Originally written May 20, 2016
Low 70s and mostly sunny with little if any breeze, May 19th was a gorgeous day for a walk. Finally, Spring!!
For this walk, I was happy to be joined by Tom Bagwell, and his wife, Michelle Hiebert. They are fellow members of the Milwaukee Symphony Chorus. Tom and Michelle travel widely, and they are looking for hilly hikes in preparation for a trip to Norway this summer. Today’s segment, the Holy Hill Segment(6.9 miles), has a reputation for its hills, and it is listed as one of the better hikes one can take in Wisconsin, so I was eager to experience this for myself.
We were our own “trail angels” today. We convoyed to the southern end of the trail on Donegal Road to drop off my car. Then, we drove to the northern end of the trail on Washington County E to drop off their car. Aside from doing this segment out of sequence, we also walked from north to south instead of my usual south-to-north pattern (Yeah, I know I’m living on the wild side with these radical changes.). Originally, our plan was to wrap up the walk with a lunch at the restaurant at Holy Hill, but we had to scrap that idea in favor of packing our lunches and eating on the trail. After donning our packs, we set off.
Given its reputation for hilliness, we were expecting major league hills from the start. But, we were underwhelmed for the first three miles plus. The country was beautiful, but it was generally prairie with some occasional marshes, farmland and gently rolling hills through forests – not the kind of country that earned this segment its “3” rating out of 5 for hills in my Ice Age Trail Guide. Tom helped me identify flowers we spotted along the way, and we passed time talking about our upcoming performance of Verdi’s Requiem Mass and what we loved about singing in the Symphony Chorus. Otherwise, it was very quiet – just us and the songbirds.
Well, us and a lot of critters. I will remember my tenth day on the Ice Age Trail as Critter Fest. Along the way, we spotted buzzards, turkeys, two pair of deer and a garter snake that was roughly eighteen inches long, in addition to the usual collection of chipmunks and songbirds. And mosquitoes. Plenty of them. I need to remember to pack repellent for my next hike.
South of Highway 167 was where this segment earned its reputation for hilliness. Very quickly, we encountered extremely steep hills. I learned these were called kames. Unlike other glacial hills formed by glacial pressure pushing up the land, kames are more conical. According to my guide, a kame is, “a conical hill composed primarily of water-rounded sand and cobbles that were deposited by streams that flowed downward through shafts in the glacial ice. The Kettle Moraine contains the largest and most important kame fields in the world.” They occur at several points in Wisconsin, including here at Holy Hill. When you picture the Basilica perched at the top of Holy Hill, this explanation makes a lot of sense. So, the steepness of the hills in this area is more a matter of quality than quantity. Don’t get me wrong, though; there are plenty of these hills out here.
With each hike, I become more and more impressed with the sheer size and power of the glaciation that covered this state. Huge boulders are scattered along the trails, carried to their resting places by the glacier. How big was the glaciation? Consider this: “Glacial geologists estimate at the time of Wisconsin Glaciation, the thickness of the glacial ice extended another 1,000 feet above Holy Hill.”
After more than two miles of hills, we reached my car on Donegal Road. We piled in, and I drove Tom and Michelle to their car. Then, it was time to go home for a well deserved shower.
My Days on the Ice Age Trail 