4 Hour School Hike by Lake Wingra

by Rebecca Cuningham

I’ve had great luck with local hikes recently. This month began well with a walk Tuesday morning through the University of Wisconsin Arboretum with a group of Eagle’s middle school classmates and their teacher. The classmates met us at the Arboretum building. For privacy reasons I won’t feature the students. I’ll focus on the landscape instead.

We enjoyed the crisp weather 45F (7C). Strolling through the Arboretum, we saw lilac bushes in rebloom, pines, and even cork trees. A flock of turkeys wandered through the grass casually, unconcerned about the 17 humans nearby.

UW Arboretum Cork Tree Photo: Rebecca Cuningham

The autumn leaves were in fine form. We read about the effigy mounds and saw them in the woods the other side of the Arboretum road.

Red Maple Photo: Rebecca Cuningham

In a funny twist of fate, on this trip we returned to Big Spring, which Eagle and I had visited with friends last week! Link to the previous photos here.

Big Spring, Lake Wingra Photo: Rebecca Cuningham

After we saw Big Spring, the group went down a boardwalk where we saw a second spring. At a pause on a dock-like walkway, we looked up and saw redtail hawks circling. It was a magical moment.

Redtail Hawk Photo: Rebecca Cuningham

We walked another two miles to Vilas Beach on Lake Wingra, where we ate lunch. The water was crystal clear at this time of year.

Lake Wingra Shallows Photo: Rebecca Cuningham

After lunch, we headed toward Edgewood College. Near the edge of the lake on college property, there are docks that jut in and make hikers feel they are part of the scenery. After adventures with cattail fluff snow, and horizontal trees to climb, we arrived at school around 1:15 pm.

Cattails and Lake Wingra Photo: Rebecca Cuningham
Cattails and Autumn Trees Photo: Rebecca Cuningham

The day ended as it began, with a flock of turkeys. When a school staff member dropped the teacher and me at the “Arb” to pick up our cars, a flock of turkeys was waiting. It felt like a friendly delegation. All in all, I calculate that our group hiked 5 miles (8K) that beautiful day. The students looked to enjoy themselves and we adults did too; an autumn day to remember.

Sleeping Turkey Photo: Rebecca Cuningham


This article is my 500th post!

¡Olé! –Rebecca

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Rebecca Cuningham

19 thoughts on “4 Hour School Hike by Lake Wingra”

  5. Congrats on your 500th post! Goes to show you’ve put in the hard work and effort to get to this point. This walk is really lovely, and it’s great to see Big Spring again (such a pretty little stream)!

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  6. Wow, beautiful! Congratulations on no. 500. I hope WP is keeping track from Day One. They started counting my posts when I was many years in, so every day they congratulate me on my amazing accomplishment which they think is less than half!

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