Engage the Weekend : Walking the Old Chicago & North Western

This area is littered with old, historical railways and bridges. With the Driftless area covered with so many waterways, rivers, marshes, and lakes, it's easy to see why big rail invested so heavily in bridges back in the day. Get that freight across the area, get it out West, and make some big money. Those railroad tycoons...they had it figured out, I dare say. Fortunately for us in the area, once the rail roads constructed new lines, a lot of these old bridges stayed around and were later converted into bike trails and paths.

So yeah, you guessed it, our weekend adventure was checking out an old abdandonded rail road bridge that was converted into a bike trail. Exciting stuff! And pretty cool, too; just ask the little rock star below...

The bridge itself was built in 1927, and is apparently called a truss bridge. The bridge itself goes over a local river known as the Black River, and it has total length of 1212 feet. You are probably saying, "well at least you probably brought the BOB with this time..." Well...nope! Dad's back never learns, apparently!

From the little history I can find online, the bridge was built by the American Bridge Company of New York City. I wasn't able to figure out when it was ultimately abandoned by the rail road, but we did notice a new line not more than 50 feet out of us. There were even two big old BNSF engines sitting on the new bridge the entire time.

This area is actually quite beautiful. The trail itself goes quite a bit of way, but we kept it to the bridge proper. The green was in full force, and we tried to take in as much wild flower viewing as we could.

I'm not sure what that is, but highly confident it upset all of our allergies.

We weren't sure what these were either, but don't worry...we didn't eat them. I like berries and foraging as much as the next person, but I wasn't going to attempt to drive back to our house poisoned and/or hallucinating that blue smurfs were in the car with us...

We made it to the end of the "bridge," hit some shade with no breeze, and those bloody mosquitoes attacked. Relentless critters, and with no bug spray in tow, we fled back to the car and took in some more nature scenes on very brisk walk back. Sun hat time, too!

I also snagged a couple of shots of the beautiful old steel bridge design. So much history attached to something like this, lost to time like so many other things.

I definitely need to head back and get some better photos of this wonderful, old bridge. Getting history documented on the blockchain...you know? It feels good!

Our last stop was a canoe landing called "Lytle's Landing." It had an odd canoe/kayak slide, but it's something I think we'll revisit with some kayaks, as a family, in the future.

Who doesn't love water, anyway. I'm highly confident she's a future kayak hobbyist...no doubt about it.

All in all, it was pleasant, if not warm, #engagetheweekend adventure. Despite the heat and sun (and lack of the BOB stroller), and the lack of trolls this time through, I'm going to call this one a success. Sure, we didn't see Bigfoot again, or that creepy Wendigo (I'll explain more in the future), but that's ok; I'm just proud my little one knows what a sasquatch it. She's definitely going to be her father's daughter, no matter how hard Liza tries to stop it. Sorry Liz!

Thanks as always for stopping by and checking out our adventure. Happy belated Father's Day, Summer Solstice, and whatever else folks were able to enjoy this past weekend. Hoping everyone out there is safe and healthy, and enjoying the start to the new week. Until next week...