Hiking Dude Blog

Up and hiking before the sun today. Last night, we roadwalked in the dark with no lights and did the same this morning. It's actually pretty fun and much cooler.
We covered many miles and the temps stayed low until about noon. Then, the clouds burned off and the temps soared along with our sweating and misery. :-)
We made it to Hatley and are waiting to see if it cools off or if possible bad weather develops. It would be good to get some more miles tonight.
This road sign was a humorous highlight to the day that was mostly just miles of road. Farms are getting more scarce and there were more cedar and birch trees today. I guess we're getting up north.

I walked 47119 steps on the trail today.
I traveled about 24 miles today.
Today's walk ended in Hatley. I hoped to hike farther but the miles will wait until tomorrow and we have a plan in place for the next week of hiking!
I contacted my friend Larry that I met on the Superior Hiking Trail last fall. He lives in Wausau but is supposed to be out of town all summer. Surprisingly, he is in town this week! So, we drove to his place, got showers, dinner, and are tenting in his yard. Early, early tomorrow we shuttle the van ahead and he drops us back at the trail with food for a week in the north woods. If it all works out, we'll reach the van a week from today.
It was a great evening getting to catch up with a hiker buddy and find out what he's been doing.
It's still almost 80 degrees so I'll be up awhile but a major cool-down is forecast for the day after tomorrow.
This pic is from Westfield, of an old fish right by a mini-golf. Sorry, nothing much to see today.

Resting for the afternoon at the Dells of the Eau Claire park. It's supposed to be the last hot day so we're taking it easy. I'm trying to take a nap and then we'll cook a meal and hike on this evening.
The walk along the river was nice and we're the only ones here except a young fisherman that just drove in and parked.

I walked 43792 steps on the trail today.
I traveled about 21 miles today.
After an excellent parmesan noodle with tuna dinner, we packed up and hiked on. Another road walk and short trail segment in the growing darkness ended the day.
The skies clouded over and a few drops have fallen. In the distance, there have been lightning and thunder but I'm hopeful for a dry, cool night.
At the park today, I met a young fisherman and chatted awhile. No luck today but he was persistent. Other than him, it was a human-free day.
Oh, we did encounter trail segments closed Sept-Dec for hunting. That made for more road walk detours. I hope there are no more.
PS: bad luck, the rain has just started. :-(

The Plover River section features a wonderful pair of boardwalks and some great rock steps placed by the trail volunteers. Here's a big Thank You to the IATA folks that pushed this part of the trail through this past year!
I scared up three turkey right on the trail in front of me and saw a huge read-headed woodpecker - I'm not a birder so I'm not sure of the exact name. :-(
As you can see from the sign, we're closing in on 400 miles left to go.

We couldn't pass up $5 large pizza at Little Ceasar's in Antigo for lunch. Doesn't Papa Bear look happy? Then, we rested all afternoon at the library then McD's since we already had a short destination in mind for tonight. We did stay a bit too long and will be roadwalking a bit in dark - don't worry Mom!

I walked 53389 steps on the trail today.
I traveled about 26 miles today.
A funny thing happened on the way to Polar today...
Papa Bear read in the Ice Age Trail guidebook that a bar-n-grill in Polar, WI is hiker-friendly and may let you camp behind their place. With that in mind, we set our goal for today to be that grill. It would be a casual 23 miles with a long break in Antigo during the hottest part of the day, and we'd reach Polar around dark.
The roadwalk from Antigo took awhile to get going - checking for stove fuel (never did find any), grocery stop, WalMart stop, bathroom stop after too much pop at McD's. Finally, we were walking.
Heading due east, the sun setting behind us, it was a nice walk to Polar. When we got there, we thought the grill was farther ahead so we walked past the recommended route turn in the dark. After going farther than we figured was appropriate, we called the place. We could continue on and turn north or backtrack and turn north to reach them - same distance. So, we went forward.
A few minutes later, a car pulled up by us and asked if we were hiking the IAT. They invited us to their place along the route just up the way. They had seen us on the road earlier when they drove to Antigo and hoped they would find us again. TRAIL MAGIC!!!
So, after a shower, food, and conversation, I'm sending this just before bed in the home of yet more amazing trail angels.
You have opportunities to be a trail angel all the time - no trail is really needed to offer hospitality to others. It's up to you to notice and take those opportunities.

We're heading off into about 100 miles of forest trail this morning so I may be out of contact for a few days.
Just wanted my mom to see what we each bought in Antigo so we are more visible. :-)
Hike On

Less than a mile into the woods, something mean and nasty stung my right pointer finger. No idea what it was, but it hurt - and still hurts. Took a benadryl right away and hoping the swelling is about done.

We met Steady Eddy on the trail this morning. He's a fellow Minnesotan and is hiking pieces of the trail alone. Great guy and fun to hike with for about an hour.
Eddy also taught me an important lesson today - Visually Verify! We reached a spot that Eddy said was Burma Road and he had hiked from the other direction to that point the previous day. I took his word and headed down the path with Papa Bear in the direction he indicated. Well, after much longer than expected without seeing any blazes, we finally turned around and retraced our steps.
It wasn't Burma Road! A sign had fallen in the grass and it pointed the other direction. OOPS! So, a 90minute detour which you can see on my map - Check out my current location on the map.
A lesson well learned to check location and direction all the time.