Ice Age Trail: Grandfather Falls Segment

While sipping my morning coffee, I pulled out my Wisconsin Gazetteer to find a place to go hiking today. (If you are an adventurer or road-tripper, I highly recommend you go get one - you can find them at most gas stations and even Wal-Mart.) So after perusing various pages, I found a sweet spot. Since I've never hiked any part of the Ice Age Trail before, this seemed like the perfect time to start. And after today's hike (which was *awesome*), you can expect a series of Ice Age Trail reviews to come.

This segment of the trail is located about 10 minutes North of Council Grounds State Park along Hwy. 107. The marker on the map was for Camp New Wood County Park and there was a dotted line next to it indicating a trail for the Ice Age National Scenic Trail. I figured it would be worth a shot to check it out, and if it was a bust, we could always go back to Council Grounds.

The winter has not been kind to Hwy. 107 and the drive was pretty bumpy. But the scenery made it all worthwhile. Halfway between Council Grounds and the Grandfather Falls Segment is a peak marker on the map for Ninemile Hill; there is a momentary but spectacular view of the Wisconsin River Valley from the top of this hill. Also there are two pick-your-own strawberry farms on this stretch of road ~ Engelberry Farms and M&M Strawberry Farm ~ so if you end up checking out this trail in June, make sure to leave time to get some strawberries!

Upon arriving at the  Camp New Wood County Park, I realized the parking lot had not been plowed and had to put the Jeep in four-wheel-drive so as not to get stuck. There is alternate parking across the road (with a plowed parking lot) for the Merrill School Forest.

The park itself has pit toilets, playground equipment, covered picnic shelters and plenty of parking. Down the trail a little ways, there is another pit toilet area and a few campsites... although the road is only about 30 feet from the camping area ~ it may not be the quietest place to camp, but being so close to the Wisconsin River might be worth the trade-off. I'll let you know when it warms up enough to camp!

The first thing I noticed when I stepped out of the Jeep was how silent it was. So quiet. You could barely even hear the river gurgling. Normally, when we're at parks you can hear the distant sound of a highway or roads or... something. But here, there was only silence. The evergreen branches hung heavy with the newly fallen snow from yesterday and there were stray snowflakes still falling from the white sky.

The trees along the trail are marked with little yellow rectangles so you don't lose your way. I'm not sure if this would even be possible because it's pretty clear where the trail is ~ even with over a foot of snow covering it! Luckily, someone had already hiked this section of trail earlier and the footprints matched my stride perfectly! (I found this person at the end of this section and talked with him for a minute about other trails in the area, and thanked him for leaving nice footprints for me to walk in!).

There are cute little foot-bridges throughout the trail. Because the trail is kind of "cut into" the hillside between the river and the road (above the trail), I'm sure there's quite a bit of water runoff down the hillside that would wipe out the path, or make it impassable if it weren't for these little bridges. In any case, I think they're cute.

I seriously cannot get over how SCENIC it was along this trail. I can't seem to find the right words to bring it to life properly. Instead of taking my word for it and trying to experience it through these photos, I highly recommend you get off the computer and make the road trip out there!

I realize a lot of the beauty today had to do with the blanket of fresh snow on everything, but I can't wait to check out this trail during the different seasons... birds and smell of fresh pine in the spring, camping and swimming in the summer, and the beautiful fall foliage in autumn.

As we got closer to Grandfather Falls, the river got increasingly louder. The babble of water over the rocks of the rapids was so soothing. At the end of this segment is a dam with a portage area for canoes. The trail continues across the river, but we had already hiked 3 miles and needed to conserve our energy to get back to the parking lot. Plus I only brought along one bottle of water and had shared some of it with Charlie (which she didn't drink anyway!) and I knew I was getting dehydrated.

Charlie was definitely much slower on the way back and stopped to chew on sticks along the way. She had been so exuberant when we started the trail, funny how walking through a foot of snow will tire you out so quickly. We had fun though, and that's the whole point.

Even though there was a lot of snow on the trail, I never felt like I was in danger of sliding down the slope to the river below. There were good footholds and if you pay attention to where you're going, you'll do just fine. It is a bit of a challenging hike, but still do-able for beginners. Just make sure you stop frequently to enjoy the view and bring along water so you don't get dehydrated. However, if you're super-afraid of heights, this may not be a good trail for you.

Small bird's nest I saw on the way back ~ tiny treasures!

I've lived in the Wausau area since 1996 and I can't believe how little I know about this part of the state that I call home. I'm so lucky to live in the Wisconsin River Valley where there are many natural resources to explore. I can't say it enough, people, get out there and explore your world... whether it be your neighborhood, your city, your state or any part of the world. Don't miss out on anything!

Exploring, going for a walk, checking out a local park... nature is free, people. It doesn't cost you anything to experience the natural world around you. And the reward is immense.

Happy Hiking!

Council Grounds State Park

Charlie did great while I was out of town last night, but she's definitely ready to go on the next hike! I'm completely wiped out from the activities of the last 24 hours. The weather on the drive down to Milwaukee was terrible ~ complete white-knuckle driving, combined with rush hour traffic and bad directions totally stressed me out. We got there in time to check into our hotel and rush across the street to catch the concert. The drive home the next day was much better. We took a more familiar (and scenic) route and got home safely. And Charlie was happy to see me! I "decompressed" for a couple hours to relax from all the driving, but then realized that Charlie was going to need a good long hike to be satisfied for the day. Another drive was looming...

Charlie and I live on a typical city block about a mile from downtown Wausau. It's a convenient location, but oh how I miss living in the country where you can just walk out your backdoor and go hiking in the fields and woods surrounding your house. Charlie gets regular walks around our neighborhood, but there are not a lot of "off-leash" opportunities. In my opinion, a dog's life is not complete if they aren't allowed to run untethered every now and then. It's just not in their nature to be tied up all the time. The sheer joy in Charlie's face when she gets to run flat-out at top speed is priceless. Because of this, we end up driving to find good secluded hiking spots where she can run and I don't have to worry about traffic or people. Winter is the ideal time for this because many people just don't venture out ~ which is great because we get the woods all to ourselves!

But when we got to Council Grounds State Park today, there were signs posted for the Ice Drags. After driving a half hour to get there, I was pretty disappointed to realize that the park was going to have more activity today than I was hoping for. Charlie was spooked by all the engine revving noise on the river and neither of us were enjoying the hike too much. After a short walk along an unused path, we turned around and went back to the parking lot.

I thought maybe if I drove around, we could find another trail that would be more peaceful; that was not to be the case. Apparently most of the trails in the park have been groomed for cross country skiing and there were signs posted everywhere that no hiking was allowed on the groomed trails. Looked like we were out of luck today and weren't going to find a good spot afterall. Despite this, the short hike along the riverbank was quite beautiful. The soft pine branches were so green! And Charlie did get to explore a new place, even if it was short-lived.

We drove back into Merrill where I stopped at Culver's to get a frozen custard and feed Charlie some dog treats while we sat in the parking lot. I pulled out my Wisconsin Gazatteer to see if I could find some other hidden gem on our way back to Wausau. There was a small town(?) called Pine River that showed an icon for a "geographical feature." I thought it might be fun to check it out, but we ended up at a dead end road surrounded by private property and no way to hike back in to the woods to find this mystical geographical feature. I guess it will remain a mystery. I was getting tired and decided I'd been driving enough already so we headed home. We took a small detour to take a quick walk around the East High School athletic fields. Charlie definitely did not get the exercise I had intended for her today, but the effort was there.