Stricker’s Pond on November 6, 2020
Stricker’s Pond straddles the border between the cities of Madison and Middleton. It is one of the kettle ponds in Middleton and on the west side of Madison that were formed during the last Ice Age. I’m not really sure how long it has been a park or conservancy in either of the two cities.
The official address of the Madison park is 7214 Longmeadow Road, and the neighborhood park in Middleton is at 7605 Voss Parkway.
The pond has really suffered over the years, with so much development around it, a lot of water runs off and int the pond. This has caused some flooding issues during major rainfall events, like we had in August 2018. Also, invasive species have causes problems in the conservancy, though volunteers are working to remove invasive plants. Unfortunately, there will be no easy way to get rid of the goldfish which inhabit the pond itself!
Here is my usual walk around the pond:
Walking route at Stricker’s Pond on 2020-11-06
I typically park along Longmeadow Road and proceed around the pond clockwise. The path from the road to Stricker Park on the northwest side of the pond is not paved. It’s basically a dirt path although some sections are gravel. At Stricker Park there is a (mostly) paved path that loops around the park area. Along the north side of the pond is wide a gravel path that connects with Middleton Street on the east side of the park. From there I typically walk on the street until I reach the dead end, and then I take the paved path back to the start. It’s about 1.1 miles all together, though doing the full loop around Stricker Park would add to the mileage.
- Stricker’s Pond Conservation Park (City of Madison web site)
- Stricker Pond Conservancy Area on Visit Middleton
- Stricker Park (City of Middleton we site)
- Wisconsin DNR “find a lake” page for Stricker’s Pond