Thursday 8-29 Horicon Marsh

We woke up to another cool morning. The wind was down but in a couple of hours it was back.

We started the day off by going for a motorcycle ride. We took the bike off the carrier and got it ready. We had to be careful leaving the park because the children from the local school were running on the road of the park. We rode the bike to Horicon Marsh State Wildlife Area, about 10 miles from Wild Goose Park.

In order to get to Horicon Marsh we had to drive through Horicon, which is another quaint little town. It had more shops and places to eat than Juneau. Horicon Marsh is 33,000 acres and 2/3 of it is the Horicon National Wildlife Refuge. It was establish to protect migratory birds. The area we visited was run by the state. The lady that greeted us was very friendly and helpful. Part of the visitor center was free, if you wanted to visit the hands on interactive area (The Explorium) it cost $6.00. The Explorium was very nice. Part of the display was following a spearhead from the time it was created by man in the marsh during the Mastodon era to today. Some of the displays you can touch and smell. One display you can drive an air boat through the marsh, very cool. Another display had nine big cubes, each side was a puzzle piece of an animal. Once you solved the puzzle it told you what it was. The displays on smells was interesting, one display was what a Mammoth smelled like and another you had to decide if the smell was from a sawmill or gristmill. The things you touched were pelts from beaver and muskrat. We walked around about a half hour. There are hiking trails around the marsh. There is an area where they feed birds. We had a very nice visit.

Horicon Marsh State Wildlife Area

Native American hunting a Mammoth

Mammoth made out of rebar

Larry starting the tour of the Horicon Marsh

The cube puzzle to make animals with

Beaver and muskrat pelts

Muskrat cave

Larry driving the air boat in the marsh

A view of the Horicon Marsh

On the way back to the Minnie we drove around Juneau and went by their other city park. It wasn't as big as the one we're staying in but it had tennis courts, playground and basket ball hoops. We had a great ride.

In the afternoon we watched a couple of city workers mowing the edges of the walking trail. They used a bobcat with a big mower on the front. It cut through big weeds and small trees. After the stuff was cut they used a small street sweeper to clean the trimming off the trail. Late in the day a group of kids showed up to play soccer. We had a super day at Wild Goose Park.

Trimming the edge of the hiking trail