Day 1, Take 2: Saturday, July 6, 2013
Location: Interstate Park, St. Croix Falls, WI
We stayed last night at the Dalles House Motel. A reasonably priced cinder block motel where the most I can say is that they didn’t run out of hot water. In fact, there was enough to run out of the sink and all over the floor, but that’s another story entirely. We stayed up too late, and got up too late, but we were ready to start our day. We had maps in hand from our previous investigations, but couldn’t get the internet to work at the hotel, so we had only the maps and our memories to go on. We drove up the hill and started our search for the beginning of the trail. Actually, we parked at the Ice Age Center and Gift Shop, and decided the first thing we would do was hike backwards on the trail until we got to the sign at the front of the Park which clearly showed “Ice Age Trail”, leading away from the park. We walked approximately 0.1 miles, got our bearings, and started walking along the trail following the first sign with a mammoth on it. It was almost unbearably hot. It was 10:00 in the morning, and pushing 90 degrees with high humidity. The mosquitoes acted like they had been waiting their whole lives just to see us. Flies were pervasive and persistent. We got to the edge of the tree-line, and walked through the open meadow for another .2 miles until we reached the sign. Photo op with the sign, and we decided to hike a little farther, at least until we reached the end of the Park, so we hiked down a beautifully paved bike path, with painted yellow lines in the middle. We walked all the way to the edge of the park, turned around, and headed back up the hill. We walked back up until we found the place where we had turned left to follow the trail, and then turned left to continue our hike until we went all the way down to where we had started the day before. The shortest route was along the Skyline Nature Trail (0.75 miles), down the Ravine Trail (0.5 miles), across the Lake of the Dalles Trail (0.5 miles), and finally to the boat landing, then back up the same trail we started up to the River Bluff Trail. With the heat, and the bugs, and miles of walking we weren’t used to, we were tired, and stopped for a while to rest. We pulled out our maps to read. After reading a LOT more carefully, we discovered that the start of the trail was NOT at the river, but was in fact up at the Pothole Trail, a charming 0.4 mile loop trail that was well-marked and labeled quite clearly as the beginning of the Ice Age Trail. And it was only 0.8 miles away, all uphill, and temperature still in the 80s even in the trees. Three hours after we turned left from the adequately marked Ice Age Trail to take a 2.5-mile wandering journey through the beautiful but unrelated trail system of Interstate State Park, we found ourselves out of breath, and nearly out of energy, at a sign stating we were at the Western Terminus of the Ice Age Trail. Thus far we had covered about .3 miles of trail twice, wandered lost for a good long time, and eventually ‘found’ the trail again. In retrospect, I can’t imagine what made us think it was a good idea to leave the trail we were on, which we knew to be the correct trail, and go looking for the other end. Mostly because would not have imagined that the trail, in fact, goes THROUGH THE PARKING LOT of the Ice Age Center and Gift Shop, and the charming young woman inside had no idea of the fact. Long story short, we finished the loop segment, walked along another (mostly uphill) 0.5 mile piece called the Horizon Rock Trail, and finally back to the car, where we gratefully drank volumes of water and Gatorade.
We were done with the hiking in the park. We got back in our car, drove to the place just outside the park boundary where we turned around, and said, “Let’s at least hike to Hwy 8, so we know where to begin next time. Seemed like a good idea. We got out, and started walking. Hwy 8 was in sight, no less than 0.2 miles away. But at the bottom of the hill, the bike path we were on curved to the right and crossed the road to the Polk County Tourist Information Center. Can’t miss that turn, huh? We went into the Tourist Information Center, glad to get out of the heat, and asked about the trail we were on. Said we were interested in hiking it at least until we got to Hwy 8. It was 4:00 pm. The woman said we should be able to make it there and back before they closed at 5pm. So – off we went, at a pretty good pace, considering the heat. We walked about 0.7 miles across increasingly confusing terrain until we reached Hwy 8, then turned and headed back. We got back just in time to purchase our copy of the Ice Age Trail Companion Guide, and to get yet another map, which told us that once again, we had taken a wrong turn no less than 0.1 miles into our hike and gone off on another wild goose chase. Undaunted, we went back to the place where the bike route crossed the road, and looked beyond on the west side of the road, where we found our first actual Yellow Blaze Mark. Actually, we had seen several, but this was the first time we realized how vital these small yellow marks were to succeeding in our journey. We walked the 0.1 mile to Hwy 8, and just a bit beyond, until we touched the sign for the next sub-segment leading up to the Hospital Esker. We walked back to the car, and determined that our next effort would start with better planning. Net result: 2.1 miles of trail hiked (0.5 miles of it twice); 4+ miles of useless wandering in 90+ degree heat and humidity. End of Day 1, Take 2.
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