Ice Age Trail Thru-Hike 2013 Journal

I hiked along the 1,100-mile Ice Age Trail from Sturgeon Bay in NorthEast Wisconsin to the Minnesota border at Interstate Park near St. Croix Falls, WI.
This is a journal of my trek. I would be happy to answer questions you may have about my trip, or when planning your own adventure. Enjoy your Hike!

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Ice Age Trail hike - Day 01 to 07 - East Terminus to West Bend
Ice Age Trail hike - Day 08 to 14 - West Bend to Janesville
Ice Age Trail hike - Day 15 to 30 - Janesville to Gibraltar
Ice Age Trail hike - Day 31 to 40 - Gibraltar to Polar
Ice Age Trail hike - Day 41 to 49 - Polar to Gilman
Ice Age Trail hike - Day 50 to 57 - Gilman to West Terminus

Today's hike was our first with companions. Kolden, Senja, and Peter joined us for half of our walk around Janesville. Kolden led the way. Peter pointed out many interesting places in town, such as the closed GM plant, farmer's market, and water ski show park. Senja brought up the rear, exploring many things the rest of us missed.

The Janesville trails are wonderful, paved, and well used by many friendly, courteous bikers and walkers. Many parks along the way mean there's plenty of water and many comfortable places to rest.
We covered the southernmost point on the Ice Age Trail today around the Rotary Gardens in Janesville.

The Devil's Staircase was very interesting and a bit narrow in spots. It wouldn't take much inattention to slip on the sand and find yourself over the edge. Built by the CCC many years ago, and worn down now, it appears to get lots of use and would be nice to have fixed up a bit.

We hiked half the day, covering about 12 miles, and then borrowed Peter's car to shuttle our vehicle up the trail a few days to Cross Plains.

Tonight is our last night in luxury. Surprisingly, I've only camped outdoors 3 nights in the first two weeks and one of those was under a wooden shelter. So far, this has been much more of a rural than wilderness trek than I had even anticipated. As the trail heads north, there will be less population and more opportunities for camping.

The great food, friendship, and rest we received in Janesville was rejuvenating. It allowed us to have our longest day yet today, covering 32 miles and making it all the way to Monticello which was much farther than hoped.

The morning started with a short time on the brand new Ice Age Trail section that meanders through the beautiful arboretum and outdoor learning areas by Janesville. This is a wonderful resource for local schools to help teach nature and environment concepts.
This very cool log cabin is on display at the arboretum.

Leaving the trail, we encountered County Road A yet again. Over the course of this long hike, I stepped on more County As than I realized existed! It makes sense now, since every county would probably have one, but seeing County A so often was weird.

This particular County Road A is a very long, very straight, very flat roadwalk west to Albany. As far as trail goes, it certainly was the most boring portion so far with about 17 miles of straight road. But, the views were always changing and we still met some fun folks along the way.

Around 8:55am, we passed a Lutheran country church (on Church Road) and stopped for a break from the sun at a picnic table under a tree in their front yard. They were just gathering for service, but no one said 'Hi'.

At about 11:00am, we got to the Magnolia Advent Church, six miles west and still way out in the country. As we went to sit on the Magnolia town hall steps in the shade across the street, a man came out the church doors and spotted us. He said 'Hi' and said he had seen us down the road a couple hours ago and we were making good time. He also let me come in and refill my water bottles, so we chatted a little about our hike.
On my way out, a lady smiled and said, 'God bless you'.

Soon after this rest break, we noticed a lone walker coming our way as we trudged onward. He appeared to have an umbrella! Many people would think this strange since it was bright and sunny, but I've used my GoLite umbrella for sun and heat protection and it is super! It has been especially useful the past few days as the heat and humidity have climbed.
When we finally met, it turned out that Matt, who is an Ice Age Trail Alliance staffer, has my umbrella! He is section hiking the entire trail and hopes to finish it soon. Today, he dropped his bicycle off at one end of his hike, drove his car to the other, and is hiking back to his bike.

With all of us being anxious to continue on as the sun bore down, we had a quick chat and hoped to meet up at the IATA headquartes in Cross Plains.

When we reached Albany in the high heat of the afternoon, we needed a rest. On this trek through Wisconsin, I've discovered that taverns are frequent and friendly, and good places to rest and refresh. We passed a woman in her yard when we entered Albany and she recommended 'the Center' as a nice place to get a cool drink.
When we walked in the door, all 40+ heads turned to stare at us from the dark gloom as our eyes tried to adjust. The place was packed at 2pm! On a Sunday! We were expecting to be the only ones there.
As it turns out, many taverns have contests, drawings, games, and such during slow times (like Sunday afternoon) and this place had a drawing each month.

Being strangers, we were considered impartial so I was told to come up behind the bar and pull a numbered chip out of a bucket. I pulled #45 - 44 groans of defeat and one scream of excitement. Tammy had just won $1000 dollars. We were best friends now! :-)
But, I sat with my back to the wall, just in case anyone was a sore loser.

After resting in Albany, we continued on heading west for a few more miles. As the sun was setting, and the mosquitos were at their most vicious, we reached the tiny village of Monticello, population 1217.
Ann and Karl were out for their evening stroll when they ran into these two sorry looking characters. After hearing of our trip, they invited us to camp in their yard.
Ann, like so many mothers, insisted on food, so she made us hamburgers, grapes, clementines, and milk. We slept very well after that.

The bug suits again proved their value during our evening walk on the Sugar River state trail which offered plenty of mosquito habitat.

At Monticello, the Ice Age Trail turns 90 degrees and heads north through the center of Wisconsin for the next 300+ miles.

One spot along the Ice Age Trail that I really hoped to visit was the New Glarus brewery in New Glarus. Today's hike would take us past it, but it is 2.5 miles off the trail. And, it doesn't open until 10am but Monticello is only a few miles south.

All this meant that we left our camping spot early, but walked only about a mile to 'downtown' Monticello where we found the M&M's restaurant and had a filling bacon, ham, and toast breakfast. We had a leisurely time since it made no sense getting to the brewery early.

At the restaurant, I asked the cook if I could charge my camera while we waited. He said that would be fine and took my charger to plug it in behind the counter.
As soon as it touched the socket, there was a big, orange flash and 'pop'. His credit card reader, phone, and other electronics were down. We figured he might have had moisture or grease on his fingers that shorted the socket. My camera wasn't attached yet and the charger was fine so I plugged it into a different socket with no problems. Excitement!

The brewery was a great break.
I enjoyed the short self-guided tour through all the steps of brewing their product. It was nice and cool inside, so taking our time was not a problem.
Extending our rest outside in the shade, we sampled their six beers and had a visit with a couple that were on a motorcycle tour from Nebraska.
We needed to get back on the trail and were not looking forward to the 2.5 mile hike back.
Fortunately, Papa Bear met Keith and Isaac and they gave us a lift back to where we had left the trail.

The hike all day was hot, humid, and buggy - good job bug suits! The heat and humidity are continuing to rise, contrary to my hope that they'd be slowly tapering off as August waned.

We did have a short reprieve from the heat.

Since the Badger State Trail, which we are now using, is an old railroad bed, the hiking is easy and rises are gradual. Just outside of New Glarus, the trail passes through the old Stewart Tunnel. This tunnel just happens to be the 27th longest rail tunnel in the country - who would've known? Or even tracked such things? :-)

Just before the tunnel, a fellow named Fossil stopped his bike ride to talk. He's traveling around the country, exploring trails with his dog.
A very interesting character, indeed.

Inside the tunnel, flashlights were necessary due to the length and a curve in the tunnel.
Since Fossil had no flashlight, we offered to have him come along with us, but he declined since he would have to come back through the tunnel alone later on his return ride.

The cool, breezy air in the tunnel was most refreshing! The absence of buzzing insects was a bonus.

It could have been an excellent place to camp some night, but we still had daylight left and miles to cover. Forcing ourselves to move on out the north entrance, the heat and mosquitos attacked again.

Continuing down the trail, we figured we might need to camp along the trail this night until I noticed 'Basco' written on the map.
Basco is a town consisting, as far as I can tell, of three buildings. One of those buildings is a farmhouse under which a bar has been excavated and named Dot's Tavern. The entrance is a door on the side of the house, leading down steep steps to another door. Pushing hard on this door opens into a subterranean tavern with a scant 6 foot ceiling.

This was my first basement bar experience - it was very interesting and I discovered that they are quite common across Wisconsin.

A handful of locals were there on a Monday evening and the bartender's name was 'Gator' - the same name as a bartender we met way back in Ellisville!
The folks worked hard to figure out a place for us to stay and we finally wound up camping across the street in a vacant grassy area so it worked out just fine.

Whenever someone shows interest in the hike, I mention that I'm using a SPOT Tracker so they can see the progress online and that I'm blogging daily from my cellphone with the hope that some of them might check on our progress.
I've still not had a cellphone for almost 4 days now, since Whitewater, and there has been no contact from the Porsche owner. You would think that two guys with not much else to do all day while walking across the country would think of a solution to the problem.
When I mentioned my predicament to the folks in Dot's, they recommended I contact the police with the license number. I had thought of that, but figured the police would not tell me the contact information for the owner of a red Porsche.
"Well, of cours not," they said. But, the police could look up the information, call them for me, and ask them if they had found a cellphone. DUH! What a great, simple idea! So, my mission is now to find a friendly police officer in the next 700 miles.

We were up at 4:45am and on the trail by 5:00am, hoping to reach Cross Plains today, but were interrupted by a minor miracle in Verona.
At a Kwik Trip truck stop around 7:30am, we stopped and bought stuff for breakfast - pulled pork sandwiches and doughnuts!

Tip: [Kwik Trip is a great place for low-cost, high-calorie junk. They have daily specials.]

As we were sitting there, in walked a Verona police officer - officer Haack. I explained what had happened with the cellphone. He took lots of info and went back to his car. Quite awhile later, he returned. He had identified the owners, contacted them, and they had searched the car - no phone found. He left them Papa Bear's number but that was all he could do. Oh well, it was a good idea.

As soon as we thanked him for his help and he left, Papa Bear's phone rang - they had found the phone upon a more thorough search and would be sending it to my folks' address! Oh, Happy Day.

The trail took us through many parks, nice neighborhoods, and even the University of Wisconsin golf course! We stopped at the club house for some ice water and then hiked on.
We reached the Ice Age Trail Alliance headquarters after almost 12 hours, starting at 5:00am and arriving just before closing.
It was an extremely hot day and tomorrow is supposed to be even worse.

We had met Matt on our long roadwalk to Albany two days ago and he was very helpful in staying late and arranging to shuttle our vehicle tomorrow. We got to shower and wash clothes in the IATA basement and then eat at Kurt's bar/grill. I had gyros and Papa Bear had pizza - both were good and reasonably priced.
After buying food at Piggly Wiggly, we hiked 1.5 more miles in the dark, with flashlights, up to an IATA property above the town where we camped.

It's good to have plans and it's good to keep them flexible. Today, it just seemed that everything worked together to make it totally obvious it was time for a break from the trail.

We left Cross Plains early with the plan to shuttle our vehicle to Portage and reach it in 3 days. The temperature was 71 degrees at 6:15am and rising.

Matt, of the IATA staff, met us on our roadwalk around 8am after we'd put in about 7 miles. He shuttled us to Portage and back to the trail. We hiked on, and the temperature rose. Our plan was to reach Lodi where we had tried to arrange camping.

We received word that a storm might build in the evening, and the temperature rose.
It was now mid-day and over 90 degrees. We drank all our water and received more from a generous farmer along the road. You could tell by the look on his face that he thought we were idiots for walking down the road in the middle of such a hot day - we agreed with him. This was the first time that water became a concern and I might actually need to filter water along the way.

As we hiked along, it was easy to come up with a long list of reasons it made sense to get off the trail for a few days:

• Our camping options in Lodi did not pan out so it looked like we might be stealth camping with a storm coming
• My cellphone should be arriving at my folk's in just a couple days.
• The Packers will play the Seahawks on Friday.
• We've hiked 12 days without a rest day.
• It's too hot!

A quick phone call and my mom picked us up at the Lodi Marsh trail after we hiked about 23 miles.
We arrived back in West Bend for a break tonight. We'll have a few zero days while the heat subsides. We're hoping for a general drop in temperature and humidity, but it currently looks like near record highs will continue. We'll see and keep things flexible.

Folks talk about getting caught in the town vortex when hiking long trails. It happens when a hiker stops in a town for a rest, enjoys the food, enjoys the bed, stays another day, and suddenly realizes he's lost a week of hiking!

Well, you could say that has happened to me this past 10 days. A two-day break was followed by very hot and humid weather that would be miserable, slow miles. That weather lasted longer than expected. Then, arranging travel back to the trail where we stopped hiking worked out to add a couple more days. This wasn't what we had planned, but I think it was the right thing to do for health and enjoyment of the adventure. So, it looks like the hike will resume tomorrow.

I'm fully rested, no blisters, no leg pain, no sunburn, full stomache, and hair freshly cut - ready to do the last 650 miles of the trail. Food is purchased for the next leg of trail, gear is fixed and cleaned, and a rough schedule is ready.

As it turns out, this break fits nicely into my mental image of the Ice Age Trail. The first part was heading south roughly along the Lake Michigan shore, through small towns and the Kettle Moraine. The next part was a U-shaped loop across the bottom of Wisconsin through farmland and more towns.
The next part has us heading nearly straight north through the center of the state, transitioning from towns and farmland to the north woods. Once we reach Antigo, the last part of the trail aims West, traversing the forested wild areas of northern Wisconsin where it will be cooler and more remote.
I'm not sure if that's what we'll actually experience, but that's the picture I have in my head.

During this break, I received my lost cellphone and can blog again! Thank you!
I also got to meet Kehley Johnson on the trail. She is thru-hiking the Ice Age Trail also and I found her on the trail by West Bend to say "Hi". Unfortunately, I think I probably scared her more than anything since running into someone that knows of you on the trail can be disconcerting.

Tip: [If you blog about your hike, be aware that it makes it much easier for someone to track you. It's not a concern of mine, but something to keep in mind.]

A 20 degree drop in temperature is a blessing to renew the trek!
New trail to hike, new people to meet, and many more adventures in store!
These are my new supplies for the next month and that's one of the best parts of long hikes - I get to eat pretty much anything I want and as much of it as I can hold. :-)
You might notice that some of this is not healthy food you'd want your family eating every day, but on the trail we're trying to get lots of calories in a light load. I do have fish, cheese, crackers, raisins, and noodles besides all these snacks.

Camera and cellphone are charged. Maps are ready. Clothes are washed. Ready to go.

Picking up right where we left off at the Lodi Marsh, we started hiking at 5pm today. The van is waiting for us in Portage and my brother gave us a ride to the trailhead.
The hike into Lodi was great! The trail was well maintained, the temperature was comfortable and the humidity was much lower. It felt wonderful to be back on the trail again, strolling over the miles.

In Lodi, we met a family having ice cream and talked about the IAT with them a bit.
Then, we met the owners of a beautiful house that we were admiring right on the trail through town. They've made it into a B&B and they were very friendly folks asking us if we needed anything. Check out their place at Victorian Dreams B&B. We also met a past mayor of town who offered directions though we were fine with our maps.

You probably figured out all this chatting took up some time. :-) Leaving Lodi, the breeze, setting sun, and fresh air were perfect for walking more miles. We completed a nondescript section and then roadwalked around Gibraltar Rock. We hiked on until about 9pm - well after dark - but did not reach the Distributed Camping Area I was hoping for. Instead, a makeshift camping spot under some nice pine and walnut trees worked just fine.
The crickets and fireflies are out and it's time to rest for another day. Tomorrow, we ride the Merrimac ferry!