Originally printed June 9, 2020.
Thursday, June 4th dawned sunny and humid. I had an inkling I would be working up a lather on today’s hike on the 4.9 mile Averill-Kelly Segment of the Ice Age Trail.
Today would be my first attempt at self-shuttling from my car to the trail head on my trusty bicycle. Since I wasn’t meeting anybody for a lift, I was freed from the tyranny of the alarm clock. So, there was an advantage to this new arrangement that I hadn’t considered.
My first attempt at self-shuttling was a big success. The roads were gravel over a hard-packed dirt surface. My bike handled the conditions quite well. To help myself, I followed a car’s tire tracks to help insure that I wouldn’t lose my balance in thicker stones. My six mile ride had 2-3 moderate hills – nothing I couldn’t handle with a little downshifting. I made the ride to the trail head in 45 minutes.
My IAT Guide contains articles about each Segment. Each article begins the same way. First, the mileage is listed. Then, the numeric ratings for hilliness and overall ruggedness are listed. Then, a thumbnail description of the trail appears. This is the thumbnail description of the Averill-Kelly Segment – “This segment, entirely on private lands, features three water crossings in a forested, remote setting.” Later in the article, mention is made that the area around the Kelly Creek crossing(my first on this hike), can be very wet and swampy. That doesn’t quite describe the terrain.
While relatively flat, Averill-Kelly richly deserves its max ruggedness rating of 5. At first, a narrow footpath wound its way under a deep canopy of forest. Then I started to encounter swampy terrain; a tangled mess of tree roots, rocks, mud and water forced me to pick my way very carefully through the morass. Absolutely primordial. I did my best to find the driest way around the muck, but it was a losing battle. Even when the trail opened up onto what was previously an old railroad grade, my way was often blocked by mini-ponds, like the one in this picture:
As you might expect, the mosquitoes were horrendous, and so were the biting flies. Thank goodness for my mosquito netting, or my face would be a mass of bug bites. My walking sticks also came in handing for helping me maintain my balance at those times where I would take a step and unexpectedly sink into the muck. If you weren’t willing to get wet and dirty, Averill-Kelly was the wrong place to be.
The segment did feature three stream crossings, the first a rock crossing over Kelly Creek. Crossing#2 was through ankle-deep water at Averill Creek. Time to break out my water shoes for the first time. It was so refreshingly cool that I wanted to just stand there and bliss out for a bit. At the time, I actually thought I had made my third crossing. I had mistaken an unnamed body of water for one of the named streams. Dumb move – read the map, Jim. The third crossing was over the New Wood River. This was the largest stream of the three. Once again, I was grateful for my walking sticks for balance in the roughly 18 inch water. I certainly didn’t want to slip and fall here.
Actually, I missed this crossing at first. The trail bent sharply to the left, and I missed the turn and kept walking straight. I hiked about a quarter mile before I suspected something was up. Fortunately, I learned my lesson from a year ago. I stopped and looked behind me. When I didn’t see any trail markings, I reversed direction and walked until I reached a trail marking. There I stopped and did a slow circle. There were the next markings – across the river. So, THAT’S crossing#3!
While I’m on the subject of trail markings, I want to give kudos to the IATA volunteers and Ruby, the local chapter coordinator. By and large, all the segments of the Ice Age Trail are extremely well marked. When I would reach a marking, I would invariably, see the next marking in the distance. As rugged as these trails were, I was always confident that I was headed in the right direction.
After that, I hiked roughly a mile to the trail’s end at County E. A doe was standing with her fawn in the road about 100 yards to my right. After checking me out, they ambled into the brush on the other side of the road. I walked about a half mile north to where I had left my car. I quickly stowed my gear, drove to the trail head, and picked up my bike.
My Days on the Ice Age Trail 