Lake Geneva Hike (Part I)

As I mentioned in my previous post, Charlotte, Jen, and I hiked around Geneva Lake in Wisconsin. When the idea to do it came up, I was pumped because I knew it would be such a fun adventure. However, later, I did have my doubts when my anxiety crept in a bit asking, “What if something bad happens during it?” Despite those feelings, I thought about all the great possibilities and knew I’d be with my friends the whole time so I’d be okay. I also knew that other people would be on the trail and we’d reach the few towns on our journey as well if we needed anything, so I overcame my anxiety, went along, and forgot about it all while we were hiking.

We started in Lake Geneva on the left-hand side of the lake and headed toward Fontana. Charlotte and I brought one backpack, and Jen brought one. We had water, snacks and sandwiches, phone chargers/portable chargers, wallets, first-aid kit, and some extra clothes.

The weather was warm and beautiful with some clouds, and possible rain was in the forecast but wasn’t expected until the end of our adventure. Now, we started at 9:30am and anticipated to finish within eight or nine hours; the hike was estimated to take around eight hours and be 21 miles long, or so an online source claimed.

Through most of the hike, we were walking on various paths behind houses. We did this in early May, so unfortunately many piers were disassembled, waiting to be put back into the water for the summer. Because of this, we had to walk around many; some workers were assembling some already. Both the houses and paths were incredible. The houses had so many unique characteristics and architectural designs; some looked like mansions. Below are some we saw.

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As for the paths, lots of them were really neat. Different materials were used for them like bricks, wood chips, cement, even some bridges. I wondered what I would choose to make mine out of…maybe a fancy bridge or something like a small above-ground tunnel!

We were about an hour or two into our hike when we approached a sign directing us to the road because a swamp was ahead, but hey, it didn’t look very swampy, so we took our chance. I followed Charlotte while Jen stayed closer to the water where the ground seemed to be firmer. Charlotte and I had shoes full of water and mud as we sank ankle-deep into the swamp. We turned around and followed Jen’s path, and when we approached an area that seemed to be the swamp again, Charlotte took the lead and leaped toward a tree, expecting the ground there to be firm.

Well, one of her legs ended up waist-deep in swamp water. Jen and I were cracking up and wishing we had our phones out to record it. Then, we made sure she was okay, of course, which she was, just some scratches and mud, nothing our little first-aid kit couldn’t take care of! So, we turned back, listened to the sign, and followed the road past the swamp. From then on, we obeyed all the signs directing us where to go to stay on the trail. Luckily, Charlotte packed extra socks, so she was able to change. I wasn’t as bad as her as I just had soaking feet but didn’t bring extra socks. Everything dried off anyway from the heat later on our walk.

We took a food break and rest a bit later, and after a few more hours, we arrived in Fontana where we ate lunch at Chucks’ Lakeshore Inn. We rested there for a while, charged our phones, and cooled off. We contemplated whether we should finish the hike or call a cab to take us back, but we knew that we’d feel less tired after eating and resting, so we continued. I looked forward to getting ice cream in the next town, Williams Bay.

Find out how the second half of our adventure was in my next post!

∴ Michelle

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