Day 96: Summit Moraine Segment (Part 4), Langlade County
Day 96: Monday, September 6th, 2021
Total Miles covered for the day: 3.5 plus 2.2 miles extra hiking/biking
Location: The easternmost 3.5 miles of the Summit Moraine Segment between Pence Lake Road and Cty Hwy A
3.5 miles of trail covered
Labor Day, 2021. For once in my lifetime, Labor Day greeted us with absolutely gorgeous weather. What to do? Well - go hiking, of course!
Earlier this year we tried to tackle Langlade County, and we were defeated by long grass and difficult hiking. The Kettlebowl Segment was imposing in length, and could only be broken in pieces by driving down an exceedingly unpleasant gravel 'road' and then hiking an extra seven tenths of a mile, twice.
Then there was the intimidating greeting we received on Old Mauk Firelane, where several truckloads of hunters with their bear dogs were rambling along, and not taking kindly to our presence. Combine that with the private.. business?.. that is in operation on the west side of the road and we determined that spring would be a better time to try to close this gap.
But then we were reading on Facebook that someone had hiked the final portion of the Summit Moraine Segment, and that it had been recently mowed. This was too much of a temptation for us, so we packed up our gear, jumped in the car, and picked up our daughter and her dog for a day hike back up in Langlade County.
Because we were in a single vehicle, today was another bike-riding day, getting us from one end of our intended hiking excursion to the other. Sadly, Nicole and her dog were unable to join us on the trail itself, but we dropped them off to hang around at a local park with lake access and Theresa and I hit the trail.
I drove Theresa to the east trailhead on County Hwy A, then I drove back up Pence Lake Road to the place where the trail intersects. There is a great parking area there, and I could see that the trail did indeed look recently mowed.
The plan was for Theresa to start the hike right away while I positioned the car and biked back down to catch up with her. She even texted me telling me she was starting, and I knew I'd be able to catch up to her in short order.
But when I got back to the trailhead, she was still there, deeply engaged in conversation with some guy. I could tell at a glance it was a good kind of deep discussion, so I had no concerns as I rode my bike up to see what was going on.
This was when I was introduced to Bill Morley, one of the trail volunteers for Langlade County, who was out there with Jim Schleif. Bill was providing transportation and Jim was mowing the segment we were about to hike. To make a very long story short, we told Bill he was an awesome guy, and how much we appreciated that they were out there on a holiday making the trail usable for us. If memory serves, it took nearly a half-hour to say that. 😏
Eventually, though, we did start walking. The time was 1:36 pm, and it was a pleasant 66 degrees.
Despite having several obvious logging roads right in front of the trailhead sign, the trail itself starts out by going northeast along the road for a few feet before darting into the woods. We had gone not a tenth of a mile, and I remembered that I was wearing the wrong hat.
"Where's my hat?" I said, though I have no idea who I thought would answer that question for me. Realizing it was back by my bike, I had to race back and get it off the ground. Either that, or I'd have to deal with the mosquitoes the whole way, and that was unacceptable.
So in the end, Theresa did in fact get quite a head start on me, and she was moving with purpose. As I raced back to the start and then back again down the trail, she had gotten all the way down to Ventor Lake and back up to the roadway again, following the trail as it edges near this small lake, and I needed to put on my long legs to catch up to her.
I should point out that if you're walking along the trail next to County Road A and you find yourself tempted to head down someone's driveway, thinking the trail might be that way, don't do it. The trail goes another 100 yards or so along the road before getting off the private land and making a very obvious turn into the woods. Both Theresa and I were temporarily confused by the spot where the trail crosses someone's driveway, primarily because there is a tree that had fallen inconveniently at that exact spot, obscuring the trail. It was there, it was just hard to see.
Once we got into the woods for the second time, though, the trail was very easy to follow, even if the footing was a little odd in places. This part of the Summit Moraine segment is relatively new, and the trail looks more like a general idea of what will eventually be the trail rather than something that was crafted and forged. It's like take and bake pizza. All the parts are there, but it's not quite finished somehow. The footing is uneven, often following the track left behind by some gigantic logging machine, and though I cringe to say it, it could really use a bull-dozer to reestablish the tread.
Which is not to say it's all bad. In fact, that messed-up area was probably only a tenth of a mile or two in length, but it did make for some slow going at first.
Of course, this gave way to some very nice trail indeed, with most of the downed trees taken care of (there were several), and bridges built where they were needed.
The trail was incredibly flat until we reached the distributed campsite at Upper Ventor Lake.
The campsite was OK, but not fabulous. Not a lot of flat ground. It did, however, have a nice bench, and we made use of it.
Jim was nice enough to take our picture for us, giving us a rare non-selfie shot for the two of us.
Though it was nice to just sit in the sun by that nice lake, we couldn't stay forever. Eventually we got up and started hiking again. We encountered a part of the trail that was too rocky for Jim's lawn mower, and it had been recently weed-whacked. Even with the trail mowed, it felt narrow and closed in, with goldenrod, aster and raspberry reaching in from the sides. Combined with the astonishing number of trees that had fallen across the trail and had to be cut away, it felt vey remote out there.
Before too long we came to what is known as the 'Rock Wall', a great piece of stone engineering with switchbacks and stone steps. Very nice. It is here, apparently, that Jim turns around, mowing up to and returning back from this spot coming in from each end.
After that we were on the last 1.2 mile stretch, according to the maps. The first 8 or 9 tenths of a mile were on troads, making for relatively easy walking, until we reached the area where they were doing salvage logging. There the 'trail' was more of a bull-dozed heavy equipment highway, gouging out a quarter mile of mud that will be entirely unpleasant in wet weather. If this isn't followed up with gravel or some form of restoration it will be utterly destroyed as a 'trail'.
I have since seen other people posting about this area, saying that the loggers are unaware that they are using - and destroying - a 'National Scenic Trail'. I have read accounts where hikers were forced to dart into the woods, struggling to find a spot where they would be out of the way enough not to get hit by the trucks and other equipment. We were fortunate to have been here on a holiday, where no active logging was taking place. As such, we were able to pick our way through with safety, relocating the trail as needed after passing stretches where the blazes had been destroyed.
Even so, we nearly missed the turn at the east end of the mud road, onto an older logging road. Finally, we hit yet another 90 degree turn to the north as the trail left the logging road and became more typical single-track Ice Age Trail. The going was fairly easy because it had been mowed hours before. Still, there were a few low hills to deal with, and we were starting to get a little fatigued. Logging ruts are no fun to walk on.
The reward of this last short piece of trail was a chance to sit next to another Unnamed Lake, on a big, beautiful bench. Trust me when I say that in the background of this sign, a few pixels high, is a big beautiful bench by the lake. If you look hard on the left you can see some blue from the lake. If you squint hard... nah - you still can't see the bench. Guess you'll have to go there for yourself.
Running Total: 713.2 miles of trail covered; 88.8 miles 'extra' hiking/biking. End of Day 96.
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