Hiking Dude Blog

I walked 43162 steps on the trail today.
I traveled about 21 miles today.
We called it a short day at Rusch Preserve where there are some free campsites and a pump well. The well water is brown. :-(
This is also the start of the 10mile side trail to Timm's Hill - Wisconsin's high point. (I won't be doing that)
Even though we've had two sub-freezing nights, mosquitos continue to hound us - but not as aggressively and only in the afternoon and evening. You can see I'm still making use of my bug suit this evening.
In this established campsite, there is at least one pesky rodent searching for free food. We've no such visitors when camping wild out on the trail. But, last night, we did have a gang of turkeys wander by our tents making lots of noise. That was a treat!

Slept in this morning since we did so many miles yesterday, it was 29 degrees, and we have a shuttle scheduled for tomorrow.I was toasty warm all night in my down jacket!
We started hiking a bit after 8am and are at Wood Lake park for a lunch stop.
We'll have a very short day tomorrow since we need to move the vehicle and get a shuttle back to the trail - doesn't do any good to hike past the drop-off point.
The trail segments in Lincoln county have been great - easy to navigate and nice forests. The volunteers have done a wonderful job. We crossed into Taylor county this morning and so far so good.
Hike On

I walked 71328 steps on the trail today.
I traveled about 34 miles today.
In the New Wood segment, there are 3 large, old white pine. Adding up the miles in the trail guide, they are at about the 800 mile mark. Since we passed them today, this is now my longest hike - the Arizona Trail was 800 miles.
At the end of this long day, we walked over a brand new footbridge installed just this morning by a great group of volunteers. It is an excellent bridge over some chronically wet area. So, THANK YOU to the Lincoln County IAT folks!

This Sunday was our first Zero Day of the month. It's been 2 weeks of hiking with no break. Ed and Louise of the Underdown Horse Club gave us a lift to my van after cleaning up camp this morning. Oh, by the way, it did rain all night and this morning so it was a good thing we stayed dry in the shed overnight.
With a vehicle, we took showers at a state park, did laundry, visited a library, and ate! We then drove to our next endpoint where we met Ruby, a wonderful IAT volunteer.
Ruby has taken us to her home where we've met her husband, had a terrific halibut dinner, and watched some fooball. Tomorrow, it's back on the trail with probably very cold but dry weather.
Helping Denny and Sassy, the horses, was a highlight of the day.

I walked 56286 steps on the trail today.
I traveled about 26 miles today.
The mosquitos found us after the lookout tower so we covered up with bug netting and hiked on. We finished the very Up and Down Harrison Hills segment with a goal of reaching the Underdown Rec Area that had water.
When we arrived, the place was full of horse riders - the Underdown Horse Club was haing a ride today. About 100 horses and riders were here!
They welcomed us and invited us to join them for dinner. We are now getting ready to sleep in their storage shed so we don't have to set up tents with rain expected tonight.
It has been a wonderful evening visiting with some great, friendly folks. Tomorrow looks to be wet and cold so we may take a day off the trail since we've hiked every day since Lodi. We'll see.
By the way, horse folks have great potlucks!

I'm on top of the lookout tower on the high point of the Ice Age Trail! It's all downhill to Minnesota from here.
Sweeping views all around, including Rib Mountain way down by Wausau. It's all gresn now, but in a few weeks it will be a kaleidoscope of color.
Hike On

I walked 62682 steps on the trail today.
I traveled about 29 miles today.
This was a beautiful fall day of hiking. Cool air, crunchy leafs underfoot, and warming sunshine all day. A great day for a very long hike!
Towards late afternoon, a lady appeared by the picnic table at which we were taking a short break before doing our last couple hour leg of hiking. It turns out she is Valderi - hiking the trail eastbound, opposite us. She had a tiny pack of mostly water since she is not camping out on the trail each night. She has an online journal of her trip - I believe it is at epiciceagetrail.blogspot.com but maybe someone can leave a comment with the correct URL if not that.
Valderi gave us advice about the trail ahead that she received from the local chapter coordinator. Based on that, we took an alternate route around four miles and one of several reroutes past another spot.
The trail today was enjoyable and included some elevation gain. Tomorrow's walk should take us over the IAT's highest point.

We have a long day today, hoping to reach the road above Merrill by Sunday. The trail ahead is reported to be rough, logged, and heavy ATV use - not to mention flooding from beaver activity. What fun! :-). We'll see how it goes. So far today has been great. We're taking alunch break at Lake Susan letting our shoes and socks dry from the heavy morning dew.

I walked 67348 steps on the trail today.
I traveled about 28 miles today.
I'm glad to be finished with the Kettlebowl segment. There were a few spots where signs were hidden or missing and we had to backtrack a little way. Nothing big, but made for a longer day.
The Lumbercamp segment was almost completely easy-to-follow logging road or mowed path. We flushed over a dozen grouse and many deer. We even saw a bear print in the mud! Plus, some coyote prints.
We passed the 700 mile mark today just past Kettlebowl ski area. We also made the big turn from northeast to west so it's a relative straight shot to the MN border.
My hand is still swollen but has not gotten worse since lunch.
We are camped in a very rough logged out forest tonight. It's supposed to get pretty cold so that should help with bugs - just hope I stay warm.

We met Steady Eddy on the trail this morning. He's a fellow Minnesotan and is hiking pieces of the trail alone. Great guy and fun to hike with for about an hour.
Eddy also taught me an important lesson today - Visually Verify! We reached a spot that Eddy said was Burma Road and he had hiked from the other direction to that point the previous day. I took his word and headed down the path with Papa Bear in the direction he indicated. Well, after much longer than expected without seeing any blazes, we finally turned around and retraced our steps.
It wasn't Burma Road! A sign had fallen in the grass and it pointed the other direction. OOPS! So, a 90minute detour which you can see on my map - Check out my current location on the map.
A lesson well learned to check location and direction all the time.