#fall afternoons

The appeal of Witch's Gulch in autumn

It's not just on the Upper Dells boat tour that one can access the legendary Witch's Gulch. It turns out that there's a modest little trail off River Road to the north of Wisconsin Dells as leads to the snack bar and gift shop at same, access into said gulch requiring a separate admission for such not otherwise on the boat tour.

I, for one, mention this inasmuch as our party at the Crazy Claws retreat decided to partake of a lazy midweek afterlunch the other day at Witch's Gulch, ahead of the modest influx bound to ensue with state teachers' convention weekends in Wisconsin and Minnesota translating into an extended autumn long weekend for many in the Dells region. And bound to see some added fall-colour-related business off the boats.

Things, at any rate, must have seemed slow with the crew on what turned out to be a rather bright autumnal afterlunch, somewhat on the mild sort of things but not enoigh to dictate a sweater or wrap at the expense of a T-shirt. But most of us characters dress naturally, so we have no issues for the most part. Or would there be?

Anyhow, with the Upper Dells boats pretty much down to only three daily runs as their season winds down, and it was more or less in between port calls, we had Witch's Gulch more or less to ourselves ... and such a clean coolness to be inherent, interspersed with the sound of rushing waters in the stream below and the fall colours in their last hurrah (more or less) on the cliff tops. Oh yes, and Crazy Claws putting in the inevitable cracks about Winsome Witch taking her Saturday-night bath in the Witch's Bathtub, "where else?"

And what better place to relate pieces of ghostly tales than Spooky Lane, let alone imagining a certain Scooby-Doo and crew taking such repose from exposing "spooks" in the first place? Which certainly had Yakky Doodle making much about Fibber Fox and Alfy Gator trying to devour him without Chopper's trusty presence.

With the snack bar our rendezvous, it could just stand to reason how the Hair Bear Bunch could manage to clean out the roller grill of hot dogs (both regular and jumbo sizes), smother them in chili and cheese sauce, and wash all down with a shared half-gallon cup of soda, the snack bar staff unaccustomed to such demand to begin with and with less than an hour besides before the next tour boat makes its call requiring such a hasty preparation of the roller grill just for readiness' sake? (By contrast, Huck and yours truly were content just to sip some cappuccino.)

With that in mind ... heading back, it was thought best to maybe have as a late supper just some cheese, sausage and crackers back at the retreat. Itself quite autumnal, no?

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