So I spent some time in Spring Green over the weekend. After doing some hiking at Tower Hill State Park, I and my travel companion noticed that just off of highway 23, south of Spring Green on the way to the APT – if that’s any help, there were several beautiful sandbars in the Wisconsin River located near to convenient parking.. After foolishly not bringing my camera whilst hiking in Tower Hill and hence not taking a picture or ten of the beautiful view from the top of the hill, I decided to take a few pictures of the Wisconsin Tiver from the sandbar. I love the mass of green from the trees.

Now, as I’m sure you’re aware, you gotta be careful while wading around sandbars. There were signs warning about sudden drop-offs and the current and reminding people to always wade upstream. And there are very sudden drop-offs. I didn’t get a good picture of it, but it’s like coming to the edge of a hill. You’re walking along and you can see the sand bottom a few feet below the water…when suddenly you can see a dark green color below the water. I sort of struck my foot over the edge of the drop-off. yUp, it was pretty sudden. In the picture below, where the water looks smoother, that’s where the drop-off happens.

It almost looks like a line in the river and it functions much the same way.

I tried to take a few photographs that conveyed just how far off-shore you could wade in the shallow water. This picture does an alright job of conveying this.

One of the great things about a digital camera is that there isn’t a penalty to taking a lot of pictures. In the olden days, when people had to use something called “film” which they bought in “rolls,” the photographer was limited by size of the rolls and the cost of developing the film. With a digital camera, you’re only limited by your memory card, which can usually store hundreds of photographs. The more photographs you take, the more chances you have that a photograph will turn out exactly how you see it. So my advice is to take as many pictures as you can. Of the 60 or so pictures I took, this one…

is one of my favorites. Not exactly sure why. You got river over sand and my Wisconsin tattoo is sort of visible on my right leg. I was just looking down at the water in between taking photographs.

So anyways, after noticing a few messages scrawled in the sand, like “Hi” and “SOS” and a family name or two, I felt inspired to leave my own temporary message in the sand. I was feeling especially appreciative of nature after walking, wading and running around the sandbar. Yes, even running. I really enjoy running and couldn’t help taking a few sprints around the sand. Exhilarating! So, in line with this appreciation, I scrawled WI Forever in the sand. It’s not quite clear from the photo (I didn’t follow my own advice by only taking one picture), but you can just make it out.

This picture is a bit clearer and I don’t think requires any explanation…:-) Cheers!