Dedicated volunteers improved many acres of crucial habitat!
Dedicated Ice Age Trail volunteers helped improve crucial plant and wildlife habitats across three Ice Age Trail Alliance-owned preserves: SwampLovers (Dane County), Hartland Marsh (Waukesha County), and Steenbock (Columbia County). A total of 158 volunteers donated 2,136 service hours.
Winter, offering both challenging AND perfect conditions for the Habitat Improvement events, didn’t deter hardy sawyers, swampers, and brush haulers. Invasive trees and shrubs were removed from more than seven acres, allowing for the expansion of native prairie and oak savanna.
The final MSC Trailbuilding project for 2023 in Cross Plains brought a record number of volunteers and service hours.
The five-day trailbuilding project from October 18 – October 22 along the Cross Plains Segment of the Ice Age National Scenic Trail ticked a lot of boxes: Enthusiastic volunteers, great weather, even better food, vibrant autumn color, an evening watching UW-Madison’s women’s volleyball on the big screen (literally), and pumpkin carving! As a bonus,volunteers built 3.1 miles of tread, including a 0.6-mile white-blazed loop trail. Continue reading →
The concluding Rib Lake MSC Trailbuilding Project, a volunteer celebration, and a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the re-opening of the Rib Lake Segment.
“This MSC event was about putting on the finishing touches to a 15-year project,” said Dave Caliebe, Trail Program Manager. “Although Bob Rusch knows more about this than I do, the entire week felt like the final kick runners muster when approaching a marathon’s finish line.”
152 volunteers donated 4,388 service hours to reach the home stretch: The Ribbon Cutting ceremony on the morning of Sunday, October 1st, followed by a hike along the rerouted and reopened Rib Lake Segment Continue reading →
“I love working on the Ice Age National Scenic Trail because what we do today will live on after we are gone,” said Cheryl Gorsuch, Lakeshore Chapter Coordinator. “It will provide our children and grandchildren with a legacy of connecting with nature and preserving the land for future generations.”
And since the Eastern Terminus is either the start or end of a 1,200-mile adventure, it’s fitting that seasoned volunteers worked alongside children with many years ahead of them. Together, the generations revitalized an important stretch of the Ice Age National Scenic Trail. Continue reading →
The Ice Age National Scenic Trail and its volunteers got an assist this summer from five Wisconsin Conservation Corps crew members, who helped build and maintain the Trail:
Some MSC events occur beneath a charmed star like the third and final project of the Iola Ski Hill Segment’s reroute. It started with an outstanding and fun group of people coming together – 101 volunteers donated 2,237 service hours. This number included several volunteers from the June 2023 Crew Leader Training class. Continue reading →
Taylor County has more blazed Ice Age Trail than any other county in the state. It also has one of the smallest volunteer chapters (High Point Chapter) to support it. It’s for reasons like this, the Ice Age Trail Alliance formed a maintenance crew, comprised of volunteers across the state, to lend extra hands to local volunteers. Continue reading →
The boyhood land of John Muir, eminent naturalist and conservationist, provided inspiration and a scenic backdrop for Ice Age Trail University (IAT-U) activities on July 12-16, 2023. And the Ice Age National Scenic Trail’s John Muir Park Segment offered an ideal setting for IAT-U’s outdoor classrooms, along with good weather: blue sky, plenty of sunshine, and the occasional breeze. Continue reading →
To combat the intense 90-plus-degree heat, project hosts – the Rock County Chapter – provided buckets of iced beverages and handed out cooling towels to each participant. Small pop-up tents offered important (but minimal!) shade during lunch breaks. And crews guzzled gallons of Gatorade.
Nonetheless, 51 stalwart volunteers donated 1,181 service hours to build an 856-foot boardwalk during the 5-day MSC project.
Clouds of Northwoods gnats swarmed volunteers, encouraging a run to Walmart for head nets! But, despite this springtime challenge, 101 volunteers donated 2,773 service hours, making incredible progress toward the October 1st Grand Opening. Continue reading →
A winter of ice and snow did quite the number on the Ice Age Trail in Northern Wisconsin, making the Trail impassable in places from downed trees and brush. It took considerable effort from segment maintainers to even open parts of the Trail this spring. To help with the efforts, a hardy group of 46 volunteers spent 1,035 hours clearing the Trail where progress was measured in feet, not miles. Continue reading →
A guarantee for April MSC events: Unpredictable weather. Yet, the promise of cloudy, 40-degree days and chilly, rain-soaked nights didn’t deter 73 volunteers who donated 1,995 service hours. They remained undaunted even after waking to half a foot of snow on Sunday morning. Continue reading →
Cold, blustery conditions did not deter the 37 hardy volunteers who framed up half of the 736-foot-long boardwalk on the first day. By the fifth day (or 1,081.5 service hours later), a new structure stood proudly along the route, and the old one had been dismantled and carted away.
How’s that for a wildcard project? It muscled its way onto the calendar a few months ago when funding from the National Park Service came through. Typically, projects of this magnitude are planned out a year or two in advance. Continue reading →
Is it possible to complete four days’ worth of work in a three-day project? It sure is! Volunteers – 187 – from across the state (and even Illinois) donated 3,048 service hours as they tackled 3 project areas to:
Craft 2 reroutes totaling 2,200 feet of new tread.
Build a 330-foot boardwalk.
Construct 3 stone staircases (for a total of 15 steps).
Like Autumn marching into the Northwoods, volunteers steadily moved forward on the rebuild of the Rib Lake Segment. In total, 102 volunteers donated 2,625 hours for the latest effort: clearing brush, crafting tread, and constructing stone steps and retaining walls. Continue reading →
The push to complete the Ice Age Trail took a step forward during the LaBudde Creek MSC event. Thanks to 101 volunteers who, over 2,030 hours, opened a brand-new ¾-mile extension. This effort was a worthy feat in itself. Still, crews also upgraded two boardwalks, maintained a half-mile of existing Trail, built a new boardwalk, and scouted out another mile of potential new Trail. Continue reading →
Part of the Ice Age National Scenic Trail’s beauty is its ability to shepherd hikers through the varied landscape of Wisconsin, including hard-to-get-to or otherwise inaccessible places. Thanks to 88 volunteers donating 2,185 service hours, a new segment winds through the Ice Age Trail Alliance-owned Rice Lake Preserve. Continue reading →
Iola Winter Sports Club property acquisitions and a renegotiated easement created an opportunity to reroute the Ice Age Trail from ski trails onto a dedicated hiking path. Over 5 days, 117 volunteers worked 2,962 hours to construct 4,000 feet (a little more than ¾ mile) of new Trail along breathtaking kettles and a wonderful wetland. Continue reading →
The Ice Age Trail brings all sorts of folks together, and this MSC event was no exception. First-time volunteers, New Vision Wilderness students, a pair of TikTok celebrities (their Instagram handle is “thruhikers”), and a long-distance hiker passing through joined seasoned trailbuilders as they cut fresh tread on the Rib Lake Segment. This confluence of novelty and experience resulted in more than 3,000 feet of completed trail, with a generous head start on another 1,000 feet!
After months of uncertainty, the familiar smiles of volunteers returned in a big way as 2021 progressed. Small events at the beginning of the year built toward the return of our large-scale projects. Despite shifting circumstances, trust quickly emerged as the season theme. Trust the plan. Trust Crew Leaders to lead. Trust volunteers to work carefully. Trust the skills, dedication, and passion of everyone who showed up to an event. As a result, we greeted August with a rousing return to near normalcy – hosting almost 100 volunteers and spanning two segments – that added three new miles of Trail in Dane County. A few months later, the ribbon (and cake) was cut on the newly minted Ringle Segment, an achievement worthy of a year filled with smiles.
Images worth a thousand words: Glacial rock and water formations are scattered throughout this beautiful landscape in Rusk County. Volunteers took in the sights while walking the land and planning how to best route future trail to highlight and preserve these features. Photos by Dave Caliebe.
Over four days, 19 individuals methodically explored more than six square miles of remote Rusk County. Building on the trail layout event last October, we continued to narrow down the locations for future Ice Age National Scenic Trail. Our group sought ways to connect significant geological features of the area and avoid wetlands and logging interaction where ever possible.
Over three official days (and one unofficial), 31 volunteers donated 615 hours to build four structures totaling 450 feet. Ahead of the project, efforts by the Waukesha/Milwaukee County Chapter generated momentum with pre-built boardwalk frames. The on-site crews, composed predominately of chapter members, maintained the pace with their skillful construction. They also remained undeterred by the fickle weather, which alternated between snow squalls and spring sunshine. Continue reading →
For the fifth year running, the Ice Age Trail Alliance and the US Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) came together with volunteers to continue restoration efforts on the Gibraltar Rock Segment. Under exhaustive conditions, crews worked to remove the invading juniper forest from the slopes of the Steenbock Preserve. Thanks to your efforts, biodiversity will be increased and nearly three acres of historic prairie can begin to heal and reclaim the landscape.
In an especially trying year, we learned how valuable the work we perform is as countless people discovered adventure near home. Parking lots filled and overflowed. Quiet, little known segments awoke with the footsteps and chatter of newly initiated hikers.
In May, after an unsettling absence, volunteers reconnected with the Ice Age Trail. Your skills and efforts were needed – and appreciated – more than ever. With our productive start to the year in the rearview mirror, we regrouped and accomplished quite a bit – and did it safely. Thank you for everything you did this year, and in the previous decades, to create one of the Midwest’s best hiking trails.