Originally printed November 8, 2016.
A dream come true.
When I began considering a hike on the Ice Age Trail, I dreamed about hiking on a crisp, clear day with gentle breezes. A day that was cool, but not so chilly that I had to keep moving just to keep my body heat going. That was the kind of day I had for Friday’s hike on three segments in Manitowoc County – the Dunes, Two Rivers, and Point Beach trails.
Because my hikes are taking place further and further away from home, I have found it necessary to arrive the day before my hike and spend the night at a local hotel. So, I drove up mid-afternoon on Thursday and checked into the Village Inn on the Lake between Manitowoc and Two Rivers. Clean and basic – just what the doctor ordered. I then scouted my hike’s end point, where I was going to meet the trail angel who would shuttle me to my starting point on Friday. After marking the location on my GPS, I drove back to Two Rivers along the lake front, roughly paralleling the Point Beach trail I would hike the following day. It looked very promising, with lots of pine forest hugging the shoreline. Back in town, I stopped for dinner at Luigi’s, which is close to the East Twin River. It struck me as the kind of place to bring the family – good food at a reasonable price and attentive, but not clingy, service. My Chicken Marsala was quite good, and I had plenty left over to take back to my room for breakfast the next morning. I made the quick drive back to the hotel to settle in for what I hoped would be a good night’s sleep.
No luck on the good night’s sleep. I was wired. This has happened to me previously before hikes. I got up and read until I thought I was sleepy. Nope. Back up to read after a second session of tossing and turning. I think I saw 1:00 am before I finally dropped off.
6:15 am. The alarm goes off, and I’m up and moving. 36 degrees according to the car’s thermometer. At 8:00, I met Dolly, the trail angel who would be helping me, and we rode to the starting point. Like every trail angel I’ve met, Dolly was an excellent ambassador for the trail. She has even gone so far as to put up hikers in her basement rec room! While on our drive, she stopped to show me how to navigate a tricky part of the trail where it intersects with a loop trail for bicyclists and cross country skiers. We talked about our mutual love of hiking in general and of the Ice Age Trail in particular. Unlike me, she has a hiking buddy – her sister – with whom she does a lot of her treks. At about 8:30, we stopped in the lot of an Aurora Walk-in clinic, where my first segment, The Dunes, started.
I didn’t really expect much out of the Dunes Segment. It seemed a small – only 2.6 mile – bit of land nestled between Manitowoc and Two Rivers. My attitude was that it was a quasi-connecting route leading to the lake front. Boy, was I wrong! The Dunes was a gem, a combination of marshy trail running through meadows and ridges of forest. According to my guidebook, these ridges are remnants of a post-glacial lake that existed previously, Lake Nipissing. Visually, it was quite a show. There were still plenty of autumn colors, which were enhanced by fog in depressions in the trail and by the sun’s light. Low in the sky, it seemed to cut through the trees laterally, as opposed to beating down from above. The effect seemed magical to me, and I hope the photo above gives you a sense of what I experienced. I was very glad to see this segment on such a crisp day where I could take the time to enjoy it. If I would have hiked this a month earlier, I would have been swatting mosquitoes like crazy.
It took me about an hour to hike The Dunes Segment, and it that time the temperature had gone up 8 degrees to 44. It was time to shed a layer of clothes and begin my hike through the town of Two Rivers. Along the way, I passed the Washington House, which is billed as the home of the ice cream sundae, and the Historic Rogers Street Fishing Village along the East Twin River, with old commercial fishing boats docked on the riverside. Eventually I arrived at Zlatnick Drive, named for one of the town’s early doctors, and started my hike along the lake shore. To their credit, the town had allowed for a lot of public access to the lake, and there was ample parking along the beach. After roughly 3/4 of a mile, the trail bent away from the lake slightly, then turned northeast, parallel to the shore. Soon, I arrived at a dead end in the road, and the beginning of the Point Beach Segment.
The Point Beach Segment was ten miles, with the first two plus miles of it right on the beach itself. I was a little concerned about the work I anticipated fighting my way through two miles of loose sand, but that proved to be a non-issue. Near the water, the beach was quite firm, and walking it was comparable to walking on ground that gave just a bit with each step – much like walking on a bed of pine needles. Really easy on the legs. Meanwhile, the lake was sparkling under a cloudless blue sky. Gentle breezes blew in my face. It really was a feast for the senses.
The geography of the Point Beach area was quite a bit different than what I was used to in the Milwaukee area. For example, there were no towering bluffs. Instead, the beach led inland to a bit of a ridge. Past this ridge line were depressions filled with water and some kind of scrub grass. They reminded me of the tidal pools that are along the ocean’s shore. Beyond the pools was another rise leading into the Point Beach State Forest, which seemed to be a lot of pine. Although the scene was was incredibly beautiful, I didn’t want to bliss out looking at it and miss where the trail turned away from the water. So I would make sure to keep my eyes peeled for the signage while enjoying the sun, the wind, the warmth and the waves. Pretty soon, the sign came into view, and I turned inland.
But, before I started into the forest proper, I stopped at a bench overlooking the water to take an actual half hour lunch break. Normally, I just stop for quick drinks of water, or for a trail mix snack. This time, I sat down, took off my shoes and socks and ate a sandwich and an apple while wiggling my toes in the warm sand. After massaging some of the ache out of my feet and applying some mole skin to some hot spots that I didn’t want to turn into blisters, I resumed my hike.
The remainder of my hike was through beautiful rolling hills which meandered through very marshy forest. Again, I was very glad to hike this area in the fall after a cold snap which killed off most of the bugs. My trail ran concurrently with a series of loop trails roughly paralleling the lake shore. Sometimes the trail would approach very closely to the shore, particularly where there were group campsites (with toilet facilities – yay!!). Then the trail would once again veer into the interior. The effect reminded me a bit of a daisy chain. While it was a long trail, it was relatively easy country with the ground rising and falling in front of me very gently – which made my brush with a sprained ankle all the more surprising. I was walking through a leaf-covered bit of trail when my left foot went into a pretty substantial hole. I cried out in surprise as down I went. Fortunately, I didn’t fall and I didn’t completely turn my ankle. But, the incident scared the bejeebers out of me, and I spent the rest of my hike testing beds of leaves before stepping into them. I didn’t want to limp my way to my car.
Pretty soon, I crossed further inland from the lake shore, across Manitowoc County Highway O. The trail turned north again, and after about an hour of hiking through forest country, I arrived at my car. On my way home, I drove back through Two Rivers and checked out Washington House. It was open! After taking a self guided tour of the place, I stopped at the soda fountain for a small ice cream sundae.
I had earned it.
My Days on the Ice Age Trail 