Fall Colors and Conservation Giants

[takesiteasy]

Rocky and I took a road trip to Wisconsin to see some fall colors and visit some iconic conservation sites. I posted a trip report on the blog: http://travelswithrockythedog.blogspot.com/2015/10/fall-colors-and-conservation-giants.html

 

[Wandering Sagebrush]

Wow, great report! Sorry about the flat! No fun changing a tire in the dark!

 

[Foy]

The driftless area of Wisconsin and everywhere along the Mississippi is nice. Thanks for sharing.

Back in another professional life, I had the pleasure of exploring for diamonds in southwest Wisconsin. Spent about 2 months bombing around River Falls, Ellsworth, Plum City, Pepin, and Red Wing. Required background reading was the Precambrian through Paleozoic depositional and deformation history of Wisconsin. I never visited the Baraboo Range, but became familiar with its maroon iron-rich quartzite, the folding of that horizon into the Baraboo Syncline, and the subsequent deposition of flat-lying sandstones and carbonates over top of the deformed quartzite, forming a regional unconformity which is very well exposed at Devil's Lake SP.

Foy

 

[takesiteasy]

Wow, great report! Sorry about the flat! No fun changing a tire in the dark!

Thanks!

The driftless area of Wisconsin and everywhere along the Mississippi is nice. Thanks for sharing.

Back in another professional life, I had the pleasure of exploring for diamonds in southwest Wisconsin. Spent about 2 months bombing around River Falls, Ellsworth, Plum City, Pepin, and Red Wing. Required background reading was the Precambrian through Paleozoic depositional and deformation history of Wisconsin. I never visited the Baraboo Range, but became familiar with its maroon iron-rich quartzite, the folding of that horizon into the Baraboo Syncline, and the subsequent deposition of flat-lying sandstones and carbonates over top of the deformed quartzite, forming a regional unconformity which is very well exposed at Devil's Lake SP.

Foy

Foy, thanks for your comment. I am not a geologist but I find rocks interesting. The whole Baraboo Hills area is rich in geologic interest being at the intersection of ancient seas and more recent glaciers at the edge of it all. The layering exposed at Parfrey's Glen was fascinating- never saw conglomerate layers like that before. Here is a paper on the geology of Sauk County that you might find interesting (I mostly looked at the maps and diagrams): http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.397.7949&rep=rep1&type=pdf

 

[longhorn1]

Nice report. 6 hour drive for us, so we will have to plan a trip. Camped at Devils Lake SP with buddies when in college and again when shortly after getting married. Great place. jd

 

[Dughlas Stiubhart]

Thanks for the fall photos and your report from a part of the world I've not had the pleasure of exploring!

 

[ski3pin]

All the recent trip reports from the upper Midwest have fueled a bit of homesickness here, but takesiteasy, you have really taken me back home. Thank you! Combining your wonderful trip with quotes from two of our American icons really hit the spot. Thank you again. Let us hope that these two continue to inspire and lead and shape our relationship with our earth.

Foy, thanks for the notes on geology! When I walked these areas my interests were elsewhere and I was young, I need to get back.

takesiteasy, how did the Mrs. do in the games?

 

[takesiteasy]

Thanks for the comments, everyone.

Ski, the Mrs. did well- she plays in two different age-group sessions. The 65s team did well, taking the Gold medal in the Gold division, coming back in an epic win after losing the first game of the medal round. The 60s team did not fare as well, finishing out of the medals. That team had the misfortune of one member suffering a heart attack during a game. She survived, had a couple of stents placed and is doing well now. Mrs. would never brag but I can. Here is a pic of the season's spoils (2 silvers from the National Open, one Gold from the Huntsman's Games and a tournament all-star trophy from a tournament in Hawaii- not bad for a 66 yr old with bad knees ):

 

[Basin Deranged]

Many thanks for the report and the inspiration to, one day, visit Leopold's farm and Muir's birthplace.

From Leopold's Sand County Almanac:
We shall never achieve harmony with the land, any more than we shall achieve absolute justice or liberty for people. In these higher aspirations the important thing is not to achieve, but to strive... The problem, then, is how to bring about a striving for harmony with land among people many of whom have forgotten there is any such thing as land, among whom education and culture have become almost synonymous with landlessness. This is the problem of 'conservation education.'

I like to think that these trip reports help us all in the process of 'conservation education.'

And I must thank you for the encouragement to break out my old copy of the Sand County Almanac in search of that quote!

 

[longhorn1]

Many thanks for the report and the inspiration to, one day, visit Leopold's farm and Muir's birthplace.

From Leopold's Sand County Almanac:
We shall never achieve harmony with the land, any more than we shall achieve absolute justice or liberty for people. In these higher aspirations the important thing is not to achieve, but to strive... The problem, then, is how to bring about a striving for harmony with land among people many of whom have forgotten there is any such thing as land, among whom education and culture have become almost synonymous with landlessness. This is the problem of 'conservation education.'

I like to think that these trip reports help us all in the process of 'conservation education.'

And I must thank you for the encouragement to break out my old copy of the Sand County Almanac in search of that quote!

Nice

 

[steelhead]

Thanks for taking the time to create such a detailed report. Your reports do a terrific job of capturing some very interesting places.

 

[highz]

Really enjoyed this trip report, especially the Leopold and Muir connections. My copy of "A Sand County Almanac" stays in my FWC so I can read it when I'm camping. That was pretty special that you went to the farm and shack.

A side note: I took a MOOC offered by U Wisconsin and the Leopold Foundation not too long ago. It's called "The Land Ethic Reclaimed: Perceptive Hunting, Aldo Leoold and Conservation". I'm not a hunter, but Leopold was, and it was a very interesting course. Recommended.

 

[Casa Escarlata Robles Too]

Thanks Al for the report.The colors are nice to see.
Don't get much here on the coast.
Frank

 

[takesiteasy]

Thanks for all the feedback everyone. I appreciate hearing your comments. I am glad to hear (but not surprised) so many of you relate to Leopold and Muir the way I do. Seems like A Sand County Almanac never gets old. Highz, I had never heard of a MOOC- thanks for making me curious to look it up: https://www.mooc-list.com/

 

[Kolockum]

Great report! There should be a thread for flat tire photos, whether for bragging rights or sympathy.

 

[Foy]

Thanks!


Foy, thanks for your comment. I am not a geologist but I find rocks interesting. The whole Baraboo Hills area is rich in geologic interest being at the intersection of ancient seas and more recent glaciers at the edge of it all. The layering exposed at Parfrey's Glen was fascinating- never saw conglomerate layers like that before. Here is a paper on the geology of Sauk County that you might find interesting (I mostly looked at the maps and diagrams): http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.397.7949&rep=rep1&type=pdf

Nice link to the Wisconsin Geological Survey paper. Thanks for that!

One of the cool things about profound unconformities and conglomerates is you can often see the undulating topography over which the younger sediments were deposited and the conglomerates are made up of clasts of the older rock itself. The Baraboos were rocky islands shedding their cobbles and pebbles into a rising Cambrian sea so extensive layers of conglomerate would be expected and in fact are found in a position stratigraphically, and topographically, above the quartzites. In Wisconsin, unlike here in the Appalachians, the Paleozoic rocks (Cambrian and younger, up to Mesozoic sediments) have never been folded and heavily faulted, so we see those rocks pretty much as they were when they were deposited--flat lying and their unconformable contacts following the topographic contours of the older rocks. We can best imagine this if we think of laying a wool blanket over top of some piles of rocks in the back yard, where the blanket droops down into low points between individual rocks. Back this way, we can sometimes see evidence of Precambrian soils (paleosols) at the unconformity contact between early to middle Precambrian rocks and the overlying Cambrian Chilhowie Group quartzites and conglomerates. The paleosols are now metamorphosed and appear as thin (<1m to 3-4m thick) horizons of phyllite between high grade metamorphic rock and mildly metamorphosed basal Cambrian quartzites and conglomerates. As noted, with the extensive folding and faulting our Appalachian Paleozoic section has experienced, we can't see the conglomerates in flat-lying position, so we have to "chase" those horizons all over Creation with a topo map, a Brunton compass, and a mind pre-set for 3-dimensional thinking.

Foy