Originally printed June 10, 2020.
Friday, June 5th was my last day of hiking in Lincoln County for the time being. On tap was the 6.9 mile Newwood Segment. Rain was in the forecast, but the showers ended earlier in the morning, and it began to clear as I once again made my way to the intersection of Conservation Avenue and Lincoln County E, the jumping off point for my journey to the western trail head.
To get there, I would have a 4.8 bike ride plus a hike on an unnamed access road. Although the bike ride was shorter than the day before, it was more hilly. I soon arrived at a fork in the road. This was the start of my walk to the trail head. After locking my bike to a tree, I started down the road making up the left fork, Gebert Drive. Soon, I turned left on the access road. At this point, I do want to compliment the IATA Northwoods Chapter volunteers for putting up some signage to help on this stretch of road, even though this wasn’t an official part of the trail. In a short time I reached the entrance to the trail, turned left onto the footpath marked with the familiar blaze orange, and plunged into a dense canopy of deep forest. I appreciated the forest’s cool after walking the access road in the open sun.
The narrow footpath was a bed of leaves over soft ground – very easy on my tired legs. After a while, the trail left the forest and wound through some marsh land. While there weren’t as many wet spots as my hike of Averill-Kelly, it was still a challenge to figure out a way through and around those sections so I could stay relatively dry.
On all of my hikes through Lincoln County, I’ve been very grateful for the excellent signage by the IATA volunteers. On this particular hike, many old forest roads intersected with my trail. It could be very easy to take a wrong turn and get lost in a maze. One new wrinkle that I experienced on this hike were trail markers on large rocks. Usually, I look for markers on trees. Since I spend a lot of my hiking looking at the ground immediately in front of me, having some of the markings on rocks in the trail makes a lot of sense. Generally, the trail markings throughout Lincoln County have been very clear, helpful, and plentiful. Kudos to Ruby, the chapter coordinator, and her team of volunteers for a job well done!
Later in the hike, the trail widened as it traced the edges of a number of open meadows. I prefer the narrower footpaths. I like the shade, and the paths have a more remote feel(this trail, like all three I’ve hiked on this trip, was rated a max 5 for overall ruggedness.). Besides, those open meadows usually means I’m hiking through tall grass, and that, to me, means ticks. On this hike, I did several tick checks, and I flicked one off my leg. I also managed to bring one home with me, perhaps on my backpack. Jane found it crawling on a wall like it owned the place.
One of the features of this trail, according to my Guide, is that it climbs a “classic esker.” An esker is “A sinuous rounded edge of sand and gravel deposited by the streams that flowed through tunnels at the base of a glacier.” Frankly, I didn’t recognize that particular area as an esker. All I knew is that I was climbing! Recognizing land forms as I’m hiking is a skill I want to have. Someday, I would like to hike with someone who has that skill, so I see what they see and learn from them.
Conservation Avenue, the road I biked to reach the trail head, bisects the New Wood Segment into northern and southern pieces. Crossing north, I continued through the state forest and the Lincoln County Forest and finally came to a bluff overlooking the stunningly beautiful New Wood River. After miles of deep woods and marshlands, this was down right refreshing. This was the climax of today’s hike. I hope the picture above does it justice. The trail ran alongside the river for roughly a mile. Along the way, I passed three huge pines overlooking the river. They have managed to escape the lumberman’s ax, and they are strikingly beautiful. I hope you like this picture of them.
While part of me wanted to stop to enjoy this, I was near the end of the hike. Although I was beat, I was a man on a mission. The trail bent away from the river, crossed a narrow metal bridge over Camp Twenty-six Creek, and ended at County E. I turned right and quickly reached my car. In short order, I retrieved my bike, drove into Merrill, gassed up and found a car wash. With all the gravel roads I had driven, my car looked like it had done the Baja!
My Days on the Ice Age Trail 