Driftless 2025: Part 5 – The Last Stage

All great journeys must eventually come to an end, and the Driftless 2025 was no different. Tuesday was to be my last full day in the Shire. Sure, there would be a multi-state travel day on Wednesday, back to Minneapolis, then Jacksonville, but today we adventured one final time. And what the adventure it was!

The Most Interesting Man I Know

Bill Robichaud is a friend I made through tenkara fishing. We’ve spent time in each other’s company at several tenkara get togethers over the past few years and gotten to know each other a bit. When he’s not hunting, fishing, or foraging the land he lives on in Wisconsin, you’ll probably find Bill somewhere somewhere far, far away on the map. Perhaps this month it’s Switzerland, next month Sicily, or the following Laos. Anthony, Matt, & I often joke that he’s some sort of international secret agent. And if I told you he’s encountered a real life unicorn in the wild, would you believe me? You should…

This year Bill let the three of us know that in between his world travels, he’s also taken up a job as a tour guide of a very special location. He offered to take us on one of his tour groups while we were visiting the Driftless this year. Today was the day we decided to take him up on his kind offer.

Spring Green

We met Bill for coffee in Spring Green, Wisconsin about two hours before the tour. Spring Green is one of the most idyllic small towns you could imagine. A beautiful main street full of eclectic and artsy buildings runs among beautiful residential neighborhoods. The kind of place you’d see a paperboy cycling through in the movies.

As we sat at our picnic table outside the bookstore, we talked about trout, conservation, the outdoors, and the place we were here to visit, Taliesin.

Taliesin & Frank Lloyd Wright

Famed American designer & architect Frank Lloyd Wright grew up in Wisconsin, not too far from where we were sipping coffee. While he cut his professional teeth in Chicago, he later returned to Wisconsin and built Taliesin, part design studio, part primary residence on his maternal family land. Construction started in 1911, but the estate itself was ever-changing, partially due to its role as a design laboratory for he and his apprentices, but sadly, also due to several large fires on the property over the years. It’s a complex cradling a hillside that was constantly evolving, and seemingly never complete.

I won’t get into Frank Lloyd Wright’s history, but as our tour guide, Bill, known as “William” to guests, really did a masterful job introducing us to this larger than life historical figure and the grounds he loved so much.

With Bill’s narration, Taliesin was incredibly interesting to walk through. The buildings and rooms are asymmetrical and work wonders bringing the beauty of the natural world into the interior living spaces. Rough, jagged stonework graces almost every wall or column in some way. Giant windows frame the property revealing views from the bluffs to the river valley below.

Claustrophobically low ceiling heights prompt you to sit in specifically designed sitting areas, or to move quickly through inconsequential hallways. And at the end of such hallways, higher ceilings remove the tension creating grand gathering spaces that make you want to stay awhile, perfect for entertaining. To top it off, this master of prairie-style architecture featured (of all things) priceless artwork of Asian origin throughout, including tapestries, paintings, and sculpture.

I think the thing I was most taken aback by was the amount of plywood utilized in seeming everything. Much of it unpainted, doors, window frames, furniture, laminated floor boards, all were made of plywood. Such an inexpensive material used throughout a residence of such visionary American design. But it all seemed to fit.

Taliesin is definitely worth the visit should you find yourself in southwestern Wisconsin. And if you do go, make sure to ask if “William” is working.

First Sightseeing, Now Trout Fishing

A hot tip Bill gave us at the end of the tour was that there was a brook trout stream no more than a few minutes drive from Taliesin. The stream was known to contain a special, native strain of brook trout and was highly recommended to visit.

Once again, Bill knew exactly what he was talking about. Anthony, Matt, and I drove over to the stream, passing Frank Lloyd Wright’s family’s church on the way, geared up roadside, and then split up to fish its winding banks.

With high grasses surrounding us, I found as long as you stayed low and relatively out of sight, your cast would likely be rewarded by an eager brook trout. Blind casting toward near banks or around corners seemed to be the most fruitful way to catch fish on the regular.

We probably fished our individual beats of stream for two or so hours and once reunited back at the car found that each of us had caught countless fish. All beautiful brook trout, featuring vermiculated backs, white tipped fins, and flanks full of colorful halos. If Taliesin is one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s masterpieces of design, one might argue that brook trout are perhaps Mother Nature’s most elegant.

Final Thoughts

The time spent at Taliesin and the brook trout stream was an absolutely lovely way to end this year’s trip to the Driftless. As we made the hour-ish drive back to our rental house that evening, it would have been easy to think about the chores ahead. Laundry, packing suitcases, stowing fishing gear for travel. Florida, a return to work, and the stresses of the real world loomed ahead.

But instead, I just closed my eyes, leaned back in the car seat, and thought fondly of the special moments created over the past five days. The unexpected brown trout, Anthony startling fawns in the tall grass, campfire circles, laughing with Matt, Jared’s Go-Pro, Mountain Berry Blast Powerade, Kaddy’s Kafe eggs, Minnesota Dave, and of course Bill, Frank, & Spring Green. Vivid memories that I can now count on for temporary escape, whenever things get just a little too hectic.

“Dance all ye joyful, now dance all together! 
Soft is the grass, and let foot be like feather! 
The river is silver, the shadows are fleeting; 
Merry is May-time, and merry our meeting”

I hope you enjoyed this year’s trip.

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Entries to the Driftless 2025 series:

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