Hikes 2 & 3: From Lion's Park (St. Croix Falls) to the Gandy Dancer Trail (or It's Good To Have a Plan)

Hike 2: Thursday, January 19, 2006

Most of the hikes that I logged between our home in Chetek and the Trail's End at Interstate Park were spur-of-the-moment endeavors. I woke up and the mood was on me or the sun was bright and I had the day (with my wife's permission) all to myself and I decided, “Why not?” Hiking the IAT between Polk County and Chippewa County is not like trekking the Appalachian Trail (or so I would imagine). The scenery is beautiful but the terrain is quite tame and you are never too far off the beaten path (beyond Chippewa County, however, is a different matter). And so a week after slipping and sliding through and beyond Interstate Park and despite getting a late start given that I had to travel back to St. Croix Falls due to my son's wrestling match later that day, I decided I could squeeze in a quick hike.I made a detour to Rice Lake in order to pick up a new DeLorme's Wisconsin Gazetter due to the fact that at the time I had no other map that referenced the IAT for that section of the trail.

Hikes 2 & 3 (beginning at Lion's Park)

Since my inaugural hike the week before I made two logistical changes: I changed my footgear and brought along my Fuji trail bike. Instead of the tread-less Bean Boots I had struggled in the week before, I wore a good pair of New Balances. And to save me a walk back after completing a section of the trail, I would stow my bike where I planned to end and then ride back to my van. Just as I had the week before, I way overestimated the amount ground I could cover in the short window of time I had allotted myself and parked the bike at the entrance to the Gandy Dancer Trail over in Centuria. By the time I arrived at Lion's Park, where Hike 1 had concluded, it was already 2:30 p.m. - not a good time to start a winter afternoon hike. And given that I would have to be on the road by 3:45 p.m. in order to make it to the wrestling match, it left me a very narrow window to not only complete the section but bike back to the van. It's good to have a plan.

 It was snowing lightly. Last week, when the ranger at the Ice Age Interpretive Center at Interstate Park, informed me that the IAT is not maintained in winter, I didn't think much of it. Today I did. As I read my journal entry from that day, I have a vague memory of wet feet and losing my way:

The IAT meanders along the east side of the St. Croix River. It was very quiet in the woods – except for the several small streams that flow into the River. The trail, though snow-covered, was easy to follow up to the primitive campsite. After that, however, the trail is poorly marked and more rugged. I had to double-back several times. And at one point was fully persuaded I had lost it altogether. I ultimately found it again but by then I had run out of time.

I had no choice but to double back to Lion's Park and then drive back over to Centuria to pick up my bike. But before I did that I drove up the River Road (where the IAT emerges from the narrow section of woods that follows the course of the river) and find where the trail comes out. I had been closer than I knew. I have a note in my journal that indicates that wearing my New Balances didn't work and that “next time I try a different set of boots.” As in running, good, quality foot gear is one of your most important pieces of equipment in hiking. It took my first several hikes on the IAT to figure the right boots out (and by that time, I hardly needed them for that winter season).

Hike 3: Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Do Over

Less than a week later, on a rare Tuesday afternoon hike, I attempted to complete the St. Croix Falls Segment. I must have been coming home from a meeting in Minnesota and had decided to bring the bike along the way in case I was still in the mood to try this section again. Once again, I drove over to Centuria and stowed the bike and then doubled back to Lion's Park north of St. Croix Falls. (For some reason I didn't take any pictures for this second installment of this hike most likely because I had forgotten to bring my camera.) But this time my efforts were rewarded as I made it back to where I had lost the trail the Thursday before. After carefully looking around I then spied a tree with an IAT yellow blaze that I had somehow missed the last time. Once I found the trail the rest was fairly easy (but according to my journal I briefly lost it again only to find is about 100ft later.)

This was a fun section in that at one point the trail traverses a creek which is too wide to jump. If it had been summertime, I would have had to wade across but given that it was January I had to venture off the trail a ways until I found a thick enough log that had serendipitously fallen across the creek. But it wasn't too thick in that I recall feeling like I was walking a tight rope hoping not to fall into the cold water below. I wouldn't have gone under – it wasn't that deep – but I would have got wet. Fortunately, I made it across without incident.

I finally emerged from the woods and began walking on the River Road. My first official road connector had begun. It was a half mile to Hwy 87 and then another 3 1/2 on 160^th Avenue. The Alberta Clipper that was blowing through here was at my back. For this hike I was wearing a pair of my nephew's old hunting boots which worked great on the trail but were not the best for a long road hike because by the time I reached the bike my feet were killing me. It had taken me three hours total to make it to the Gandy Dancer Trail. But the bike trip back, despite that cold Canadian wind being in my face, took inside 30 minutes. Bringing the bike was going to be a regular part of my endeavor to be a ThruHiker.

Hike 1: From the Western Terminus to Lion's Park (or Slippery When Wet)

Begin at the beginning

"Remember what Bilbo used to say: It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to."  from "Three is Company" in The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien

And so the adventures begin...

It's a warm, January day early in 2006 and it is the day I've decided to begin my quest to be a ThruHiker on the IAT. I drove the fifty or so miles to Interstate Park right outside of St. Croix Falls. I know this park fairly well given that for several years running we've brought the kids from our youth group out here to play what we refer to as "Klingon Capture-the-Flag". But that's always been in August and the park looks a whole lot different in January. I park in the lot by the Ice Age Interpretive Center and stop in to speak to the ranger who informs me that the trail, given this spring-like thaw, is icy and slippery. And soon after, as I make my way down the trailhead, I discover how true that is. Very quickly I am reminded of one of the fundamental rules of hiking: have good foot gear. The boots I have chosen to wear have little tread left on them insuring that I will spend an inordinate amount of time on this hike, like Little Richard's song, "slippin' and slidin'" (I hope there's no hidden inuendo in his lyrics). It's 12 noon - a little late in the day to get going on a hike - but I guesstimate I can make it to Lion's Park in plenty of time. In what will become a very familiar tone in my planning of different hikes on the IAT, I overestimate my stamina and how much ground I can cover on a fleeing winter afternoon.



Potholes along the Pothole Trail



In order to be an official ThruHiker you have to have hiked all of it between Interstate Park and Potawatomi Park on the other end. So before I can head out, I have to make my way down the Pothole Trail and find my way to the Western Terminus overlooking the St. Croix River. This takes awhile mostly because the day is beautiful and my footing is bad. While the west side of the river (the Taylors Falls side) has more of these glacial formations, several potholes hug the trail. According to the IAT Companion Guide (2004 edition) these potholes and the Dalles of the St. Croix River "were formed when torrential glacial meltwater scoured the riverside bedrock cliffs with rock and silt in a drilling type motion" (p. 165) I'd hate to fall down one of them. The western terminus marker is affixed to a lrage glacial erratic (i.e., a big boulder that was picked up by the glacier somewhere else and when it melted left it high and dry a long way from where it originally hailed from) that overlooks the 100-foot deep gorge of the St. Croix River Dalles. Here's my journal entry from that moment:

I'm on the Pothole Trail now overlooking the St. Croix River and looking across to Taylors Falls. The day is great and it is especially nice to hear the quiet roar of the river competing with the louder roar of the traffic on Hwy 8.

Only now can I consider the hike to have officially begun. I have to make it back up the hill to the Interpretive Center and on my way a young buck and I nearly run into each other. He is as startled to see me as I am to see him. 

The view from the Western Terminus



This church lies at the bottom of the Wellness Esker



Is it coincidental or ironic that a church committed to healing is at the foot of the Wellness Esker?



The trail as it heads up the Wellness Esker



Leaving the park

I probably wasn't paying attention to the signage but somewhere on the way back up the hill I got turned around and found myself on the Skyline Trail and then on an adjacent snowshoe trail. Eventually I found a Yellow Blaze (the "breadcrumb" marker for IAT hikers to follow) and got on track, walking out of the park along Hwy 35. For the next 3 1/2 hours I followed the IAT up Wellness Esker (one of the highest in all of Wisconsin), along city streets, through school yards and residential areas. With the exception of a friendly dog, I had the trail all to myself. I felt a little awkward making my way through the playground of St. Croix Falls Elementary especially because recess was going on but the map led that way and so I followed the familiar yellow blazes hoping a concerned teacher wouldn't call 911 due to a strange man walking through the school yard.



A sign?



A view from the top

Above St. Croix Regional Medical Center



Other sights along the Trail





St. Croix Elementary



Recess was going on





This, too, is along the IAT



Eventually I entered the Mindy Creek Segment and was beginning to become a little nervous only because the shadows were lengthening and the afternoon was quickly passing. My feet had developed a blister or two and I fell a time or two. When I finally arrived at Lion's Park on Hwy 87 it was 3:45. Unfortunately, I couldn't savor the moment of completing my first hike as it was beginning to drizzle and I still had to hoof it back to the van (something else I had not planned for). It took me nearly an hour using the main streets and highway to get back out to Interstate Park. I was footsore and weary but then again I had just hiked 7 trail miles and then another 3 or so to get back to the van. I had brought bad foot gear, no trail mix or water and essentially was not very prepared for an otherwise enjoyable afternoon hike. But my journey down the Ice Age Trail had begun.

 

 

This journey's end

St. Croix River (above the falls) at dusk

Tookish Me

"As they sang the hobbit felt the love of beautiful things made by hands and by cunning and by magic moving through him, a fierce and jealous love, the desire of the hearts of dwarves. Then something Tookish woke up inside him, and he wished to go and see the great mountains, and hear the pine-trees and the water-falls, and explore the caves, and wear a sword instead of a walking-stick..." from "An Unexpected Party", chapter 1 of The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien)



It sorta looks like me


I'm a hobbit at heart - I'm short of stature, stocky and hair grows on the top of my toes. While I don't blow smoke rings (or smoke at all), I have been known to take a second breakfast from time to time. Although I've spent the majority of my life in Wisconsin, I have traveled outside the state - to New York City, Orlando, Seattle, Kansas City and other destinations - as well as outside the country on a handful of occasions - Canada, Mexico and to the Philippines three times. I love a good adventure so long as it's not life-threatening. While a replica of Sting, Bilbo's famous short sword, hangs on my living room wall like him I value "food and cheer and song above hoarded gold." And I own a walking stick, except mine is made of composite material whose length I can adjust as needed.

I first became acquainted with the Ice Age Trail back in the early 1990s. In fact, by chance our family happened to be at the Chippewa Moraine Ice Age Interpretive Center east of New Auburn one afternoon shortly after it had opened and a reporter from the Eau Claire Leader took our picture which ran in the paper the following week. Our children were young then and so we only would hike the .75 mile Mammoth Nature Trail but given the topography that was challenging enough for their little legs. As they got older and we added a few to our small tribe, our hikes would get longer, often an out and back on the Ice Age Trail proper between Hwy M and the trail leading up to the center. Through the 90s and into the early 2000s we made repeated visits to the Interpretive Center for hiking, sledding or snowshoeing adventures and, when our oldest began running in high school, for the annual CC race that used to be held there. But it wasn't until I purchased the Ice Age Trail Companion Guide (2004) that something Tookish woke up in me and an idea began to gestate about venturing outside the known boundaries of the Chippewa Moraine Recreational Area and walking the length of the Ice Age Trail (IAT).



It was actually the 2004 guide
that got me thinking

 The guide that I own assumes that someone committed to being a Thru Hiker will begin at the Eastern Terminus in Potawatomi State Park overlooking Sturgeon Bay. But since I live only about 55 miles away from Interstate Park, the location of the Western Terminus, that seemed like a better place to start. I bought the guide sometime in late 2004 or early 2005 and would pull it out from time to time at home to browse through it. Like Bilbo, I love maps and while the '04 (or the '11) guide does not contain any just gazing at the little Wisconsin map insets at the beginning of every chapter stirred my wanderlust.  But it wasn't until early 2006 that on a beautiful, sunny January day that I drove out to Interstate Park outside of St. Croix Falls to begin "the journey" and like the Chinese say, the journey of a 1000 miles begins with a single step.

First pic of the journey

From the beginning I've kept a journal of every trek (52 to date) and here is the beginning of my first entry in January '06:

Thursday, January 12, 2006
Trail's Head - Interstate Park, St. Croix Falls.
12 noon

Hike 1: Interpretive Center to the Western Terminus/Western Terminus to Lion's Park

For several years now I've wanted to hike the Ice Age Trail in its entirety. Whether I have the time and the commitment to do just that remains to be seen. I know,  however, that I have the strength for it. My life as runner and snowshoer testify to that.

It's a warm, Jan. day. Really spring-like. The ranger informed me that the trail is icy & slippery. Well, what else would I expect of the Ice Age Trail? So, I begin w/hopes of writing my journey's thoughts and various mental meanderings.

The view of the St. Croix from the Western Terminus

This is how this hobbit began his Thru Hike. Given the fact that after six years I am only perhaps 200 miles along I'm gonna be at this for quite some time. But the way I figure it, the IAT isn't going anywhere. If anything, improvements and enhancements continue to be made so what may call for a road connector in, say, the Dane County chapter may be part of the official trail by the time I get there.





This blog is dedicated to that journey and to anyone else who loves meandering the IAT and would care to read of my travels. I hope to post lots of pictures and reflections of previous hikes and log my progress as I meander

...over rock and under tree...
over snow by winter sown,
and through the merry flowers of June...
from "Roads Goes Ever On" in "The Last Stage" in The Hobbit

So, with a good dry pocket handkerchief on me and a good walking stick in my hand, I keep plodding along the Ice Age Trail seeing just where it may take me.