McKeawn Springs flashes by pretty quickly as we speed along to where ever we’re going on Hwy 67.  It is located halfway between Piper Rd and Road X just a bit south of the Scuppernong Springs.  Until recently, I didn’t know this spring had a name, but after I documented our encounter with the intersection of the channel that flows from McKeawn Spring and the Scuppernong River, Mike Kuhr, from the South East Wisconsin Trout Unlimited group, provided the missing moniker.

As I was cutting buckthorn on the cut-off trail this morning, I thought today is the day I slow down, get out of my car, and take a closer look at the McKeawn Spring.  But first, there was a little work to do…

I had the pleasure of meeting Anne, from Waterville, and Steve, from Milwaukee, while taking breaks to refuel with cookies and gas.  I really do like to “See you at the Springs!”  Pati arrived just as I was finishing the 6th tank of gas and I told her about my idea to follow the outflow of McKeawn Spring to where it joins the Scuppernong River.  She was all over that.

 

Pati dragged my sled back to the truck and we loaded the gear and drove over to McKeawn Spring.

This is a perfect time of the year to explore wetlands and we walked right down the channel avoiding all of the brush. I took this video about half way to the Scuppernong River junction.

When we got to the river we were greeted by a Sand Hill Crane, our first sighting of the season.

We followed the Scuppernong River back to the marl pit bridge.

As if this wasn’t all too exciting, we heard the whir of a distant chainsaw when we got to marl pits and guessed that someone might be harvesting firewood down on the south end of the loop trail. We hastened to the sound of axe on wood and found our new friend Carl Baumann hard at work on a huge red oak that had recently fallen.

We had to leave Carl to his labors to catch the sunset and moonrise.

See you at the Springs!