Day 211: White Cedar Segment, Marathon County

Day 211: Sunday, July 17th, 2022

Total Miles hiked for the day: who knows. Net Miles 0.6

“The trail is the thing, not the end of the trail. Travel too fast, and you miss all you are traveling for.”

Louis L'Amour

Location: The White Cedar Segment 

0.6 Miles of trail covered

Well, this came sooner than I thought it would. 

Remember that little 'Gap' we left in the connecting route on Day 209? The one that wasn't really a 'gap' because we hiked the same distance by hiking to the south and north ends of that future segment coming to Marathon County? Well, it's here. Or - almost. 

This weekend the Mobile Skills Crew, and all their volunteers, were working on converting that set of flags and yellow ribbons we saw in the woods (just nine days ago) into an actual trail segment. What better opportunity for us to give back a little than to participate in this event?

We couldn't come during the week, and we couldn't come on Saturday, but today both Theresa and I were available, and we both came out here to do our little part in bringing this part of the trail to life. 

We did not work together today. Theresa hooked up with Gail Piotrowski on the painting patrol, and I joined the crew out there digging dirt and moving rocks. I started out by walking past the people who were busy building the lengthy boardwalk through the cedar swamp, past the people clearing brush and digging stumps, past the sawyer and the loppers and straight up to my designated crew chief. 

"I'm Brock. New recruit. What do you need?"

"Hi. I'm Dan. We're building a bridge. Go get rocks."

"How big?"

"About the size of a turtle."

I didn't find any rocks close by, but I did find a turtle. 

I didn't spend a lot of time taking photos. What I did, while Theresa was making her way down the trail painting blazes, was move dirt, smooth out the trail, and help put a bunch of rocks and boulders into place, making sure that boardwalks had sound footing and good drainage, and that the tread didn't fall away into the swamp. 

Eventually Theresa made it to where I was working, just about the time we discovered an enormous spider up on the side of a tree. This is her trying to figure out what she was looking at. 

There is a whole bunch of the day that went by with a lot of work and no photographs. At one point they asked if I would be willing to go swing a brush cutter around to clear out some of the long grass at the end of the trail. So I jumped in a truck and got a ride to the far end where they left me to my own devices. Time went by. Work happened. I ran out of gas. 

So I started walking back and found Theresa. The work crews were busy putting finishing touches on whatever they were working on. The trail wouldn't be completed today, but a lot of excellent progress was made. I helped to water and tamp down one of the soil ramps on the bridges, and Theresa kept painting. 

I finally got in contact with the person who needed to pick up the power tool I had sitting down the trail a ways and got some instruction on what needed to happen with it. So while some folks were winding it up and heading back to base, carrying their tools, Theresa and I made our way to the end with Gail in tow. There were one or two blazes left to paint, and I stood and admired Theresa's work as she was telling and showing me what she had learned that day. 

I, in turn, showed her the log bench I had made using leftover scraps from the sawyer. And then we walked, just we two, down to the end of the section where I had placed the brush cutter and I put it where I knew they would find it later. Gail came down to join us, and all three of us walked the last few steps down to the road. 

I said to Theresa, "I think this makes it official." And then after a moment's thought, "For you, anyway."

"What do you mean?"

"Well - you walked all the way down here from the other end. I got a ride for part of it. So I haven't actually walked every step yet." We laughed about that. She actually finished before I did. 

I asked her how her feet were holding up. She said that her feet were killing her, and when she got home she was going to, "clean these boots up and give them away."

I asked her if she could make it back to the other end, and she said, "Not a chance. But I can make it back as far as that bench of yours."

So as we strolled back the short distance to the bench we came to realize that the very last blaze she walked by on the Ice Age Trail was one she had painted herself. 

So Gail and I left Theresa behind tending her sore feet and started walking back. Gail grabbed her bucket and I grabbed some gear, and off we went. 

This boardwalk is as long as these photos make it seem. 

And that's how it was that I finished the Ice Age Trail, walking along behind Gail Piotrowski while toting a shovel. And I don't even know the exact place I was when I finished. 

Back at the car, I drove around and picked Theresa up, and we headed off to base camp. 

It is traditional during these major trail-building events to have a place where people hang out afterwards for food and beverages, and a little group talk. 

This is Dave, who works for the IATA. He has been with them a good long time, and even though we had originally intended to keep it a secret, we let it slip out to this group of people that by walking the length of the new segment today we had in fact completed the Ice Age Trail. 

Dave announced it and we got a small round of applause. Dave said that to the best of his knowledge, no one has ever before completed the Ice Age Trail while in the process of actually working on their last segment. When I announced that the very last blaze we walked past was one that Theresa herself had painted they agreed that it was unlikely anyone would ever be able to say that again. 

There are still ten weeks until our Celebration Hike in September. I thought maybe we were completely done eight days ago, but since this little gap became a 'thing', I guess we needed to jump right on down here and hike it. 

There could be more hikes between now and September 24th. If there are, and if there's anything new to tell, then I'll probably talk about it here. 

Running Total: 1213.6 miles of trail covered (1137.6 hiked), 436.1 miles 'extra' hiking/biking. End of Day 211.

In case you're curious about the difference between how far we've hiked and how many miles are covered, it's because we biked the western bifurcation and haven't gone back out there to hike it. 

Yet. 

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Day 210: Connecting Route, Ringle Segment, Marathon County

Sturgeon Bay Segment, Door County

Day 210: Saturday, July 9th, 2022

Total Miles hiked for the day: 5.5; Net Miles 1.3 

"End of the Trail" 
A sculpture by James Earle Fraser, located in Waupun, WI

The original meaning of the End of the Trail sculpture is a bit lost by the sheer repetition and familiarity of the image without accompanying context. Clearly it pictures a Native American and his horse at the utter edge of exhaustion, and it is this simple feeling that I wanted to convey when I sought out the image. 

But in researching the sculpture I learned that the artist was trying to portray the tragic end of the Indian, collectively referring to all Indian Nations that originally populated this country, as he was pushed relentlessly into the Pacific ocean. It was literally and figuratively the end of the trail for the Native Americans, driven from their homes and ancestral lands by the European settlers/invaders. 

Yet there are those who look upon Fraser's sculpture and note that the horse, though thin and weary, is clearly resisting, his back hooves dug in, in defiance. There are those who see the resting Indian as a symbol of one who is not defeated, and remains alive. For where there is life, there is hope. And where there is hope - there is life. 

I decided to leave the image on the blog as a reminder to myself that these lands I have been walking across were once the homeland of the Ho Chunk, the Ojibwa, the Potawatomi, the Sac, the Meskwaki, the Menominee, and other Nations. They have lived in the region for over 10,000 years at least, and might well have been human witnesses to the last of the receding glaciers. I have heard that stories of a time when ice ruled the world exist within their oral histories. I find it fascinating that the boulders left behind as erratics ten millennia ago are the same ones we walk past today. 

Thankfully, the Indian nations have not been eradicated from the country, as depicted in the sculpture. Instead they are still alive today, surviving and sometimes thriving, living among us and keeping their culture very much alive. If you are interested in learning more about the Native American culture in today's world, stop by one of the Pow Wows. They will be happy to see you. 

Location 1: The portion of the connecting route south of the Ringle Segment between the intersection of County Road Y and Boundary Road and the south trailhead for the Ringle Segment located in Hatley, WI. 

2.3 Miles of trail covered

The day was Saturday, July 9th. We awoke to clear skies, the temperature a comfortable 65 degrees. It has been nine years and four days since we first set foot on the Ice Age Trail. During that time we have walked more than 1,200 miles and biked another 350 miles, all in pursuit of our 'End of the Trail'. 

Not the weary, defeated end. The kind where we feel like we have achieved something. The kind where there is joy, and celebration, and a sense of accomplishment. 

I was sick of doing crisscross hiking. This morning I loaded up my bike on the bike rack and we headed out to our last little bit of roadway, and the last piece of trail, and to set it up so we could walk together. 

So today I dropped Theresa off at the end of our hike and I was the one who drove to the other end to park. I then jumped on my bike and came back to this end to start my walk and play 'catch the snail'. We wanted to walk together, but we weren't going to waste time, either. It was 11:12 am when I dropped Theresa off. 

Random Road Hiking Thought #1. You have to give in life in order to get. Cats will not purr to make YOU happy.

It's true. You are far more likely to get a smile from a passing stranger if you offer a smile first. And you can't tell a cat to purr. You have to give it love and attention first. Then you'll get the purr. I feel like most people are the same way. 

Snail-cam shot of County Road Y. 

I never learned about wildflowers as a kid, and mostly never noticed most of them. I don't know how I could have lived my whole life without falling in love with morning glories. 

Random Road Hiking Thought #2. Social media has always existed. An instant message was achieved through the mail. People who wanted to reach a broader audience would write a book. If you bought the book you were following that person. If you loaned it to a friend you were sharing. If you threw it away, you were unfollowing.

This is one of Theresa's favorite flowers. She grew up thinking it was butter-and-eggs, but it's actually birdsfoot trefoil. It also apparently is called 'birdsfoot deervetch' and sometimes 'eggs and bacon', though that last one doesn't make any sense to me. The real butter and eggs flower is very similar, and grows in nearly the same habitat, but there is white in that flower where this one is strictly yellow, with tiny reddish stripes. 

It is in the pea family, and most people consider it a weed since it is so adept at clinging to the sides of lawns, hanging off the edge of the curb or growing along the gravelly sides of country roads. How anyone can look at this beautiful yellow flower that also fixes nitrogen into the soil as a weed is beyond me. 

Theresa made great headway on me, and I didn't catch up to her until after crossing the bridge over Hwy 29. As I've mentioned before, this is a very safe crossing, with a fully separated combination bike/pedestrian bridge. 

When we got to the car, waiting for us at the end of the roadway, we realized that we had just completed a monumental feat. Since May 15th we have covered 262 miles of Connecting Route, while sprinkling in more than 40 miles of walking on bike trails and roads that were part of a Segment, along with a tiny, tiny dab of actual trail hiking. And we only hiked 36 of those 55 days. I can scarcely credit the calculation. That was an average of 8.5 miles per hiking day. 

This was our VERY LAST connecting route. 

Location 2: The portion of the Ringle Segment between the south trailhead kiosk and the road crossing on Duncan Road

1.5 Miles of trail covered

For our next leg, which was all we set out to complete today, we did the exact same setup, where I dropped Theresa off at the Duncan Road crossing and I drove out to the end of the Segment in Hatley and parked near the kiosk. Theresa started walking, and I biked the trail back to Duncan Road, then started walking to catch up to her. This time, rather than leaving the bike behind, I walked with it, half-trotting along until I caught up to Theresa. 

It's a bit funny that this ended up being our last official bit of segment to hike. For one thing, it is basically the closest piece of trail to our house on the entire IAT. For another thing, we used to have geocaches along here that we revisited time and time again, but almost always on bicycle. 

Of course, we counted this as 'covered' way back when we were hiking -OR- biking, and so we never came back to actually walk it. And then when we started rehiking all those miles we covered on bicycle, we always worked from the stuff farthest away to the stuff closest to home. So our very last Segment - not counting the little bit we saved for the end - was the one in our own backyard. 

The walk turned out to be a half-mile shorter than what we counted back when we biked it. The trail has moved since then, and the portion that goes along the Mountain-Bay State Trail is not as long as it used to be. 

Random Road Hiking Thought #3. I used to think a thousand miles was a long way to walk. Now I know it is.

This small portion of the IAT that follows the Mountain-Bay State Trail is a lot like any other rail-to-trail path. Gravel, level, mostly straight. Lots of trees. Many times it trenches through a hill or rides a man-made berm that crosses rivers, bogs or valleys. 

You get a lot of opportunity to see some very remote parts of the state from just a few yards away. 

I caught up to Theresa at 12:49 pm. She was strolling quietly along, enjoying the decent weather and keeping the mosquitoes at bay. 

Getting close to town there is a nice bridge, refurbished from its railroad days but still very much dependent on the original underlying structure. 

The bridge crosses a beautiful stream, the Plover River, which runs clean and cold year-round. 

Some trailside signage welcomed us into Hatley. We had mere yards to go. 

July 9th, 1:09 pm. Brock and Theresa Jansen walk slowly up to a familiar kiosk and reach forward to touch the yellow blaze. 

The only thing remaining is 1.7 miles of trail in Potawatomi State Park, which we deliberately set aside for our final hike in September. There have been times we have put on big smiles for the camera at the end of the day, just to make it look like we were having fun. Today, the joy was real.  

We stayed for a while, having lunch at the nearby picnic table. A couple came walking by, and asked if we were hiking the Ice Age Trail. 

The first thought that came to my mind was, 'Well - not any more - we just finished.'. But we didn't say that. Instead Theresa told them that we had just that very minute finished the whole trail. It was close enough to the truth. The point was that she - Theresa - an overweight, gray-haired old lady - had just completed a 1,135-mile hike, and she was pretty proud of herself for that. They were suitably impressed, though I'm not completely sure they believed us. 

They took SnOTT patches, though. 

So here we were. 1:15 pm on a warm and sunny Saturday afternoon, and we have been hiking non-stop for over a year, and now the only thing that stood between us and our thousand-miler status was a 1.7 mile hike in Door County. 

For the last two hours I have had this in the back of my mind. So had Theresa. We were both trying to figure out a way to surprise each other with the idea that we should just - go. Today. Right now. Go and finish. All of it. Get it done. 

Life has a way of throwing curves at you. It is true that we have already planned our final hike. That will be taking place September 24th, and we have invited the whole of the IAT community to join us for free food and fun. It was a foregone conclusion that event would still take place. But that event was still eleven weeks away. 

Eleven. Weeks. 

Anything can happen in eleven weeks. One of us could get ill or injured. I could lose my job. We could undergo some other crisis. Can you imagine how terrible it would have been if we had gone through all this together, only to have one or both of us not be able to cross that finish line due to some unforeseen tragedy? Worse - both Theresa and I have siblings who are going through severe and life-threatening medical issues. The very real threat of a drop-everything crisis that would force us to cancel plans at the last minute was the final nudge. 

There was really never any choice to the matter. Of course we went out there. And we did it today. 

Location 3: The last 1.7 miles of the Sturgeon Bay Segment, from the campground parking area to the Eastern Terminus

1.7 Miles of trail covered

We felt like we were eloping. 

No one knew we were doing this today. We didn't advertise it. We didn't want anyone to come. We wanted this to be the end of our adventure - just the two of us. The party in September will be fabulous, I have no doubt. A celebration for all to enjoy, and that celebration will be very real, for us, too. There will not be the burden of the final steps, only the joy of seeing some of the many people we have encountered along the way there to congratulate us. 

If any of you who attend that final event circle back and read this blog, I hope you're not disappointed. 

When we got to Sturgeon Bay at 4:09 pm we stopped into the Get Real Café again, because this was where we were planning on having our party in September. What we discovered was that the hours that they were open on Saturdays were changing, which meant we were going to have to scramble for a new venue. Already, the decision to come out here today was paying off. That could have been a disaster come September. 

I still recommend the place for anyone coming through town. Great grub. 

So from there we went straight to the trail. It was still a sunny, warm Saturday afternoon, and we were in high spirits indeed. 

There wasn't going to be any silly 'catch the snail' stuff going on today. No crisscross hiking, or any of that. We were doing this one together. I took my bike up to the end of the trail and locked it to a tree, then came back with the car to join Theresa at the start. We touched the blaze at 4:57 pm and headed, well, northwest along the shore of Lake Michigan to our final destination. The Terminus. The End. 

I remember from the last time we were out here that the walking on this trail isn't all that easy. There are lots of rocks and roots and stuff, and the foliage grows in pretty close to the trail. We were also faced with a 140 foot increase in elevation, most of which took place in a very short stretch. 

Random Road Hiking Thought #4. Saying that there's a 50% chance of rain is the meteorological equivalent of giving up. It just means they don't have a clue what's going to happen.

The trail through Potawatomi State Park really is very pretty. Or maybe it's euphoria. I'm not sure. 

Because when you get a close look at what you're walking on, it's not always soft on your feet. 

Random Road Hiking Thought #5. My mind had a tough time adjusting when Hugo Weaving went from Agent Smith in The Matrix to King Elrond in Lord of the Rings. I kept waiting for the hyper real Jujitsu fight scene to come up

This thing below is a navigational marker owned by the Coast Guard. Just in case anyone needed to know that for, like, a geocache or something. 

Any time we were close to the water's edge, the walking got rockier, and the trees and shrubs encroached a little more. 

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Random Road Hiking Thought #6. I wonder what the normal people are doing right now.

I had that thought as I was walking the road. Now that I put it in the context of hiking along the coast of Lake Michigan, I wonder why people call themselves 'normal' when they don't do stuff like this. 

Random Road Hiking Thought #7. With all due respect to the Pachelbel Canon, I think the most beautiful song ever written for piano is Beethoven's Fur Elise.

When I got to this exposed rock cliff face I could see why all the stones around me were flat. The limestone rocks that make up the shoreline, or in this case mark the edge of Lake Nippissing, are all weathered and cracked into pancake slabs. This also marked the point where we started our uphill climb. 

Random Road Hiking Thought #8. I may have to paint yellow blazes throughout my house so I don't go through separation anxiety.

Random Road Hiking Thought #9. It's often easy to look back and identify the first time something happens, but much more difficult to identify the LAST time. Like these Random Thoughts posts of mine. Today is the last one of these I plan to post, but who knows what the future holds? I have enjoyed sharing them and I'm pleased that so many people responded favorably to my quirky sense of humor.

This was the thought I had that directly spoke to the many people who have been reading my Random Thoughts on the Facebook Posts. While the posts were only loosely related to 'hiking' the IAT, they were a valid reflection of where my mind went as I walked, and they gave me something to do to entertain myself as I hiked the many, many miles of roads. 

By the time we got into the woods we were hiking truly in a northwest direction, so the sun was directly in front of us. 

The last hill. 

The trail used to end here, where this sign stands. The terminus has now been moved about three tenths of a mile further west, where it apparently once stood years ago. I believe it has been moved mostly because the tower that was there to climb at the end has been closed to the public, so there is no scenic overlook here anymore. 

Across the park road we dipped about 30 feet down in elevation and traveled down a well-worn path making our way steadily to the end. 

As I approached the break in the trees where I knew I would soon see the parking lot and the very end of our journey I put away my camera and just took in the final few steps. Theresa was in the lead. There was one more branch to clear off the trail. I did that almost out of reflex. 

Together we walked out into the sunshine and turned west towards the setting sun. 50 feet in front of us was the stone we have been pursuing for more than nine years. 

On July 9th, at 6:31 pm, Brock and Theresa Jansen took the last few steps needed to complete their section hike of the Ice Age Trail, after 210 calendar days pursuing that end. 

Random Road Hiking Thought #10. The journey of 1000 miles ends with a single step.

The Eastern Terminus is not the easternmost point on the trail. Far from it, really. The overlook also does not face east, but rather northwest into a blazing sun at this time of day. We were brutally back-lit for our photos, so they won't be making any magazine covers. 

The trailhead sign is just to the south of the point where the trail cuts into the woods. I went down and took a photo there, too. It occurs to me that I now know exactly what lies along that trail, and that now includes our footfalls and our memories of every single inch. 

We had the place all to ourselves on this Saturday evening. 

And then someone finally did show up while we were sitting on the bench, taking it all in. 

She asked how far we had come and we said, "Twelve hundred miles." After explaining that we weren't thru-hikers and that we had done it over the course of 200 hikes or so, she was still amazed. 

"Can you walk five miles?" I asked. 

"I suppose, sure", came the answer. 

"All you have to do is walk five miles a day, and do it 200 times, and you've walked a thousand miles", I told her. "That's basically how we did it."

"Hi five?"

Done.

The tally:

• Three new Snails today
• Completed Maps 42 and 43
• Completed Map 103
• Completed the Ringle Segment
• Completed the Sturgeon Bay Segment
• Completed Marathon County
• Completed Door County
• Completed the Ice Age Trail
• Converted 4.2 miles of biking to the 'hiked' category
• 0.0 miles to go.

Running Total: 1213.0 miles of trail covered (1137.0 hiked), 435.1 miles 'extra' hiking/biking. End of Day 210.

So where do we go from here? There will be at least one more blog entry, because the 24th of September will still be a day of celebration, and my goodness, yes, there will be photographs. And there could be other posts between now and then. We have been talking about having Snail Hikes for some of our favorite locations. Those may or may not happen, and they may not be something I add to the blog. Maybe there will be just one more post. If not before then, I'll see you in September. 

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