Glaciated

I live less than an hour away from all these wonderful things; kames, drumlins, eskers, moulins, moraines, kettles and erratics. For those of you who don’t live in a place that was visited by glaciers around ten thousand years ago, these words must seem like a foreign language.

All the above nouns are different landforms that result from a mile high river of ice bulldozing the land and then slowly melting and retreating. In short, an incredible playground of weird shaped hills and holes created by glaciers.

I’ve tried many times to understand the geological processes that created each of these different features. My “Roadside Geology of Wisconsin” is well worn. Unfortunately, the explanations have not been sticking in my brain….until now.

We recently climbed a gorgeous trail up to the top of a drumlin that’s not far from our home. Explanatory signs along the steep ascent not only gave clear explanations of how the glacial forms were created, but also included drawings. Another bonus of reading the signs was being able to stop and catch our breaths for a moment.

Being a lover of high places, winding roads and lakes, I am living where I belong, in a glaciated landscape. Even Lake Michigan, the enormous lake in our front yard was scooped out by a glacier and filled when that glacier melted. Many of the numerous small lakes in our vicinity are also glacial lakes.

I know that our Western friends and family will laugh when I say we climbed the drumlin called Dundee Mountain. It’s only 270 feet high, making our glaciated land look like a bonsai version of the mountainous west, but we love it. Small is beautiful, too.

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