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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