As sunbaked snowbanks melt and the frost line gives way, freshwater migrates to the nearest ditch, creek, or bay. Wide rivers emerge from small creek beds, as the slow-moving waters rush ahead. The boisterous creeks call to steelhead, pike, and suckers to start their spring run. Scales slide over rocks and sand on a procreative pursuit.
Between fits of wind, rain, and snow, spring’s afternoon sun almost feels like summer. Overhead you can hear the prehistoric call of a sandhill crane announcing he and spring have returned to Door County. Although the perfect spring days are numbered, you’ll want to be in the woods when sugar maple sap drips from a wood pecker’s hole to a ramp leaf below. To see a smiling child lift a sucker out of a cool creek. To hear a tom turkey gobble at dawn. To miss these events is to miss the annual resurrection of Door County.
The tourist might return in a couple of months, but Door County returns in March and April.