Originally printed August 5, 2020.
The Mondeaux Esker Segment.
The Ice Age Trail Alliance Guide states, “This segment has two, very rugged forested sections split by a trek through the popular Mondeaux Dam Recreational Area.” In describing the eastern part of the segment, it states that it “can be exceptionally challenging even for experienced hikers. Signage can be sparse, undergrowth can be thick, and cell phones may not work.”
I’ve seen pictures of hikers slogging away on trails flooded above their knees. I’ve followed conversations on Facebook. It will take most of the day to complete the hike. It is best to hike this segment in the late Fall or early in Winter when the ground has frozen, but before the big snowstorms have hit.
Arguably, the 11.7 mile Mondeaux Esker Segment is one of the more challenging hikes on the IAT, if not the most challenging segment. I had developed a healthy respect for that segment, and I came to believe that any help I could get to make this hike a success would be greatly appreciated.
Enter Sean Emmerich.
Sean lives in Wausau. He’s already completed a hike of the entire IAT, plus he has been on other northern trails, such as the Lake Superior Trail. We met on the 1000 Mile Wanabees Facebook Group, and he offered to hike a segment with me if I was ever in the neighborhood. I asked him if he wanted to hike this segment and he said yes, making this the 7th time in 98 hikes where I hiked with a companion. Then it came down to picking the right day.
Sunday, August 2nd, was the day. Weather-wise, we really lucked out. After a beastly hot July, Sunday dawned cloudy with sporadic light rain and in the low 60s – nearly perfect hiking weather. Better yet, it had been a while since it rained hard in the area, giving the trail a chance to dry out a bit. We met at the dam at the north end of the flowage. Our plan was to leave a car there and shuttle to the segment’s eastern terminus. Then we would hike the more difficult eastern portion of the segment while we were relatively fresh. We’d then break for lunch and shuttle to the western terminus. Then we’d hike the western portion of the trail back to the dam. Approaching the trail this way gave us a good break to recharge our batteries. In a worst-case scenario, it would also save us some miles if we had to end the hike due to illness or injury. It was precisely how I planned to attack this segment if I hiked it solo while self-shuttling with my bike, except Sean and I would hike both “halves” of the segment in one day.
We met at 8:00 a.m. at the dam, and Sean volunteered to drive me to the trail head. I threw my stuff in the back seat, donned my mask, and climbed in to ride shotgun. I was pleased that he also wore a mask. As a further protection, we drove to the east trail head with the front windows partially opened.
We began our hike of the eastern portion at 8:41, immediately plunging into deep forest. I started out setting the pace; Sean and I alternated in this role throughout the hike. While it wasn’t as waterlogged as I expected, it was still very muddy. In many ways, this part of the trail reminded me of the eastern part of the Averill-Kelly Segment – soft mud crisscrossed with a tangled mess of tree roots and rocks. Although it wasn’t as bad as I had expected, it was still challenging. Sometimes the mud was relatively solid underneath my feet. Sometimes it wasn’t, and I’d do my best impression of a baseball player sliding into second base. Sometimes it wasn’t, and I’d catch myself sinking above my ankles in the stuff. In dislodging myself, I almost left a shoe in the goop a couple of times.
After roughly an hour and a half, we worked our way through a marsh and started walking along the east side of the flowage. Here is my first view of it.
Very pretty, but I had to concentrate all the more on keeping on my feet. Once we got to this point, the trail turned north, all the while banking toward the water, so my right leg was always higher. Looking back on it, it was a little like walking with my right foot at the top of a curb and with my left foot in the gutter – that is, if the walkway was slathered in grease. If my right leg wouldn’t hold, one leg would slide in front of the other, and I would catch myself twisting every which way to stay on my feet. On at least one occasion, I gave up trying and fell to the ground.
All the while Sean and I talked about a variety of topics – our families, animal tracks, how pretty a particular tree was, you name it. At least twice he spotted some turn signs that I missed, which probably saved me unnecessary miles. We kept up the chatter until about an hour before we reached the dam. Then things quieted a bit. I think that was mostly a matter of me bearing down to maintain my balance and to not make him slow his pace. He was already being very gracious in adjusting his pace to match me.
We reached the dam at 12:30 and settled down for a leisurely lunch. This was new to me; I rarely take much time for lunch. On many hikes, I scarf down my lunch while walking. I was a little concerned about muscle tightening, so I took care to keep stretching and hydrating. After a while, we picked up Sean’s car and convoyed back to the dam. Then I drove us to the western terminus of the trail along Taylor County Highway E. We resumed our hike shortly after 2:00.
The afternoon hike was just under 5 miles, much shorter than the morning’s hike. That wasn’t the only difference. First, it was a much dryer walk than the morning hike. It also featured a lot more climbing, especially as we climbed the Mondeaux Esker. For those unfamiliar with the term, an esker is “A sinuous rounded ridge of sand and gravel deposited by the streams that flowed through tunnels at the base of the glacier”, according to the IAT Guide. I was impressed with how high we climbed above the lake.
Before we reached the esker, we had our closest brush with losing our way. About a mile into the afternoon trek, the trail runs concurrent with a snowmobile trail before making a sharp right turn and going up a hill. The sign marking the turn was obscured by dense undergrowth , and we walked a bit further before we realized our mistake. Fortunately, Sean found the signage, and we got on the right track in a hurry.
All the climbing we did in the afternoon meant that, sooner or later, we would need to descend. Oddly enough, I find it much harder to go down a hill than to climb it. Because I’m concerned about my knees buckling and about tripping and falling headlong down a hill, I take each step down a hill very deliberately. To make matters worse, in this hike, steps were built into the hill. They were short, which caused me to be even more deliberate. The last thing I needed near the end of the hike was to miss a step and go tumbling.
Not surprisingly, we made much better time in the afternoon hike, and we were back at the dam at 4:30. Sean gave me a lift to the trail head where I left my car. Our plan worked just as we thought it would, and I thanked him profusely for his help. I have about 250 more miles to hike before I reach the trail’s end at St. Croix Falls, with a lot of challenges ahead. But on this day, I was very grateful for his help in knocking off this challenging segment.
My Days on the Ice Age Trail 