Originally printed August 30, 2019.
After a nearly three month break (lots of singing and a foot injury), I was eager to resume hiking on the Ice Age Trail. An opportunity presented itself on August 25th and 26th, and I jumped at the chance. I made the trip to Antigo on Saturday, the 24th, and arrived at the campsite before 11:00. What a brilliant, starry night! My tent went up in a hurry, and I was soon asleep.
Sunday morning dawned clear and in the low 50s. After quickly scarfing down some breakfast and breaking camp, I was soon on my way to meet Sam, today’s trail angel, at the end point for the hike along County Highway B. After a short ride and a pleasant chat, he dropped me off for the start of my hike. I quickly threw on my pack, grabbed my poles and got started at about 9:00 am.
Sunday’s hike would be just under 12 miles. I would hike the 11.2 mile Old Railroad Segment, plus less than a mile of the Highland Lakes Eastern Segment. I was extremely interested in see the effects of the July storms on the trails. Exhibit A showed itself within 15 minutes of starting. It is one thing to see photos and news footage on a computer monitor. It is quite another to see it first hand. Huge trees – some as large as a couple of feet in diameter – were ripped out of the ground by their roots and scattered about like Lincoln Logs. An example of the destruction is shown above. It is truly admirable that this has been cleared at all so that the trail is at least passable. Even so, there were several times when I struggled to climb over or around huge stacks of downed trees. It is going to take a lot of time and further work by IAT volunteers to return this section of the trail to “normal.”
Fortunately, there was still plenty of beauty available for anyone to see. The trail skirted near several lakes, and I was treated to numerous breathtaking lake views. One cluster of lakes was in Veterans’ Memorial County Park. In my mind, this park is the hub of the entire segment. In terms of storm damage, it was in clearly better shape than any other sections of the trail. The area bustled with activities – camping, swimming, disk golf, off road bicycling, fishing and hiking. It may have been the most crowded place on the IAT since I was at Devil’s Lake. One thing that made me smile concerned the names of the nearby lakes – Jack, Game, High and Low. According to my guide, these lakes were named by card playing loggers.
Past this park, the trail ran through the Jack Lake Ski Trails Area for roughly three miles to the trail’s “official” end at US 45. I walked through a forested area on generally flat terrain. By this time, I had worked up quite a lather, and the heat and the mosquitoes were making me pretty uncomfortable. The trail ranged from a footpath to a trail wide enough for an ATV. It was also overgrown with grass, which forced me to alter my gait into what I would describe as a bicycle step. This made walking more of a chore, but it helped to prevent me from getting hung up in the undergrowth, losing my balance and falling on my face.
As tired as I was, I was glad that I took the advice to add a mile to my hike and walk the Highland Lakes East Segment to County B. Parking on extremely busy US 45 would have been very dangerous, and I expect that I would have not endeared myself to the Langlade County Sheriff. At roughly 2:45, I wrapped up for the day and headed for the campsite in Antigo. A hot shower and a plateful of Mexican food awaited.
My Days on the Ice Age Trail 