The endpoint of this weekend’s group expedition was at Potosi Point, a small peninsula that sticks out into the Mississippi River and has a small boat launch at the end. Our group of Toyotas broke into two groups to start the day to keep our length on the trails manageable. Group #1 arrived first and parked in formation.
Group #2 arrived about 30 minutes later and filled in the open spaces. Wait…that isn’t 17 trucks like we started with, where are the others?
Shenanigans. Dudes will be dudes I guess.Started with one truck, and then…
Another one joins in, and then…
Well you get the idea. Eventually there were no more rocks to pose on. Or were there?
“Hey what is Pat doing? Is he driving into the Mississippi River?!”
Nope, he just found the last available rock. And almost drove into the Mississippi.
While the shenanigans were occurring I spotted a bald eagle flying away after swooping down and grabbing a fish. Had to think quick, it was flying pretty fast.
Here’s the best zoomed image I could grab. I’m not rocking a huge telephoto lens so this is actually not too shabby accounting for my gear.
R.A. had his fishing gear and was casting into the visible current around the point along with a few other fishermen. Most were pulling smallmouth bass with decent frequency.
He also spotted something most of us won’t see very often: an American paddlefish (well, it’s carcass). I have seen photos before but didn’t realize how large they can get. After getting home and reading more, I found these are native to the Mississippi River area and are related to the sturgeon. Quite unique, and almost like you’re looking at a dinosaur or some other prehistoric creature that doesn’t quite fit in the modern ecosystem. Pretty cool!
From here, most of our group either drove back to camp or stopped at the Potosi brewery. I, on the other hand, wanted to reach the far south end of the Trans Wisconsin Trail before it got dark. More on that in my next post.
Lat = 42.6592255 , Long = -90.7326965 -- Show at Google Maps