Originally printed March 5, 2017
It was more work than I thought it would be, but, as you can see from the picture above, it was worth it.
On paper, last Friday’s hike on the Forestville Segment of the Ice Age Trail looked pretty easy. As was the case with the Kewaunee River Segment, I was hiking on a former rail bed – plenty wide and very flat. At 9.1 miles, it was also shorter than my previous hikes. Ample restroom facilities were along the way. I had visions of knocking it off in a little over 3 and a half hours. I was in for a surprise.
On Thursday afternoon, I arrived in Sturgeon Bay and checked in at The Holiday Music Motel, a quirky, retro 1950s building that I found very charming. I knocked around Sturgeon Bay a bit and ate a nice dinner of pan fried walleye at a local sports bar. Then I strolled back to the hotel and fell into my routine the night before a hike – call Jane, read some, watch Wisconsin’s basketball team lose again, shower, and hit the hay. I wasn’t meeting Kevin, Friday’s Trail Angel, until 9:30 – positively civilized.
I’ll reserve my impressions of Sturgeon Bay until my next hike, which covers the Sturgeon Bay Segment. Suffice it to say that I was really taken with the town, and I look forward to visiting it again.
Friday morning dawned at a crisp 11 degrees with a bright sun, no wind, and a cloudless sky. After breakfast, I packed the car and headed to the end point of my hike, where I met Kevin. About 20 minutes later, he dropped me off at the trail head, and I got started.
Eleven above might seem pretty brisk, but, with the lack of wind, it was primo hiking weather. Once again, I was on the Ahnapee State Trail, which was originally the rail bed for the Green Bay and Western Railway. Plaques were erected along the way which told of various bits of the trail’s history. The most interesting detail to me concerned the small bridges which allowed the trail to cross stream beds. In many cases, the builders would lay a fairly large cylinder made of corrugated metal in the stream bed, cover it with dirt, pave it, and – voila! – a small bridge would be built. But, in several spots along the trail, the metal cylinders were actually parts of the boilers from steam railroad engines which had been salvaged. One could readily see the old rivets in what had been boilers. Pretty cool!
Unlike my previous hike on the Ahnapee, the trail wasn’t recently groomed, and some drifting was evident. For all but the last couple of miles, the trail was completely covered with 2 – 6 inches of (thankfully) light snow. With wearing heavy boots, I was really working, whether I was lifting a leg clear out of the snow or dragging a foot through it. Very quickly I realized that I was building up quite a lather, even though I deliberately wore fewer layers than previous winter hikes. The first four miles of the hike seemed to be taking for ever. I wanted to pick up the pace, but I didn’t want to get tuckered out early, get sloppy with my form, and hurt myself as a result (As it was, the inner aspect of my upper right leg was tender.). So, I kept my pace and really concentrated on my form.
For the first roughly four miles, trees lined my path, so that I could not see the Ahnapee River on my right. After that, I crossed the Ahnapee River, it was now on my left side, and the country seemed to open up some – more marsh land and scrub, with occasional stands of trees. Originally, this area was heavily wooded, but, according to my guidebook, it was destroyed as part of the great Peshtigo Fire of 1871. I got the impression that this area would be great for bird watching in the warmer months. On today’s hike, I saw more geese than anything else, plus some crows, a few hawks and a squirrel. There were lots of tracks in the snow. I got a particular kick out of the wispy field mouse tracks in the snow. For the entire hike, I only spotted one person crossing the trail about a quarter mile in front of me with a dig. Otherwise, I had the trail to myself.
With two miles left, I noticed that trail wasn’t completely show covered, and I was able to hike without working so hard. At 1:30, I came to the trail’s end in the village of Maplewood, nearly a half hour later than I estimated. But it was worth it, because Richard’s Bar, a road house with pub food was fifty yards away. After changing into dry clothes, I walked inside and met Richard, a nice older gentleman who just returned after getting cataract surgery in Green Bay the day before. The bar was classic small town Wisconsin – lots of good wood, well kept and sort of homey. He handed me a Green Bay Press Gazette – so I could educate myself, he said – and a menu with a lot of choices for a hungry hiker.
I recommend the beer battered perch with potato pancakes and coleslaw.
My Days on the Ice Age Trail 