The Corona Diaries Vol 9: Riding the Green Dragon. Er, Circle.

December 2020

I want to take this opportunity to extend an offer to everyone: if you have any questions about your fecal matter (or anyone else's, I suppose), please don't hesitate to ask me as I recently came across this handy little tome:

I will soon be wise in all things feces^ and be able to answer all of your pressing poo-related questions.

^This reminds me of a story told to me by a friend of mine. He was in an intro to biology class up at UW-Eau Claire and "feces", well, digestion, was the topic du jour. A woman in the class read a section from the textbook and pronounced it "feck-us".

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hile I am on the subject of books, you may recall that I took a class on medieval manuscripts last winter. I have returned to the subject with my latest read, Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts: Twelve Journeys into the Medieval World, by Christopher de Hamel. de Hamel is a librarian and expert on medieval manuscripts. While working at Sotheby’s, he was in their manuscript department, or whatever group there deals with codices, and is reputed to have touched more medieval books than any other human being on earth.

It's a very interesting read. He gives an account of the library that holds each text, the books' histories, and a look at the contents, both the words and images. It was really neat to see photos of and learn about the Carmina Burana manuscript. There on the page were the opening lines of "O Fortuna". Did you know those famous lines are not original to the text and were instead added later? I had no idea. Plus I agree with de Hamel: much of the art in the Book of Kells is really pretty awful.

Highly recommended if you want to learn more about medieval manuscripts.

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We got snow yesterday – a little over 6 inches. After shoveling for the first time, I went for a walk and it was just gorgeous outside. Just below freezing and the snow was coming down at a good clip. My wanderings took me over to Starkweather Creek. I walked along the shore for a stretch before I came to a small hill that kids use for launching themselves off of on their bikes. My attempt at scaling it was an epic failure and I ended up falling and sliding down once I'd gotten about halfway there. It made me feel like that guy in Jack London's "To Build a Fire". Well, except that it wasn't quite that cold out. And civilization was just a block away. But, aside from those two things, it was just like that story.

Ahem.

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(Now to finish off my account of my trek up north.)

It was yet another lovely morning when I departed Mountain for Stevens Point. On my way there I found myself driving through a town called Wittenberg which sounded familiar but I couldn't place it. Then I saw an old delivery truck that must have been from the 1950s with "NUESKE'S" in big friendly letters on the side. Nueske's makes some of the best bacon I've ever stuffed into my piehole. They smoke the meat to perfection over either applewood or cherrywood. Just great bacon.

After about 100 miles I arrived at the home of my friends on the northeast side of Stevens Point just before noon. It was a gorgeous, sunny day and I figured that they'd be at work while the kids would be schooling somehow, somewhere so I parked in their driveway and promptly removed my bicycle from the rack. The day's ride would be the Green Circle, a bike/walking trail of 25-30 miles that goes around the north, east, and west sides of the city and the town of Whiting to the south. While some of the trail uses streets, it's mostly crushed and compacted rock.

The Moses Creek Trail section runs about 4 blocks away from my friends' home so it wasn't long before I was on the Green Circle. The next section of the route had a stretch that ran alongside the Plover River which made for some really nice scenery.

Stevens Point is up in the pinery and the outpost of the University of Wisconsin there is known for its forestry and paper science schools.

The paper industry in Wisconsin has fallen on hard times as of late. A mill in Wisconsin Rapids – about 20 miles from Point – closed over the summer putting around 900 people out of work. From what I've read, it sounds like venture capital groups buy these companies and then shut down the mills rather than updating them for the 21^st century paper market. More on that mill's closure here.

On the other hand, the mill way up north in Park Falls reopened this year.

Anyway, it is hardly surprising that the bike trail went through some nice pine stands.

I am big fan of the pine/fir/spruce and the smell in these stands was just wonderful. I believe we have a mixture of white and jack pines in this photograph but I'm no arborist. It was white pines like these (?) from the Wisconsin pinery (and Michigan's) that rebuilt Chicago after the Great Fire. Tangentially, it is also my understanding that Milwaukee brewers - especially Miller - shipped their beer down to Chicago in mass quantities after the Fire to quench the thirst of those cleaning up and rebuilding.

The Green Circle goes through many parks including the Schmeeckle Reserve which is a wildlife preserve belonging to the UW-Stevens Point. There's marshland therein and the trail goes from gravel to boardwalks.

In addition to the Plover, the trail runs along the mighty Wisconsin River which starts up north by the Upper Peninsula, methinks, and flows to the Mississippi.

Over on the west side, the Green Circle goes near downtown and – quelle surprise! – there is a mural.

On the northwest side of town, the trail runs by the Stevens Point Sculpture Park.

It is really nice with sculptures of all sorts littering a path that runs through the larger Zenoff Park. In addition to deer centaurs, there was a giant Leopold bench.

The shadow of Aldo Leopold looms large over Wisconsin.

If memory serves, this tower/obelisk was built in such a way as to be a home for a particular variety of bird that I cannot recall in addition to its aesthetic duties.

My ride also took my down a stretch of the route used by stagecoaches to go from Stevens Point to Wausau, about 35 miles to the north. So that was a nice bit of local history.

I was thoroughly impressed with the Green Circle and hope to ride it again. In addition to the wonderful scenery, most of it is pretty level with just a few uphill climbs. Plus, I got lost only once so it has easy navigation going for it. Next time I'd like to detour from the trail into the city more. Hopefully I can do so and there will be more shops, cafes, and whatnot open.

Upon returning to my friends' house, I rang the doorbell and was greeted by my friend Wendy. She had been home all along and was wondering where I had been. I spent a couple days with her and husband Matt. During this time we caught up on each other's lives as we hadn't seen one another in several years. Their kids had grown considerably and two were now teenagers. I was happy to see that Matt survived teaching one of them to drive.

We spent some time touring the area's breweries and ended up at Central Waters Brewing Company, O'sO Brewing Company, and McZ's Brew Pub. McZ's is in nearby Rosholt, population 500 or so. A resident had gotten married that day and the town was all but deserted as basically everyone was at the reception. Nice and quiet and no wait for a table.

Matt lived in Germany and England after graduation where he learned the brewing trade. Upon returning to the States, he started work at a brewpub out west and made beer for a living for a few years. So, if I taste an off flavor in a brew, I get the chemical formula of the culprit from him. If there's no off flavor, I get a lecture about how well or how poorly the beer at hand conforms to traditional style guidelines.

Stevens Point is in Portage County which has had a large Polish-American population for ages. This being the case, the county has various roadside shrines and crosses. I saw one I hadn't seen before on my trip. I wasn’t driving and we didn't stop for a photo opportunity but I recalled where it was and found it on Google Maps.

However, I was able to get a photo of this roadside shrine which I'd encountered on another venture.

I bid my friends auf wiedersehen after a couple days and journeyed south to the Nekoosa area. My first stop was Roche-A-Cri State Park where I parked and then immediately hit the trails. I ended up hiking a few miles. The park is notable for a butte/rock outcrop thingy which features Native American petroglyphs. I believe these are the only ones in the state. Well, the only ones that are hundreds of years old.

Because of Covid, I wasn't able to go to the top nor get close to the petroglyphs. Still, the weather was rain-free and temperate so it was a nice walk.

My final stop was at the pièce de resistance of Wisconsin gustatory culture: a supper club.

This one happened to be owned by an old friend's ladyfriend while he was the head chef. She grew up in the area and had gone there many a time as a kid. When the place came up for sale, she jumped at the chance to keep it open so another generation can enjoy Old Fashioneds and prime rib.

The last time I saw either of them was in, oh, 2004 or 2005. I hadn't announced my intent to stop by ahead of time so, after being seated, I asked the waitress to relay a message to Chef Ed. Since he was known to some of us as The Polock (he being a product of Milwaukee's south side back in the day), I asked her to tell him that a customer was asking what he had to do to get a decent pierogi in this town.

It was really fun to be able to chat with them again. The place was fairly busy despite the capacity restrictions and they were short on staff so we didn't have a long time to talk. I enjoyed my pine nut encrusted walleye and the wonderful view. The building is on the east side of Petenwell Lake and so diners are treated to beautiful vistas of the setting sun.

The next day I headed home to Madison. I was not enthusiastic about returning to work the following day, I can tell you.

Bonus photo – food delivery robots. These deliver food from UW-Madison cafeterias to students in the dorms.