Day 65: Chippewa Moraine Segment (Part 1), Chippewa River Segment (Part 2), Firth Lake Segment (Part 2), Chippewa County

Day 65: Sunday May 16th, 2021

Total Miles covered for the day: 5.7

Location 1: The westernmost portion of the Chippewa Moraine Segment, from the Dave Obey Interpretive Center to the trailhead on 267th Avenue.

2.0 miles of trail covered

Last night we slept at a Hipcamp camping site called Maggie's Magic Mirror, a no-frills spot about 20 miles to the north which was little more than a place to put up a tent. Actually, there are several sites, and I'm sure the other sites were a little prettier than ours, but we wanted the convenience of parking right next to the tent, and so we ended up in the long grass next to a garden, an abandoned motorhome from the 1970s, and a couple of sheds. The price was only $10, and we essentially got what we paid for, including all the wood ticks we could carry. That long grass out in the sun was absolutely teeming with the little eight-legged, blood-sucking, disease-laden pests, and we had no shortage of entertainment ridding ourselves of them after we broke down camp.

It was a very, vey foggy morning. There was no rain, but since there was 100% humidity it was as though we were dipped in liquid air. The tent, and everything else that was not inside the vehicle, was soaking wet. Even the sleeping bags, protected inside the tent, were noticeably damp on the outside. Only the ground cloth that was underneath our tent was dry. How weird was that?

Everything was folded up and shoved into the van, with or without garbage bags to protect the car and limit the spread of ticks, and we were outta there. 

We dropped one vehicle at the massive parking area near the west trailhead, then drove the other car to the Interpretive Center, planning to hike the last, or first, two miles of this beautiful segment. 

One of the great joys of being at the Dave Obey Center early in the morning on a spring day is that there are birds. Lots of birds. There are a number of bird feeders at the Center, all raised high enough that the birds can enjoy them without fear of intrusion at ground level. Consequently they get a broad array of birds, and the feeding is continuous. 

I can't remember all the different species I saw in the couple of minutes I was there. I particularly remember quite a few red-headed woodpeckers, flickers, and red-bellied sapsuckers (rounding out the woodpecker presence), as well as finches, jays, grosbeaks, catbirds and a few others. Had I not wanted to go hiking so much I would have enjoyed just hanging around there to watch all the aviary entertainment. 

We started hiking at 9:25 am, temperature 51 degrees. Most of the fog had burned off, and it looked to be a perfect day for hiking.

The trail leading downhill from the Interpretive Center, which was still closed for COVID-19 by the way, is a broad dirt track that is badly over-used, and there is some erosion on parts of it as it plunges rapidly downhill to the first of many lakes. 

There are a couple of signs to read as you go.

The trail in this area is hummocky, and the IAT makes full use of their ability to take hikers up one hill and down the other side, only to find another hill, and another hill. 

Kettle after kettle filled the woods. Lake after lake greets the hiker as they walk. There are a couple of benches along this two-mile stretch, but not where you would necessarily expect them. And to borrow an expression from Howard Carter, all we could see was 'Green - everywhere the glint of green'. 

It was May 16th. The time of the trillium was almost over. This was the age of the fern.

Over the last couple weeks we have been watching the woods come to life, one species at a time, and the ferns have been making quite a push recently, starting as cute (and edible) little fiddleheads, and uncurling slowly, filling out and bursting forth with black seeds, rusty felt and broad, leafy fronds. Here, under the mature canopy of oaks and maples, the ferns were just coming into their glory, and they were everywhere. 

As we rounded the north end of North Shattuck Lake, between North Shattuck Lake and North of North Shattuck Lake (it's true - look at the map), we passed over a venerable old bridge build in 1990 by the  Ice Age Trail Council of the Wisconsin Conservation Corps. Bless their hearts. This bridge has held up VERY well. 

The main reason we hiked this piece east to west was that it was far more downhill than up. If that patters to you, I encourage you to do the same.

Lake after lake, beautiful view after beautiful view. It's easy to see why the Dave Obey center was built here. This is indeed a showcase for what they want people to believe the whole IAT is like. It's a fantasy, or course, but for two miles we allowed ourselves to believe in fairy tales, if only for a little while. 

Right at the end, and right before you get to the trailhead there is a sign telling about a tree that used to stand there known as the Chippewa Bay Tree. I'm sure it was very special. 

One of a diminishing number of white trillium in bloom

We reached the car at 10:50 am, temperature 56 degrees. The day was waiting. 

Because we weren't planning on hiking a contiguous piece, we needed to go back and pick up our car at the Dave Obey Center. I listened once more to the abundant birdsong and then we were on our way to part 2 of our hiking day.

Location 2: The Chippewa River Segment

1.3 miles of trail covered, with 0.6 miles extra hiking

Since we discovered yesterday that the Chippewa River segment still existed (for now) and had not yet been turned into a blue-blaze spur trail, we decided to hike it today. 

Unfortunately, we finally ran into the problem that we created way back in September of 2013. When we came through, way back then, there was still a trail sign in the Parking area on Cty CC that is just a little bit north of Cty Hwy Z. More, there was still a path that led to a dilapidated bridge with an IAT sign on it, and a trail on the other side that led north and ended up at the east trailhead, just like it should. Unfortunately, what we didn't realize at the time was that the official trail no longer crossed this bridge, but instead followed the same path that exists today, and much of the path we walked on that day wasn't even 'real' Ice Age Trail. 

But we did claim 0.6 miles of trail that day, and if it were still possible to hike back the same way we went out I might have just left it at that, but the bridge is long, long gone now (thank goodness), with only a set of pilings remaining, and the trail that was there eight years ago has been reclaimed by the forest for lack of travelers. 

In other words, the only way we could finish hiking the segment was to hike the whole 1.9 miles from end-to-end, and we would only be able to claim 1.3 miles of it as new trail miles covered. The rest had to fall into 'extra' hiking. 

So we dropped a vehicle at the parking area on the roadside on Cty Hwy Z and then headed north to park at the other end, an excellent, large parking area with a kiosk on Hwy CC. 

We geared up and started walking at 11:36 am, temperature 58 degrees, hiking north to south. The direction was chosen because that's the way the river was flowing, and we like to hike downhill where possible, assuming there is a choice. And what we got was basically exactly what we expected given that it was possible to assess a lot of it from the road. 

The trail along the river tends to run along the top of the ridge for quite a while - the most logical spot - and provides an opportunity to walk up and downhill a lot over low, hummocky terrain while getting a great view of the fast-moving river. We were really glad we weren't being forced to walk at the water's edge. 

As we walked the ridge I got the feeling that I was walking in the same place as others before me had passed for centuries, if not thousands of years. Anyone, man or beast, who wanted to walk along the edge of the river would almost certainly use this natural ridge as the best place to walk. Of course, rivers are fickle and prone to changes, building up and swallowing entire islands and gouging out new channels, and there is certainly more water here now than would have been present before the dam was built just downstream. Now that I look at a satellite map I can see that I'm probably wrong. 

The hydroelectric dam at Cornell has been in place over 100 years, fixing the river in its current bed for at least that long, but prior to that the main river may have flowed over a slightly different course more to the east. If that was the case, this idyllic little hilltop may have been just an odd little feature that wasn't used much at all. I'll never know.  

The segment along the river boasts adequate trail markings and beautiful trailwork. One area in particular was very nicely cut, as it drops off the top of the hill toward the road, then slices back toward the river while it first crosses, then follows a watershed through a narrow ravine. This area could have been a nightmare for hikers, but instead it becomes a feature of the trail and you can really appreciate the amount of work it took to design, then construct this 50 feet of trail in a way it would remain intact and beautiful for years. 

Along the way we passed two nice couples making their way north who thanked us for all our work on the trail. We explained that we had actually done very little trailwork, and we were puzzled why they pegged us as actual trail volunteers. Perhaps it was Theresa's wardrobe, complete with leg gaiters and hiking sticks that made her look so 'official'. We'll never know.

There was one location where the trail did actually cut very near the water's edge, but it was in a spot that made perfect sense. Then we headed out toward the road to first walk along, then briefly on, the road itself. It was here we were passed from behind by a long-legged man who was making an out-and-back journey along the trail. We eventually crossed paths with him again quite a bit later as he was making his way back to his car.  

Overall, this was a broad, dirt trail, about 3 out of 10 on the rocks-and-roots scale. There were a few of each, but nothing to write home about. 

After we crossed the highway, we went north onto the piece of trail I had hiked two nights before looking for the 'real' Firth Lake Segment. The trail from the road goes uphill, then uphill, then uphill a little more, only to plunge back downhill to the creek on the other side, a total of about 0.3 miles. This is where the new Firth Lake segment will eventually connect when it gets cut through across the Krank Preserve, but as I mentioned in yesterday's blog, it's certainly not there yet.

Wild Geranium

Woodpecker Tree

This part of the trail is also quite hummocky, with more hiking up and down than straight across, it seems. Not that the hills are very tall - there's just always another one right around the bend. And again, I was impressed with the trailwork. A great amount of effort had been put in to avoid causing damage to the natural landscape, which naturally makes it easier and more pleasant for the hikers. 

At some point we started rewalking the trail we had hiked in 2013, though only one part looked genuinely familiar going along the western edge of the pond. For some reason that particular set of trees had been engrained in my memory. 

Fairly soon we walked out of the woods to the waiting car. The time was 1:19 pm, temperature 61 degrees. More hiking to do.

Location 3: The easternmost portion of the Firth Lake Segment (the part that starts at the temporary spur trail on 250th Ave on the west and travels along the road for 2.4 miles to the County Road CC Parking area for the Chippewa Rover Segment to the east, that looks, feels and acts like a connecting route but isn't a connecting route according to the maps - maybe). Yeah - that part. 

One more time, and sadly not quite the last time, we drove down the pitted gravel on 250th Ave and back to the small parking area next to the place where the temporary spur trail connects hikers to the Firth Lake segment, where we geared up and prepared ourselves to walk the road back to our car on Cty Rd CC. 

We started at 2:10 pm, and the temperature was only 63 degrees, but the sun was positively beating down on us and the gravel road felt warmer than was comfortable. I kept my long sleeves on to prevent sunburns and wore a bandanna under my hat to keep the sun off my neck. 

This was theoretically a 2.4 mile temporary work-around that according to some resources is part of the Firth Lake Segment and technically not 'connecting route'. I don't argue. I just walk. 

There's not much to say about 250th Ave that I haven't already said. It's gravel. It's flat. It was hot. Even the flies and mosquitoes didn't want to be out. 

Once we (finally) reached Cty Rd CC, we were able to find a tiny amount of shade occasionally along the west edge of the road, but not much. 

Not only that, we got to see some really interesting 'artwork' along the way.

We also spotted what looked like a Greyhound luxury cruiser from the 1950's, though I didn't get a photo. 

After rounding the last bend and crossing the last creek, we reached our car at 3:30 pm, temperature 70 degrees. That was enough. As we reached the sign, we connected our continuous line from Langlade County all the way through Cornell and out to County E. We had reduced our western gap to 61.8 miles, and we needed to get home and dry out our soaking wet camping gear. After taking one final, and I do sincerely hope very last, drive down 250th avenue to retrieve our car, of course.

Running Total: 450.9 miles of trail covered; 39.3 miles ‘extra’ hiking/biking. End of Day 65.

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