAVED...CHA CHING!

The Ice Age Trail led us to Pot Holes Trail(PHT).  PHT is uphill all the way.  1200 feet of vertical climb in a fairly short distance.  This part of the trail was a walk as fast as you can kind of experience.  It was very steep, made up of rocky stairs and totally sucked the oxygen right out of you.  We may not have been running but we were definitely getting the cardio training.

MAKING THEIR WAY UP THE HILL

THE TRAIL GOT STEEP AND NARROW

  

As we peaked PHT, we came to East Bluff Trail.  The view was gorgeous and it became clear to us why we were so winded. 

NOT AT THE VERY TOP BUT GETTING THERE

 East Bluff Trail had the option of going along the ridge line and then back down stairs or running through East Bluff Woods and taking a longer trail route down.  We chose the longer and gravity was our friend.  We made our way down and got back to the park headquarters.  We were out for 1.5 hours and we felt great.  Brunch was definitely on our list.

We headed back to Baraboo and went to Log Cabin Restaurant.  Doesn't that just sound like a great place to get breakfast?  We ordered, received, and attacked our food.  I love following a great morning run with a great morning brunch.  We were full and exercised.  Perfect.

We got back to Lewis and decided to do a bit of housekeeping.  It had rained quite a bit and the ground was fairly soft so we decided to move Lewis to a new spot.  We packed just enough to keep things steady and relocated just a few spots away.  Penny Lane and Annie Belle got very excited but they calmed quickly when they realized we were not really going anywhere.

We spent the rest of the day chilling.  We were tired from our long run and it was a beautiful day.  

I cooked spaghetti for dinner and we wound up our day watching The Natural with Robert Redford.

Another great day in this thing we call life.