While most pioneer farmsteads have gone back to nature, lovely St. Michaels Church with its graveyard of Celtic crosses testifies to Irish lives spent cultivating these rocky soils. Keep and eye out along Mink Creek Road for the small stone memorial with a Gaillic inscription dedicated to an Irish pioneer.
At the Reuss Ice Age Interpretative Center you can learn about the forces exerted by its massive ice sheets. The terrain you ride teaches a similar lesson. Stop at the Parnell Observation Tower for a great view of beautiful Parnell Esker, a snake-like ridge laid down by a river flowing beneath the ice.
Distance is a 25 mile loop on paved and gravel roads and moderate with some steep hills.
Trailhead is the Long Lake Recreation Area (State Forest daily or annual motor vehicle sticker is required), two miles northeast of the village of Dundee, Fond du Lac County. For More Information, call the Kettle Moraine State Forest Northern Unit, 414-626-2116.