Originally printed October 1, 2016
Get ‘er done.
That is a good description of my attitude toward this hike, a 20 mile+ trek on a connecting route between the tiny town of Valders and where my car was parked, about a half mile inside the northern edge of the La Budde Creek Segment of the Ice Age Trail. The entire CR was 33 miles from La Budde Creek to the western edge of the city of Manitowoc where the Manitowoc Segment of the Ice Age Trail begins. My plan was ambitious – Hike 20 miles of the CR on Friday, and do the balance on Saturday. I wasn’t particularly interested in seeing beautiful country. I wanted to get this connecting route behind me.
Since my hikes are starting and ending farther and farther away from home, and also since my schedule has started getting more crowded, I’ve had to make some changes in my planning. Within reason, perfect weather is not the prime determining factor on when I walk. The prime determiner of when I can walk is the availability of local trail angels to ferry me from the end point of a hike to my starting point. Once that is lined up, I work out accommodations. The rest follows from there. For these hikes, showers were forecast. That was a good sign. Had the forecast said storms, I probably would have called off the hike. Instead, I made my way to the Harbor Town Inn in Manitowoc, where I would spend Thursday and Friday nights. On the way, I located the parking lot at La Budde Creek, marked it my GPS, and mapped and drove from there to the hotel. I wanted to do this so I could plan when to leave the next morning in order to meet the trail angel there by 7:30. I’m glad I did this, because the drive was twice as long as I guessed.
Incidentally, the Harbor Town Inn was just what I needed – a basic, clean room with a TV, plus a good continental breakfast in the morning. The rate was a very reasonable $70 a night. I had all the good intentions of getting to bed by 10:30 so I could wake at 6:00 and be on my way by 6:30. Alas, I tossed and turned for several hours, most likely because I was wired about the big hike. I know I saw 3:00 before I finally knocked off for good.
I arrived at the end point just before 7:30 where Dave, the trail angel, was waiting for me. While driving to Valders, we talked about hiking in general, and he gave me some insight on the country through which I would be walking. The trail angels are wonderful ambassadors for the trail, and they can be very selfless Good Samaritans. Dave mentioned in passing that he put up a hiker one evening because his feet blistered very badly on a hike. He also talked about dropping off a father and son to start a hike, and then later watching in surprise as they passed his house going the wrong way! He quickly got on his bicycle and pedaled after them to get them headed in the right direction. This morning, the big news he gave me was that a new section of trail is being cut north of La Budde Creek. A family donated 600 acres of land to the Ice Age Trail Alliance in a bequest. So, next year the connecting route won’t be 33 miles!
After a bit, we arrived in Valders, and Dave dropped me off at Valders Memorial Park. I dropped in at a senior day care center. After visiting the bathroom and getting my gear adjusted, I set off.
Weather-wise, I was expecting a cloudy day, with odds of showers relatively low in the morning and increasing in the afternoon. Within 20 minutes, my expectations changed as I donned my poncho to deal with my first rain of the day. Off and on, it rained lightly for roughly half the time I was hiking. It was never heavy enough to think about stopping. In fact, I welcomed the relative cool of the rain and the lack of sun after a summer’s worth of hiking in high heat. However, it did get to be more of a nuisance as the day wore on.
But, it did force me to problem solve about how to adjust in terms of equipment and safety. What do I do with my poncho when it’s not raining? It can’t go in the backpack wet. At first, I thought I could throw it over my shoulders a la Clint Eastwood. Didn’t work. Then, I took it off, took off my backpack, strapped it to the pack, put it on and resumed hiking, But, with the rain coming and going, I quickly got tired on the taking off my pack to deal with the poncho. About halfway though the hike, I decided to just leave it on and deal with it. There was enough air getting underneath it that I never felt like I was wearing a sweatsuit in a sauna.
Besides, the bright yellow poncho made me all the more visible to drivers. Generally, all my clothing choices are made to make me very easy to spot. When I’m not wearing a poncho, I wear a luminous yellow long sleeve shirt with a florescent construction worker’s vest over it. While on the hike, I also made a slight change in my approach to hiking up and down hills. Normally, I simply walk on the left side of the road facing traffic. Drivers coming my way usually veer into the far lane to avoid me, which I greatly appreciate. But, considering the possibility of hydroplaning and realizing that a driver shouldn’t be passing on a hill anyway, I became very cautious about cars on hills, whether I was going up or down. Especially at the crests of hills, I became very ready to step further onto the shoulder of the road, and even into the ditch, if I sensed a vehicle coming at me from the other side of a hill.
One equipment choice that I did not utilize was using the spare shoes and socks that I always carry. Had I been wearing cotton socks, I certainly would have made the change, lest I get blisters. But, I have been wearing smart wool socks with Gore-Tex shoes on all my hikes, and they help me handle the water very well. While they get wet, the outside air and my body heat helped them warm so that my feet always felt comfortable. Although I was on the wet trail nearly 8 hours, I didn’t get any blisters.
I also made a change to my approach to communications with Jane. I have taken to letting her know, ” I am at this place at this particular time.” Because I feared my battery would run dry before the hike was done, I began adding information on what percentage of battery I had left. Note to self: always carry your charger with you. You’ll never know when you’ll come to a place where you can recharge it a bit. On this day, I ducked into a tavern in the village of School Hill for a diet coke, some lunch, plus indoor plumbing (yay!!). That charger could have been put to good use. I suspect many hikers stop in here, because one of the locals asked me if I was hiking the Ice Age Trail.
All this focus on safety and equipment doesn’t mean I didn’t see beautiful sights along the way. The roads I walked passed through some beautiful wooded areas, as well as some lovely farm country. With all the rain we’ve had lately in Wisconsin, anything that hadn’t changed to fall colors was very, very green. It reminded me a lot of Ireland. While it was too early to see fall colors in full bloom, there was already a variety of colors mixing with all that green. Most striking were, of all things, soybeans. They had turned a beautiful, rich golden brown. I do not know the first thing about whether the actual beans had been harvested, but I could see the bean pods on these plants. Gorgeous.
In terms of critters, I saw lots of birds – geese, cranes, mourning doves, and various songbirds. The coolest animal I spotted was a deer, a doe in this case. The reason I think it was so cool was because of the way she blended in with the scenery. She was about 60 yards away from me and facing me dead on, so she presented a very thin silhouette. I nearly mistook her for a tree branch at first!
The other critters I saw were farm animals. I passed by some pretty large dairy farms, and seeing all those cows got me thinking about the issues in the Fox River Valley about large dairy farms, manure disposal, and its effect on water quality in the area. At the same time, I cannot help but respect the work ethic of dairy farmers. There are no holidays for them; milk production by the cows doesn’t shut down for the holidays. Besides the dairy farms, I passed several horse farms. Such beautiful animals.
One last image I carried from the hike were the little farm stands I spotted along the way. I find it charming how they are all run on the honor system. Prices are shown, you take what you need and leave your payment in the little box.
In the last couple of hours of the hike, I got what I call the marathon feeling. I remember it well from the time I ran my only marathon in 1982(Incidentally, this hike was the longest distance these legs had carried me since that day in 1982.). This is not a good feeling – it is the proverbial wall. My joints south of my waist were hurting. My arches began to feel like I was walking on rocks. I could sense that my stride was shortening. As if the rain, which was more steady now, wasn’t enough reason to be done with this! I forced myself to become very form conscious, so I wouldn’t do something stupid and hurt myself. The last part of the walk was a mile along a county road, and then a half mile walk through the north section of the La Budde Creek Segment. It seemed to take forever. I honestly don’t remember anything in particular about the last half mile of the hike. I just wanted to finish it as soon as I could.
Finally, I returned to my car. I had passed a tavern about 2-3 miles earlier. I returned to it on the way home for some fluid replacement with two beverages of my choice. I had earned my reward. My feet carried me longer than they had in 34 years in conditions that were less than ideal. In consideration of this, I decided to postpone the second part of the connecting route for some time in the future. I felt pretty beat as it was. No sense tempting fate.
As important, I had passed an important milestone. I had walked 200 miles of the Ice Age Trail. Only 800 more to go.
My Days on the Ice Age Trail 