Author Archives: jbanello

Saturday, July 24th, was the day I completed my journey on the Ice Age Trail. There are so many aspects to this day that I don’t know where to begin. Certainly, I need to cover wrapping up the IAT, and its impact on me. But I also need to describe the challenges of this particularContinue reading “Day 125 on the Ice Age Trail”

Get it done and get in the cool was the theme of today’s hike. With high temps forecast in the mid 90s, I wanted nothing more than to knock off this seven mile hike on the morning of July 23, 2021 as quickly as possible. A good night’s sleep might have really helped, but itContinue reading “Day 124 on the Ice Age Trail”

Home stretch! Twenty-nine miles over three days in high heat separated me from completion of the Ice Age Trail. My hikes were planned to take advantage of the relatively cooler predicted temps of 90 degrees on July 22nd and 24th( on the 23rd, the predicted high was 94). Today would be the highest mileage dayContinue reading “Day 123 on the Ice Age Trail”

On Saturday, July 17th, I hiked the 3.6 mile Straight Lake Segment and the 4.3 Trade River Segment. The hike was a study in contrasts. At 8:30, I met Trail Angel Barb at the end point for the day’s hike, the west terminus of the Trade River Segment. On our way to the trail head,Continue reading “Day 122 on the Ice Age Trail”

After a great hike on July 15th, I was eager to return to the Ice Age Trail on July 16th to hike the 2.9 mile Pine Lake and the 3.4 Straight River segments. Weather conditions were good for a hot summer hike, and the trail was likely to be dry, just as McKenzie Creek wasContinue reading “Day 121 on the Ice Age Trail”

On July 14th, I returned to Northwest Wisconsin to get three days of hiking completed. On Thursday, July 15th, I tackled the first of the three hikes, the 9.4 mile McKenzie Creek Segment. On this day I was a little late meeting Caroline, today’s trail angel, due to bad electronics. When I arrived in theContinue reading “Day 120 on the Ice Age Trail”

June 24th was the last of my three days hiking in Northwest Wisconsin. Arguably, it was the best day of my trip. On tap that day were two segments – the 6.0 mile Sand Creek and the 5.4 mile Indian Creek segments. Both are “3” rated for hilliness and ruggedness out of a maximum ofContinue reading “Day 119 on the Ice Age Trail”

It took three tries, but I finally knocked off the Grassy Lake Segment of the Ice Age Trail on Wednesday, June 24th. Originally, I wanted to hike this segment in April, but another hiker’s warning about washout conditions prompted me to go with a Plan B. Then I planned on a May hike, only toContinue reading “Day 118 on the Ice Age Trail”

Ten hikes. I’ve been carefully examining my Ice Age Trail Guidebook and crunching the numbers. Grouping the 15 segments and connecting routes into logical – for me – groups, I appear to have ten hikes left to complete my journey to the Ice Age Trail’s Western Terminus along the St. Croix River. The first ofContinue reading “Day 117 on the Ice Age Trail”

“This area is super wet. Just a heads up.” “Most of the trail was very wet. Some areas were completely flooded out.” “I pulled up my pants and I waded through it. Some points it was knee deep.” When I dropped him off on Thursday, I asked Ronald to shoot me a message with trailContinue reading “Day 116 on the Ice Age Trail”