Day 73: Connecting Route, Langlade County

Day 73: Saturday, June 19th, 2021

Total Miles covered for the day: 17.5

Location: The Connecting Route in Langlade County between the Kettlebowl Segment to the northeast and State Hwy 45 to the southwest. 

Today dawned bright and sunny in our home in Wausau, and we have gotten in the habit lately of taking every opportunity, reasonable or otherwise, to go do a little bit more of the Ice Age Trail. Over the last eight years we have chipped away at it, sometimes taking breaks of over 500 days between hikes. 

This year we have been on the trail on 29 separate dates, so far, and by doing so have managed to connect the dots from Map 1 all the way through part of map 32. We are now targeting the "Langlade Gap", meaning we want to cover the miles we have not hiked or biked in Langlade County. Doing so would extend our continuous line from Map 1 all the way through Map 44, and even if some people scoff at us using bicycles to cover the connecting routes, that's still a whole lot of hiking. 

Our plan, by the way, is if we ever do manage to hike every inch of the trail that is available only on foot and make our way to the eastern terminus, we will celebrate that accomplishment for what it is, and then reevaluate if we want to give ourselves the additional goal of walking all the connecting routes to become official 'Thousand Milers'. Please remember that this is our adventure, and we decided long ago that for now, we would bike the connecting routes. 

Which was our plan for today.

The Langlade Gap (our term) currently stands as the rest of the Highland Lakes Segment, the Summit Moraine Segment, the Lumbercamp Segment, the Kettlebowl Segment, and 24.1 miles of connecting route, making for a total of 68.8 miles of trail to cover. The more we hike, the more that seems like a reasonable distance. 

So we decided to ditch our plans for today, if we really ever had any, and go trucking up to the southern end of the Kettlebowl Segment where the trail ends near a bend on Sherry Road and drop a vehicle, then take our launch vehicle to the town of Polar and start biking our way north. 

It was 9:52 am, and the temperature was a delightful 64 degrees. The sounds of Wisconsin floated on the air, from the sing-song tweedle-dee, tweedle-dum of the robins to the I-can-do-it high-pitched whine of a chainsaw hard at work. 

I won't bore you with too many details of the conditions of the road. Most of the way it was paved, and there was a little bit of gravel road at the end. We got there at 10:44 am, and it was 69 degrees. The hills weren't too steep, though we had to walk up one or two. 

What I will share is what we encountered on this fabulous last day of spring along the road, which was flowers, flowers, and more flowers. I stopped often to take pictures of the roadside flowers, since that would be the main story of our day. 

Here is some of what we saw:

Marsh Valerian

Red Clover

Hawksbeard var.
Probably Smooth Hawksbeard

Orange Hawkweed

Oxeye Daisy

Bird Vetch

Rose var.
Probably Dog Rose

What you see as you move depends entirely on how fast you're moving. Certainly, when you are walking a connecting route you will see a lot more than if you're driving through in a car, and more that you will if you're passing by on a bicycle. But if you're being observant you can see quite a lot from the seat of a bike, especially if you're willing to stop and take a better look. 

I have found that by photographing and sharing pictures of the many flowers we've encountered, researching the plants as I go, I am learning a lot about the spring flora in Wisconsin. It has been an enjoyable path of discovery for me. 

I also noticed that what you see on the connecting routes is fundamentally different than what you see on the hiking trails through the woods. And for those who think the connecting routes are their least favorite part of the Ice Age Trail let me offer that while there is less 'adventure' to walking along the road, there is a great swath of Wisconsin that they would miss if those road walks were completely eliminated from the IAT. 

On connecting routes you will see different birds, not only because it's easier to see them on wires than in the tree canopies, but because there are different birds there to be seen. You are far more likely to see Kestrels, Merlins and Morning Doves along the edge of a road than you ever would in the forests. 

On connecting routes you will see different flowers, because there are many such roadside wildflowers that cannot survive as part of the forest understory, needing the full unyielding sunshine to thrive. 

There are even different grasshoppers to be found on the roads than in the forests, or even the fields. Life on the road (pun intended) exists in a totally different biome, and it is every bit as beautiful as anything you'll see in the woods. As long as you slow down enough to see it. 

The next thing we did had absolutely nothing to do with our biking for the day, but rather we were exploring if it was possible to use the Primitive Road heading north out of Elton (Smokey Road) to get all the way to the intersection of the IAT at Burma Road. On the satellite view, it looks very passable, and we wanted to know if we could use this to make the very long Kettlebowl Segment a little easier for us. 

Let me cut the conversation short by saying our final conclusion was that No, we weren't going to drive this way again. Could we have done it? Yes, I suppose we could. But realistically we have pressed our luck far too many times by driving on roads that are intended for ATV use using vehicles never intended for such abuse, and we decided we would instead use the access point at Kent-Pond Road, even if we had to hike the extra three-quarters of a mile or so past the gate, twice. 

This side trip took quite a chunk out of the day, but it was worth it for future-planning purposes. 

Our next leg was to go from County Rd S to Polar, a relatively short distance, but we found great parking at the Church on S. We left that spot at 12:24 pm, and it was still a relatively pleasant 70 degrees. 

Yellow Salsify

Common Yarrow

Along the road at one point we saw this critter-hole, probably made by a fox, but it could also have been coyote. I was surprised at the sandy soil, since we aren't really in sand country up here. 

Canadian Anemone

Bigleaf Lupine

We got to Polar fairly quickly, jumped in our van and then drove south for the next leg. 

We intended to find a parking area just west of County AA, so as to finish map 37 entirely, but we weren't able to find anywhere to park our vehicle until we got to the intersection of Parkway and Maple View Road, and even that was a little precarious. 

It was quite sunny, and we continued to enjoy the light breeze and many flowers.

I once read somewhere that the difference between a flower and a weed is that weeds are the flowers that are growing where people don't want them to grow. I think this is clearly true, since many of these 'weed' species have absolutely beautiful flowers. 

Field Clover

Cypress Spurge

More Cypress Spurge

Monarch Caterpillar on Milkweed

Spreading Dogbane

I also think it's unfair that these plants have to suffer the ignominy of horrible names they did nothing to earn. I mean, come on. Cypress Spurge?  Liverwort? Bird Vetch? Spiderwort? Canadian Lousewort?!? Who comes up with these names?

Our last leg (after a brief picnic at the Church) was to drive to Hwy 45/47/52 and park at a surprisingly accessible parking area on Sunnyside Road, just east of the highway. From there we rode to our waiting car on Maple View Road, arriving at 2:18 pm, with the temperature still a very pleasant 71 degrees.

I'm pretty sure I didn't capture all the flowers I rode past. I was sometimes too busy enjoying the sights and sounds and smells of the Wisconsin fields and farmland to take more photos. And had it not been for another pressing planned activity we probably would have just kept right on going and finished the whole connecting route, but it was not to be, and we very much looked forward to the last 6.6 miles. 

Running Total: 530.2 miles of trail covered; 60.8 miles 'extra' hiking/biking. End of Day 73.

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