Day 19: Saturday, September 14, 2013
Location: Lake Eleven Segment between Sawyer Ave and Hwy 64 (end of Segment), Taylor County, WI
Today is a day we have looked forward to with long anticipation. A day we did not think we would see any time in 2013, and perhaps not ever. Hiking this trail is a difficult challenge, and not one we were sure we would continue with. Today, we would finish Taylor County.
We have looked at all the counties in the guide book. We have checked the maps in the Atlas. With its 62.8 miles of hiking trail, and 84.9 miles of total mileage (not to mention the single-longest segment on the whole Ice Age Trail), Taylor County is king. According to my calculations, we had only 7.9 miles of trail left in all of Taylor County, and it was the southern end of the Lake Eleven Segment. By the end of the day, it would be behind us.
We weren’t able to drive out and camp on Friday night, because I had to call a square dance on Friday in Stevens Point. So – Saturday morning we got up and quickly organized ourselves for a couple of days on the trail. After dropping off our target vehicle at the STH 64 parking area, we got to our starting point on Forest Rd 558 at almost exactly 11:00. There were several good places to park, and we chose one about 0.1 miles to the east of the trail crossing. We were looking at the southernmost 3.8 miles of Lake Eleven Segment, which the online and companion guide describes as ‘challenging’ and ‘confusing’, noting things like tornado damage, raspberries, and generally poor conditions. I can say with relief that all this is in the past. The trail through this area is essentially a Class ‘C’ trail, with stretches of ‘B’ and even ‘A’. Starting at the north, it was a little rugged, cutting past some down trees from the aforementioned tornado, but we barely noticed because the forest was doing an excellent job of recovery, and the trail workers had clearly outdone themselves keeping this area open and enjoyable for hiking. There was one small bridge on the northern half of the trail, reasonably well built. About halfway through, or a little more, we met a family of eight people, resting comfortably alongside the trail, all with their shoes off. Even the inner linings had been pulled out of their boots. This seemed – uh – a little odd. They smiled and said hello as we passed, but they were a very quiet bunch. We asked how far it was to the end of the trail, and the father said it was about a mile and a half. That was about all they said. We never did figure out why they were all sitting there with their shoes and boots off. Even when we took a few more steps down the trail and Theresa fell through the first of several beaver dams up to her knee, fully within sight of the whole family and as they were watching us go, there was no sound out of the group – no gasp, no offer of assistance – just silence. I yanked Theresa up out of the degraded beaver dam crossing and we marched on down the trail, not looking back.
At about the three-mile mark, we hit a long, low bridge over a fen/bog area which looked a little like an attraction you might see at Wisconsin Dells. It was laid on logs across the bog, and it had sunken and pitched unevenly all along the way, making for an unnerving, if not too dangerous, crossing. I’m glad I was walking on those boards when it wasn’t raining. Those were definitely the dangerous when wet variety. Further down the trail we crossed two more bridges, and I think two more beaver dams of various length and stability. Overall the trail was well-blazed and easy to follow, as I’ve said. There was only one tree we encountered that I couldn’t move. We ended our hike at 1:45 pm, the temperature at 70°, which was up from the 60° we started with. Still, not too bad.
We got in the van, and drove to our next stop. We had the choice of doing two one-mile sections, or just doing the two-miles in one bite. We chose the latter and parked on Winter Sports Road, starting our hike at 2:30 pm. The carsonite sign said it was 0.9 miles to the crossing at FR 1417 (Chippewa Road) and this section of trail passed with nothing of note, except to say I would call it Class ‘B’ trail all the way. No bridges, and no blockages – easy, pleasant walking through the forest. When we reached Chippewa Road, the sign looking back the other way said it was 1.0 miles to where we started. 0.9, 1.0, take your pick. For reasons I’ll mention later, I’ll choose the 1 mile. The next section, 0.9 miles from Chippewa Road back to the car on Forest Rd 558 was Class ‘A’ trail all the way – a real joy to hike. Mostly level, and it shared troads almost all the way. We came upon one creek crossing where there was a bridge built by the WCC that was so high it was almost silly. We figured if the river ever got that high, you wouldn’t be able to get to either end because the whole area would be flooded. But – it would still be there after the flood. That thing was solid. Except for the ladder-like steps leading up and down on each end. Those were uncharacteristically poorly made. We reached the road at 4:30, hiked the extra 0.1 miles back to the car, and quickly made our way to Sawyer Avenue, to begin our last section of the day, of the Lake Eleven Segment, and of Taylor County as a whole.
You would think we would practically be running. Only problem was that Theresa’s knee was hurting, especially on downhill stints. This was really bad news, because even tiny downhill slopes were causing her pain. We had 2.1 miles of trail left, according to the sign, and it was going to be a slow hike, but there was no way Theresa was giving up. We started out at 4:34 pm, temperature all the way down to 64° again, and made our way south and west to the end of our day. This last two miles of trail was a perfect amalgam of all the trails in Taylor County, or maybe the perfect average. This was squarely a Class ‘C’ trail, with loads of rocks and roots. The slope of the trail wasn’t too bad, and there were very few branches or trees to deal with, but with footing that bad I just couldn’t give it a ‘B’. One thing we liked about the route is that the people who chose the route didn’t feel like they had to take us to the top of every esker-like hill around. We were allowed to walk along the base of most of them, and only required to climb up and over one that I can recall. By 6:30 we were very close, and by 6:35 the end was in sight. Theresa’s knee was really giving her problems, but together, hand-in-hand, we inched down the last steep slope to the road and touched the carsonite sign (for lack of anything better) at 6:45 pm. Fatigued and hurting, but happy, we danced a happy dance right there in the gravel and set our sights on rest.
When I added up all the pieces of trail based on the distances given on each of the signposts, it was something short of the 14 mile total for the entire Segment, so I’ll just give us credit for the whole 7.9 miles today, even though it’s possible we hiked a little less. In the end, we must have put the 14 in there somewhere. No matter. We got the second vehicle, had some dinner, and decided we would find a place to park for the night that would make it easy for us to start biking the connecting segment heading from Taylor County into Chippewa County, up towards Cornell. We ended up driving to Otter Lake County Park, where we rejected the campground and ended up sleeping by the boat launch. I had brought the correct air mattress with us this time, and we got to bed relatively early. There was a light rain falling, which was especially calming knowing we didn’t have to deal with a wet tent in the morning. We figured if it was still raining in the morning, we would just go home. If Theresa’s knee was bothering her, we would just go home. We should have added – if the air mattress springs a leak in the middle of the night, we would just go home. It did, and we didn’t. Fortunately I had a patch kit with me and was able to get a decent patch put on it in a matter of a few minutes, but it didn’t hold air right even after that, and out night was less than ideal. Running total: 176.8 miles of trail covered; 9.7 miles ‘extra’ hiking/biking. End of Day 19.
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