Let’s Get the Ball Rolling with the Ice Age Trail Western Highland Lakes section
Welcome to my first post! I wanted to start off with a bang by posting about my recent hike on the Ice Age Trail Western Highland Lakes section. Over Memorial Day weekend, when our family was at our cottage in Wisconsin, my daughter and I took a day hike on the Western Highland Lakes section on the Ice Age Trail. The Western Highland Lakes section is located in Langlade County, WI. Langlade County has several of the far north eastern sections of the trail. The trail starts at Townline Lake on County T about 5-6 miles west of US 45 near Summit Lake. My husband dropped us off but there is parking available at Townline Lake.
The section is almost 6 miles. We also hiked the 4.6 mile connector road to the start of the Eastern Highland Lakes section where my husband and son picked us up. Eventually I want to hike every section of the trail. To do so, I have to hike the road connectors as well as the trail sections so I try to add those on when I do a section.
Trail Beauty
The trail is the Northwoods at its finest. We crossed over mostly rolling forested hills, topography left by deposits from the last ice age. I love hiking in Northern Wisconsin in the spring. There are numerous wildflowers in bloom which make the forest floor much more varied and colorful than in the summer. In particular, we saw large numbers of Trillium. These flowers have three dark green football shaped leaves with a single large white or pink flower perched on top of the leaves. Leaves on the maples, oaks and birches were all in. The effect I felt was of being surrounded in lush green while on the trail.
The trail itself is at times, just a footpath but at other times is part of old logging roads. Langlade County is known for having lots of ATV traffic but on this warm, sunny holiday weekend, we didn’t run into any ATVs until we got close to Kleever road on the south end of the section. Overall, the trail meets my own benchmark for a perfect trail, no noise except that of nature for a substantial portion of the trail. This trail is lightly traveled by hikers so we crossed paths with other hikers only a couple of times.
A River Runs Through It
About half way through the section, the trail crosses the West Branch of the Eau Claire River. This trail is little more than a very active creek. There is no bridge so we took off our shoes and waded through the water. This was our lunch spot so we hung out for a bit, listening to the water rush over the rocks. I would love to record that sound and turn it into a night time sleeping aid to drown out the noise of cars going by my house in Oak Park. Its hard to describe the lightness that I feel inside when I am experiencing one of these beautiful scenes.
We finished our 10.5 mile hike in about 4 1/2 hours. My husband picked us up dirty, sweaty, tired, sore and very happy. For more information about the Ice Age Trail Western Highland Lakes section, check out the Ice Age Trail Alliance website at https://www.iceagetrail.org/ or refer to the information I have about sections that I have hiked at https://thebeautifulhike.com/hikes/ Looking forward to the next one!
Happy Trails!
Christa
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