Hiking Dude Blog

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 week. 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 on Sunday.

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. We've purchased food for the next leg of trail, fixed and cleaned gear, and made a rough schedule.

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.

It's good to have plans and it's good to keep them flexible.
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.

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 as the temperature rose. Our plan was to reach Lodi.

We received word that a storm might build in the evening and the temperature rose. It was now mid-day and about 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.

Our camping options in Lodi did not pan out so it looked like we might be stealth camping with a storm coming - not something we were looking forward to. So, my mom picked us up at the Lodi Marsh trail start and we arrived in West Bend for a break tonight. We'll have a few zero days in which I'm catching up on blogging, resting our feet, and watching the Green Bay vs. Seattle football game. We're hoping for a general drop in temps and humidity, but it currently looks like Monday is back up near record highs. We'll see and keep things flexible.

We reached the Ice Age Trail Alliance headquarters in Cross Plains today. It took us 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 up to an IATA property where we camped.

Earlier in the day, we passed through Verona. At a Kwik Trip truck stop, we stopped and bought stuff for breakfast - pulled pork sandwiches and doughnuts! The guys at Dot's Tavern in Basco last night said we should contact the police for help in retrieving my cellphone. We had the license plate of the car from two photos that Papa Bear had taken, so we were hoping to find the Verona police station and try our luck.
As we were sitting in the Kwik Trip, in walked a Verona police officer. We explained what had happened, 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. 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! Happy Day.

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 just fine. Excitement!

The brewery was way off trail, but we reached it just before 10am, went on the short self-guided tour, sampled their six beers, then needed to get back on the trail. Fortunately, Papa Bear met Keith and Isaac and they gave us a lift back to where we had left the trail so we could continue our hike. We also chatted with a couple that were on a motorcycle tour from Nebraska.

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.
Continuing down the trail, we figured we might need to camp along the trail this night until we found '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 6 foot ceiling. This was my first basement bar experience - it was very interesting. 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.

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

After a short time meandering through the beautiful arboretum and outdoor learning areas by Janesville, we walked County Road A straight 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. They were just gathering for service, but no one said 'Hi'.

At about 11:00am, we got to the Magnolia Advent Church, six miles away and still 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'.

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! 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 and hiked until sunset, reaching the tiny village of Monticello. Ann and Karl were out for their evening stroll and, after hearing of our trip, 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.

Also, our bug suits again proved their value during our evening walk.

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 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 comfortable places to rest.
The Devil's Staircase was 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 and then shuttled our vehicle up the trail to Cross Plains, borrowing Peter's car.