Author Archives: jbanello

Originally printed September 18, 2017. With a rare open weekend in my choir schedule, I took advantage of the chance to hike a couple days in the Madison area on the Ice Age Trail. On this day, I would be hiking the Madison and Valley View Segments, which are connected by a 1.8 mile ConnectingContinue reading “Day 45 on the Ice Age Trail”

Originally printed September 9, 2017. After a pretty good night’s sleep at the Crazy Horse Campground near Brodhead, I was up at 5:30 Friday morning to eat, clean up, break camp and head to the end point of that day’s hike to meet Tess, my trail angel for a second day. Unlike the last timeContinue reading “Day 44 on the Ice Age Trail”

Originally printed September 9, 2017. Last Thursday, everything was set up nicely for a good day of hiking. A generous trail angel let me get a good night’s sleep before so I could drive to the Madison area for an absolutely civilized late morning start. The weather was excellent – cool and partly cloudy. AContinue reading “Day 43 on the Ice Age Trail”

Originally printed September 5, 2017. I caught a break on Sunday, the weather cooperated, and Jane was willing to shuttle me. As a result, I was able to get in an additional 9.5 miles on the Ice Age Trail. I had previously mentioned the possibility of doing a hike in a conversation with Jane, butContinue reading “Day 42 on the Ice Age Trail”

Originally printed August 12, 2017. I’ve had better days. That’s my takeaway after hiking the 6.5 mile Monticello Segment of the Ice Age Trail yesterday. You may recall that my final remarks regarding Day 40 on the trail concerned the hope of getting a good night’s sleep. Well, what happened was that I got aContinue reading “Day 41 on the Ice Age Trail”

Originally August 12, 2017. There is an old saying that the third time is the charm. After having had to cancel this hike twice – once because the trail was closed after high winds and rains and once because of illness – I was really looking forward to hiking the 9.4 mile Albany Segment lastContinue reading “Day 40 on the Ice Age Trail”

Originally printed July 17, 2017. Good things come in small packages. That was the take away from Sunday’s hike on the 1.6 mile Springfield Hills Segment, the 2.8 mile Indian Lake Segment and the 2.6 mile Connecting Route between them. Last weekend, Jane and I made our annual summer trip to Spring Green to seeContinue reading “Day 39 on the Ice Age Trail”

Originally printed July 10, 2017. Saturday was a special day. After shuttling me on many hikes, Jane joined me for a hike on the Ice Age Trail While Jane and I have gone for walks in our neighborhood, she never expressed any interest in hiking on the trail. However, we did quite a bit ofContinue reading “Day 38 on the Ice Age Trail”

Originally printed July 3, 2017. It has been a while. While I’ve been doing a good amount of hiking, the last time I was on the Ice Age Trail was May 5th. May 5th!! It was way past time to get back on the trail. Now that I’ve completed the northern/eastern segments of the trail,Continue reading “Day 37 on the Ice Age Trail”

Originally printed May 7, 2017. This was going to be a great day. A big milestone would be attained in my trek on the Ice Age Trail. 36 days on the trail spread over the months from February of last year to now was to culminate in me toasting my success at the Eastern TerminusContinue reading “Day 36 on the Ice Age Trail”