Hikes 4 thru 7: From 160th Avenue to Highway 35 (Or Hiking the Dandy)

Stretching 98 miles between St. Croix Falls and just west of Pattison State Park near Superior is the multi-use, crushed limestone surfaced trail known as the Gandy Dancer Trail (here's the link to the DNR webpage, Gandy Dancer Trail). It's one of the many “rail-to-trail” recreational projects that pepper the state. According to the Gandy webpage, it takes its name from the crews who laid the track back when railroad was king. These laborers used tools made by the Gandy Tool Company of Chicago. “The crews were known to work by keeping their voices and the movement of their feet and tools in harmony.” And thus the term “Gandy Dancers” was coined. Check out this brief video I found on YouTube:

From just south of Centuria to just north of Luck, the IAT runs quietly along the GDT. Between January and June of 2006, I hiked this segment (appropriately called the Gandy Dancer State Trail Segment.) It's only 13 miles and really even an amateur hiker could cover that distance easily in two hikes. But my life as husband, father of four and pastor has an uncanny way of interrupting my best laid plans for hiking. As I mentioned in an earlier post, at the rate I'm going six years into my quest I really will be an old man by the time I reach the Eastern Terminus in Potawatomi State Park. Hiking this segment is a case in point. It took me four hikes to cover 13 miles. That's what I call pedestrian pace.

Hike 4: Thursday, January 26, 2006

160^th Ave to 180^th Ave

My journal says it was yet another awesome spring-like January afternoon. The week before that I had been out on the trail I had dealt with an Alberta Clipper in my face the entire length of the 4 1/2 mile road connector walk. The only upside was that when I got to the bike, that Clipper was at my backside pushing me all the way back to my van. On this day, however, a strong Chinook from the southwest was blowing. For the third time in as many weeks, I drove up Highway 35 to Centuria to stash the bike a mile north of town and then drove back about mile south to the Fristad Lutheran Church cemetery located about a half mile from the GDT. I brought along my snowshoes but the warm weather and had reduced the snow cover on the trail to the extent that it really wasn't necessary. In fact it was overkill, really just an excuse to say that I got some use out of them.

 I got a late start (a little after 2 p.m.) and I only planned a 2-mile hike simply because I probably had to get to my son's wrestling match that was somewhere in the area. According to the IAT Companion Guide, the GDT is located on a glacial outwash plain which was formed back in Ice Age days when glacial meltwater streams in front of the glacier spread over a very wide, flat area. Not only does it make it great for farming that also translates into zero elevation for hikers. Even someone with a walker could easily make this stretch.

My hike was fairly uneventful except for the sighting of a large, black dog or something wild several hundred yards ahead of me and later in a field adjacent to the IAT. When I reached 180^th Ave, I tried to carry my snowshoes in my backpack as I pedaled back to the van but that proved to be too cumbersome. I had to stash them somewhere, ride back, and then drive back up the road to pick up the shoes. It was on that return trip (not to be confused with the bike-return trip) that I found that the wild thing I had spotted turned out to be a large black, herd dog who apparently was out on the town on a beautiful winter afternoon.

Hike 5: Thursday, March 9, 2006

180^th Avenue to Milltown

I didn't have a chance to get back out on the IAT until March but once again it was a 40-something degree day. The scenery was much the same as I encountered in Hike 4 mainly farm fields and scrub trees that have grown up along the former Soo Line. Here's a few lines from my journal entry for this hike:

“The winter birds were out – cardinals, blue jays, chickadees, woodpeckers – and I even heard a Baltimore Oriole. The unfortunate part of this section of the IAT is its proximity to Hwy 35. This means its difficult to hear the birds above the din of the traffic. But it was an awesome day to be out – even if the hike only lasted a little under 2 hours.”

Milltown

Milltown is a small village of about 800 people which hosts three community festivals: Fisherman's Party (June), Pumpkin Fest (October) and Santa Day (December). There must be a story behind Fisherman's Party given that there is no lake in the direct proximity of the town. The GDT splits the village neatly in two.

Hike 6: Thursday, June 8, 2006

Milltown to Luck

As I recall it, during a very busy week of Vacation Bible School, my wife, Linda, and I managed to squeeze in a “hike-and-bike” pn the GDT. The longer days of early summer certainly afforded us more daylight and we didn't get out that way until mid afternoon. We dropped our bikes off in Luck and then drove back to Milltown. This is one of the things I wrote in my journal that day: “It was a pleasant walk on a fairly boring part of the IAT. But the company was good.” It was indeed. We saw lots of chipmunks and squirrels and just outside of Luck we stirred up a crane who was fishing in the stream connecting Big and Little Butternut Lake. By the time we arrived it was dinnertime and so we walked to the Hog Wild BBQ & Grill in downtown Luck and enjoyed a good meal. When I first started running back in 2000, I would travel over to Luck to run the “In and Out of Luck 10K” they always ran near St. Patrick's Day and the “Leg it in Luck 5 & 10K” right before the 4^th of July. Unfortunately, both races have gone the way of the dodo. While writing this post I spent a little time searching for the reason the town got its name. If there is a reason, none of the locals will say given that it's not found on either the Village's or the Community Club's website. Unbeknownst to me until this search, however, is that Luck's claim to fame was that the Duncan Company, maker of the famed yo-yo – several of which I played with when I was a kid – had a plant here for many years. (It's also the place of where the church I pastor got its pews way “back in the day”.)

Some of the wildlife on the trail

After dinner, we walked back to our bikes and then rode the 3 1/2 miles back to our van. “All in all it was a wonderful late afternoon stroll with my best friend and lover” is what I recorded in my journal that night. This was the first of many journeys that Linda would accompany me during the first few years on the IAT.

The ribs weren't the only thing that were hot at the Hog Wild BBQ & Grill

Hike 7 (Part 1): Wednesday, June 14, 2006 

Luck to Highway 35

It felt so good to be back on the trail (before my last hike the week before I hadn't been on the IAT for nearly three months) that I decided to “combine pleasure with pleasure” the following Wednesday. It was a beautiful day and I engaged in what one man refers to as “long winding prayer” or essentially hiking and praying simultaneously.

I left Luck around 9 a.m. and had the trail virtually to myself. In fact, more often than not, in the 250 plus trail miles I have logged since 2006, I am all alone out on the IAT. Now that may have more to do that I usually am hiking on my day off which happens to be a Thursday but if you are seeking solitude, you can find it out here (if you don't include the birds and wildlife you are more than likely to encounter on a given hike, of course). That morning I played hide 'n seek with a handful of deer. The colors of the wildflowers which were in full bloom were just stunning.

“Just before the IAT parts from the Gandy, there's a hidden ledge below the trail that crosses the Trade River. I rested there awhile and then proceeded on my way. Just south of Frederick at long last the IAT left the Gandy.” 

 

I saw this guy several times that morning

Trade River

Right before Highway 35 crosses over the GDT, the IAT segues to the east. The rest of that journal entry I'll save for my next post. A strong and fit person could probably do the entire 13 mile segment in one full day – or less - but it took me four. It is fairly boring from a scenic point of view but I enjoyed my brief  rambles on the GDT nonetheless.

Highway 35

Last look at the Gandy