Originally printed April 7, 2019.
Not one of my better days on the trail.
A combination of lousy weather plus several instances of me shooting myself in the foot made for one of my more forgettable days on the Ice Age Trail.
My goal was to hike a 9 mile (remember that number) chunk of the 28.5 mile Connecting Route between the Ringle and New Hope-Iola Ski Hill Segments. This was the northernmost bit of that CR, with the nearest town being Wausau. For some reason, I underestimated the drive time to the starting point. As a result, I got started a full hour and a half later than I planned. In a way, that actually worked to my benefit, as the steady drizzle that accompanied us on the drive up stopped just as I started. Shortly after noon, I kissed Jane goodbye at the junction of WI-153 and County I and set off. The temperature was in the high 40s with some patchy ground fog and a lot of overcast. I anticipated being on the road a little over three hours.
Within 20 minutes, I made my first gaffe when I blew through my first turn north and instead continued west on WI-153. It didn’t cause me to lose time; instead of hiking the eastern and northern boundaries of a 1 mile x 2.1 mile rectangle, I hiked the southern and western edges. But, it caused my blood pressure to go up a touch when I realized my mistake after about an hour of hiking. In addition, it left me walking on a semi-busy state road when the correct route would likely have been less well traveled. Nobody to blame but me. Oh well.
Compared to my last hike, most of the snow was gone. The little that remained was along the north faces of hills and roadways that didn’t get much sunlight. However, the ground needs some serious time without rain to dry out. At best, the ground was muddy. At worst, low spots were underwater, like the baseball field in the Pike Lake area shown in the picture above. I really feel for the farmers in this area. Their crops will most likely be planted very late this year.
My general impression was that this particular Connecting Route was not very pretty. Yes, the weather had something to do with that. But, wooded areas past which I walked were overgrown with a lot of dead falls. Not very appealing, at least not for me on this particular day.
One thing that I did appreciate about this Connecting Route was that there were a couple of places along the way where I could stop to take a break and use their rest room. On this hike, I stopped at Lisa’s along Pike Lake. A good crowd of locals were holding forth, but I managed to find an empty stool to sit. The bartender greeted me with a smile and a “Out hiking the Ice Age?” I smiled, shook my head and ordered a diet coke. This bar/restaurant reminded me of supper clubs in Oconto County that my parents took us to when we were kids. Friendly folks. Country music on the juke box. And a huge banquet room. Looked like a wedding reception was going to be held later. I stayed there long enough to use the facilities and guzzle down that diet coke. Then I geared up and was on my way.
Shortly after that, I met Jane as I continued hiking north. I was beginning to feel some time pressure because I anticipated being done by 3:30. Jane had measured the mileage, and I was a good four miles from ending the hike. Even if I RAN the rest of the way, I wouldn’t be there by my estimated end time. I didn’t get it. Outside of my 10-15 minute stop at Lisa’s, I wasn’t dawdling at all. In fact, I was really legging it out. I began to suspect a math error when calculating that mileage. No time to recheck those numbers now. Finish up and figure it out later.
I finished up at 4:30. Continuing the theme of underestimating, I thought it would take me 30 minutes to drive to our B&B in Waupaca, when 40-45 minutes was more like it. When we arrived in Waupaca, it quickly became obvious to me that I made a goof when I figured out the estimated mileage. It wasn’t 9 miles – it was just over 11 miles! Take out that break at Lisa’s, and I did the hike at a 2.7 MPH clip – not bad at all. So, I underestimated the drive time to the hike, I underestimated the distance I was hiking, and I underestimated how much time it would take to get to the B&B. These moves put me under pressure because I had church and dinner plans made based on my earlier estimates. It all worked out for the best, but geez!
My Days on the Ice Age Trail 