Loosestrife

When simple hikes become too few and too far between, it's easy enough to drive up and over Nathan Hill in Onalaska and on into Veteran's Memorial Park where at the end of the campground sits one of my favorite short and almost always quiet marsh walks in the area.

Here is located even by river marsh standards an unusually lush terrain as the trail meanders through a wide swatch of creek-filled banks off of the La Crosse River.  Crickets strum their wings in bunches

 here louder than anywhere I've ever heard; grasshoppers scratch at the stalks of cattails and reed

grass; and the bees hover in close to the flowering goldenrod and purple loosestrife (beautiful, like stalks of purple paintbrushes, but invasive) in wild hives.

Built-up higher than the ground water line and mowed along the edges, the trail, quite short before it reaches the State Bike trail, tends to be dry and mosquito-less, making it a nice safe trip to keep the kids interested in the wildlife surrounding, but not too close, all the way until the approach to the railroad tunnel which is usually the sign to head back and see it all again from the opposite direction.