February 22nd, 2010    Journey to Kinnickinnic

When we were younger, my brother Nathan and I often adventured at one of our favorite childhood haunts – Kinnickinnic State Park. One of my greatest adventures there was traveling far down the river in winter, until I came to one of the most spectacular ‘punchbowl’ formations I’ve ever seen. It’s a long hike, and it requires scaling cliffs, marching through lowlands, and negotiating some extremely rough terrain. Last week, Rebecca and I decided to try to find our way to the punchbowl, along with Cory who has been staying with us.

The terrain was worse than we remembered. Ravines, cliffs, and knee-deep snow quickly eroded morale.  A few hours into our adventure we stood on a great expanse of floodplain, gazing over the deep snow, and realized it just wasn’t going to happen. It was clear that we weren’t going to make it there and back again before nightfall.

Instead, we tromped out to the river for a look at the far bank. It was then when we saw the cave.

It was a huge dark maw opening on the side of a cliff on the other bank. Twenty paces of icy water stood between us and the cave, but I knew that we had to find a way across. Rebecca was sensible, sitting down to an afternoon snack as Cory and I stripped off boots and socks, rolled up our pants, and waded across. The water was icy, but we were rewarded with a spectacular rock formation – not a cave, but a sort of arch, complete with a blue-ice waterfall frozen as it cascaded over the stone.

We waded back, Rebecca taking video for posterity, and started the long trek toward home, satisfied that a bit of unexpected adventure had found us. The punchbowl is still out there, waiting, however, and I think it won’t be long before we make a second attempt . . .

 

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