Ice Age Trail Section Hikes
Welcome to one of the great undiscovered treasures of our National Trail System. Congress designated The Ice Age Trail a National Scenic Trail in 1980. Like its more famous cousins, The Appalachian Trail and The Pacific Crest Trail, it is administered by the National Park Service. The trail is constructed and maintained by public and private non-profit organizations. It is over 1,000 miles long and is entirely in the state of Wisconsin. It follows the path of features left when the glaciers in the last ice age retreated. For more general information about the trail as well as through hiking information and publications, visit the Ice Age Trail Alliance website at https://www.iceagetrail.org/. I have provided detailed reviews of the Ice Age Trail section hikes that I have completed.
Trail Route
The Eastern terminus of the trail is at Pottowatami State Park in Door County, the peninsula that juts out into Lake Michigan. The trail drops south to skirt the shore of Lake Michigan at Manitowac. It then travels southwest through 3 units of the Kettle Moraine State Forest to Janesville not far from the Illinois state line. From there, the trail goes west to Albany then north to Devil’s Lake State park. At Devil’s Lake, the trail bifurcates into eastern and western segments. The eastern section goes through Portage and the western section goes through Baraboo and near the Wisconsin Dells. The segments rejoin in the center of the state then the trail heads north and a little east up to Langlade County. Westbound from there, the trail crosses the through National Forest lands along the southern part of the North Woods. The Western terminus is in the Wisconsin Interstate State Park at the Minnesota border.
Ecology
The are 118 sections in 29 counties. There are also numerous connecting routes along country roads to connect the segments. The trail can be hiked from end to end in about 3 months. These sections have widely varying ecosystems from Great Lakes lakeshore, prairie, marsh, woodlands, small lakes, streams, large and small rivers. The trail also goes through the center of several small cities and towns. The terrain can be quite flat at the southern end of the trail but quite hilly in the central and northern sections. The highest point of 1,920 feet on Lookout Mountain on the Harrison Hills segment won’t impress peak baggers. However, the wide range of topography in one relatively small state is quite impressive.
Reader hike reviews