What’s in the forecast?
Snow!
How much snow?
Not sure. Up to 7 inches forecast, worst case.
When is it coming?
I’m not sure.
Those were the questions concerning the hike on Thursday, January 14th, on the southern portion of the Connecting Route between the Chippewa Moraine and Southern Blue Hills segments of the Ice Age Trail.
My hiking partner, Barb, and I were up early texting each other while following the local weather. The forecast called for freezing rain and heavy, slushy snow. If forced to choose, we much preferred driving and hiking in snow instead of freezing rain. Snow was the devil we knew. Better to drive and hike snow covered roads than risk hitting a patch of black ice. With that, we started our convoy north, grateful that it wasn’t raining or snowing yet.
Once we got off the main roads, our ride north threaded its way between many lakes. As we made our way to our trail head, I slowed for a fox crossing my path from left to right, less than 100 yards in front of me. Cool. Less than a quarter mile further, I had to slow again for another fox crossing the road in front of me, again from left to right. I giggled a bit at my good fortune and resumed my drive, hoping that Barb, who was following me in her car, was seeing all this. Less than 200 yards ahead I stopped yet again as a third fox, plus 8-12 deer, crossed the road in front of me. Again, they were moving from my left to my right. By this time, my heart was going piddy-pat with excitement. I didn’t know it at the time, but the ride to my hike was my Thrill of the Day.
(As luck would have it, I had to stop on my return drive to Eau Claire after the hike for a rafter of about a dozen turkeys that were crossing the county road on which I was driving. Guess that animal road crossings were the theme for the day.)
Like we did the day before, Barb and I broke up our hike by leap-frogging our way from north to south. My total hike was to be 8.8 miles. We again divided the hike into three parts.
There was no precipitation as we started our hike. Even so, the prospect of rain or snow during our walk injected an urgency in me. Particularly if the precipitation was in the form of rain, I wanted to be done before it started.
The longest section of my hike, 5.5 miles, was just west of a chain of lakes – Island, McCann, Clear and Chain Lakes. While we didn’t see any more animals, we saw plenty of tracks. One of the distinct advantages of hiking in the winter is seeing those tracks and appreciating all the life that had crossed our paths. As we walked south, we admired all the lakeside properties, gazed at the ice fishermen, and had lengthy conversations to pass the time and make the miles go more quickly. We kept ourselves occupied until we reached our next reference point, the parking lot and boat launch at Round Lake County Park. Barb then drove me back to the Backwoods Bar & Grill to pick up my car. Then we returned to Round Lake County Park.
Barb had already hiked the last chunk of this road walk, a roughly 2.5 mile stretch from the Round Lake lot to WI-40, along 40 less than a mile, and finishing with a .7 mile walk on a gravel road to the western terminus of the Chippewa Moraine Segment. Her plan was to drive me to that western terminus and drop me off there to hike back to my car. Meanwhile, she would drive to a nearby segment along the Chippewa River and start hiking it. Once I was done with my hike, I’d drive to where she was finishing and give her a lift to her car. Then we’d go our separate ways.
That was the plan.
Suddenly, Barb became convinced she needed to hike a portion of that last segment I was hiking. She was certain she only got as far as a certain access gate at Round Lake County Park. I disagreed – there were only two ways to enter the park, and we covered both of them. She insisted, and the only way to prove my point was to drive her along the road so that she could see there were only two entrances to the park. Ultimately, we went back to her original plan, but we lost a good half hour in the process. Remember, we were trying to avoid hiking during a cold rain or a wet snow.
Surprise! We beat the weather!. I made quick work of that 2.5 miles and was done for the day. I then drove to the trail where Barb was finishing and took her to her car.
Then I returned to my hotel by way of the local Culver’s.
My Days on the Ice Age Trail 