Wisconsin Life

Girls Who Hike gather across Wisconsin, bringing women together outdoors. Today's hike is at beautiful Mirror Lake State Park, where I caught up with the park superintendent, to learn about the highlights of this nature oasis. Probably the most important feature here in the park is our namesake, which is Mirror Lake, and it's a 137-acre lake, called Mirror Lake because of the sandstone cliffs that close in much of the lake. It blocks the wind and it makes for a very calm surface, which is mirror-like in the reflection, which is where the name came from. We have canoes, kayaks, paddleboards, and pontoon boats that can be rented, but many people bring their own. But we do have almost 19-miles of hiking trail that people really do enjoy. We have a fishing pier, a boardwalk, just shy of 150 campsites here. So, a lot of different features are available? Yeah, definitely, I really just like the variety of opportunities that there is for outdoor recreation here.

Angela

Including the opportunity to experience nature alone or with a group. So, it was time for me to meet up with the local chapter of Girls Who Hike. We operate nationally, and I am personally just the ambassador of the Wisconsin chapter. We try to do hikes all over the state. And what might we expect on our hike today? Because when I heard three miles, I was a little bit intimidated. So, what might happen during today's hike? It's three miles--not actually as far as you would think. We're expected to have some great views. There's some cool viewpoints off of the trail I picked. I think we are gonna stop by Echo Rock, and we're gonna walk along the lake, so there's gonna be some pretty lake views today, which will be very nice. Looking forward to that. - Yeah.

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Angela

So, tell us about kind of the empowerment aspect that comes as a byproduct of being a part of a group like this. We're all about getting women out on the trails and into nature and experiencing the outdoors. If you're a beginner, it's your first hike, or you're experienced, you've been hiking for 30 years, we take everybody. It's just a really great community of women that we have built up. So, literally, a community is built around hiking, so that you don't have to go at it alone, you have this whole other group you can tap into to enjoy hiking with. - Exactly, Yeah.

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