Ice Age Trail

For the trail of the same name in Germany, see Tiefwarensee Ice Age Trail.

Ice Age Trail
The Ice Age Trail's Wood Lake segment in Taylor County
Length	600 mi completed 1,200 mi planned
Location	Wisconsin, United States
Trailheads	Potawatomi State Park, Door County, Wisconsin Interstate State Park near St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin
Use	Hiking, Snowshoeing
Highest point	Lookout Mountain, Lincoln County, 1,920 ft (585 m)
Lowest point	Lakeshore of Lake Michigan, 580 ft (177 m)
Trail difficulty	Easy to moderate, varies by location
Months	Year-round, subject to weather conditions
Sights	Glacial landforms

The Ice Age Trail is a designated National Scenic Trail in the United States that will run some 1,200 miles (1,900 km) through the state of Wisconsin once completed. The trail is administered by the National Park Service, and is constructed and maintained by numerous private and public agencies including, most notably, the Ice Age Trail Alliance, a non-profit member- and volunteer-based organization with 21 local chapters.

Route

A map depicting the route of the Ice Age Trail, including the trail's official logo

The trail roughly follows the location of the terminal moraine from the last Ice Age. As the route continues across the moraine, it sometimes meanders into areas west of the moraine, including the Driftless Area in southwestern Wisconsin. The trail passes through 30 of Wisconsin's 72 counties, from the northwestern part of the state to the Lake Michigan shoreline in the east. The western end of the trail is at Interstate State Park along the St. Croix River, which there serves as the border between Wisconsin and Minnesota. The eastern terminus of the Ice Age Trail lies at Potawatomi State Park, which is along Wisconsin's Door Peninsula off of Sturgeon Bay. Along its route, the trail crosses numerous local parks, state parks and forests, state wildlife and natural areas, as well as the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest. Like other National Scenic Trails, the trail often coincides with other trails within various county and municipal parks. The trail thus passes through the land of various owners, including the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, the Ice Age Trail Alliance, and hundreds of private citizens. As of 2008, the trail is 1,099.5 miles (1,769.5 km) long with 467 miles (752 km) being traditional hiking paths, 103.2 miles (166.1 km) being multi-use trails, and 529.3 miles being connecting roads and sidewalks.

The Ice Age Trail is also host to one of only two designated national side trails, the Timms Hill National Trail. National Side Trails are a fourth, but as yet very seldom used, category of national trails established by the National Trails System Act. The ten-mile Timms Hill Trail connects the Ice Age Trail with Timms Hill, Wisconsin's highest point, which is located in Price County.

History

The Ice Age Trail was established by Act of Congress in 1980 due in large part to the efforts of Wisconsin Congressman Henry S. Reuss, who in 1976 authored the book On the Trail of the Ice Age. The Trail's origins, however, date to the 1950s with the dream of Milwaukee native Ray Zillmer, who in 1958 founded the Ice Age Park & Trail Foundation (now the Ice Age Trail Alliance, Inc.) with the goal of establishing a National Park in Wisconsin running the route of the last glaciation. According to Henry S. Reuss's book, the first person to backpack the entire length of the Ice Age Trail was 20 year old James J. Staudacher of Shorewood, Wisconsin during the summer of 1979.

A creek along the Monches segment in Waukesha County

Use

The trail is open primarily to hiking, although other activities may be allowed where the trail follows other existing routes. While the trail is divided into shorter segments, there are numerous opportunities for longer-distance backpacking trips, with camping opportunities including shelters in both units of the Kettle Moraine State Forest. Several trail chapters offer awards for completing all segments within their jurisdiction, and the Alliance also has a "cold cache" program to encourage hikers to seek out glacial features along the trail using GPS receivers.

Sights along the trail

Primary attractions include topography left by glaciation in the Last Ice Age. Glacial features along the trail include kettles, potholes, eskers, and glacial erratics. Many of the best examples of glacial features in Wisconsin are exhibited in units of the Ice Age National Scientific Reserve, many of which lie along the trail.

Wisconsin is also host to many forms of wildlife characteristic of the upper midwest. Numerous species of mammal can be seen along the trail, including red fox, American red squirrel, white-tailed deer, porcupine, black bear and grey wolf. A great variety of birds can also be seen along the trail - hikers along southern segments may see an Acadian flycatcher, Henslow's sparrow, red-headed woodpecker or hooded warbler while further north white-throated sparrows, ruffed grouse and bald eagles become more common.

Hikers on northern segments of the trail are more likely to spot mammals like black bears, grey wolves or porcupines, such as this one in Lincoln County's New Wood State Wildlife Area

Further reading

Two books are published by the Ice Age Trail Alliance to help visitors learn about or hike the Ice Age Trail: the Ice Age Trail Atlas of maps and the Ice Age Trail Companion Guide 2008, which provides a detailed description of the trail segments, including directions to trailheads, GPS coordinates for points along the trail, and information on accommodations along and near the trail. Because the trail is constantly changing as segments are developed and modified, visitors are encouraged to visit the Alliance's web site for up-to-date information on trail conditions, re-routes and other important information.

Gallery

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  Ice Age Trail Sign, near Devil's Lake State Park

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  Yellow blazes mark the path of the Ice Age Trail

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  The western terminus of the Ice Age Trail at Interstate State Park in St. Croix Falls, WI

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  The eastern terminus of the Ice Age Trail at Potawatomi State Park along Wisconsin's Door Peninsula.

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  An Ice Age Trail sign at the Table Bluff segment near Cross Plains

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  The Kettlebowl Ski Area near Bryant lies along the trail

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  The Ice Age Trail passes through a northern landscape in Lincoln County's New Wood State Wildlife Area

Units of the Ice Age National Scientific Reserve

The Ice Age Trail connects several of the nine Ice Age National Scientific Reserve units established through Federal legislation in 1964 and 1970. These units are administered by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

• Two Creeks Buried Forest State Natural Area-located on the shore of Lake Michigan at the foot of the Door Peninsula.
  • Glacial features: Buried Forest and Lake Michigan.
• Kettle Moraine State Forest
  • Glacial features: Kames, eskers, kettles, interlobate moraine.
• Campbellsport Drumlins
  • Glacial features: Drumlins
• Horicon Marsh State Wildlife Area
  • Glacial features: Extinct glacial lake
• Cross Plains (Cross Plains Feasibility Study)
  • Glacial features: Driftless topography, sub-glacially formed gorge
• Devil's Lake State Park
  • Glacial features: Devil's Lake, terminal moraine

See also: Devil's Lake (Wisconsin)

• Mill Bluff State Park
  • Glacial features: Sandstone buttes that were former islands in Glacial Lake Wisconsin and the former lake bed.
• Chippewa Moraine State Recreation Area
  • Glacial features: Kettle lakes and ponds, stagnant ice terain, ice-walled lake plains.
• Interstate State Park
  • Glacial features: Deep gorge - the Dalles - cut by glacial meltwaters. Potholes in the bedrock.

For additional summary of each area, see the Ice Age National Scientific Reserve article.

See also

• List of hiking trails in Wisconsin

Stages

• Quaternary glaciation
• Illinoian Stage
• Laurentide ice sheet
• Pleistocene
• Last glacial period
• Driftless Area

Components

• Interglacial (longer warm period during ice age, such as today)
• Interstadial (brief warm period during ice age, weaker than interglacial)
• stadial (brief cooler period during interglacial, such as Older Dryas, Younger Dryas, Little Ice Age)
• Little ice age
• Post-glacial rebound
• Timeline of glaciation
• Canadian Shield
• Glacial history of Minnesota
• Lake Agassiz
• Wisconsin glaciation

External links

• Ice Age National Scenic Trail official website
• Ice Age Trail Alliance website
• WI-DNR Dynamic Mapping
• Mittlefehldt, Sarah. "The origins of Wisconsin's Ice Age Trail: Ray Zillner's path to protect the past," Wisconsin Magazine of History, vol. 90, no. 3 (Spring 2007)