09/24/06

IAT Thru Hike

John Bauer and Bill Rhodes - 2006 Ice Age Trail Thru Hike Journal

2006-06-19 / Monday

Status – Wow! Was it Hot!!!

IHi All,

Go to www.iceagetrailmsc.org for John’s log entry and tons of really cool pictures.

I made it to where the IAT crosses County H in the Northern Kettle Moraine State Forest at exactly 9:58 AM.  GPS SAL came thru again, the plan was to meet John and Bill at the crossing at 10:00 AM, not bad timing.  Well John and Bill were not there so I called John on the cell phone and he was north of the crossing a few hundred yards at St. Matthias Church so I drove up the road a bit.  There in the parking lot, in the shade was a man whom I didn’t recognize at first.  As I got close I noticed he was wearing a shirt with a hand drawn peace symbol on it, he had a beard, was skinny, and kind of reminded me of Gilligan from the old 60’s TV show “Gilligan’s Island”.  Finally when I pulled under a tree for shade I realized it was John, he looked good but he had dropped some weight.  It was extremely hot; the outside temperature gauge on my van recorded any where from 92 to 100 degrees, a real scorcher of a day! 

When making a run to connect with the Boyz I always have to get some real food, they have such a craving for it, on this particular day I stopped at McDonalds and picked up six sausage/egg Mac Muffins and many side orders of hash browns.   John was in heaven when he opened the bag.  Bill had to return to civilization so John was stuck with all of the breakfast food to eat.  He ate his fill and put the rest in his backpack for a later time. 

In the back of my van I had a bunch of goodies and supplies.  A cooler full of ice, water, Mountain Dew, Gator Aide and Genuine Miller draft.  Two care packages containing a pair of insoles, first aide items, bandages, maps for road walking, beef jerky, nuts and M&Ms.   Thank you Brigit Brown and Sharon Dzjingle for the share packages, John appreciates them big time. 

On Saturday at 11:30 am the people celebrating the Skunk Lake Dedication called to talk to John and cheer him on his adventure.   John ate it up, he has a future in politics, and as for me I just took a walk up the hill to the Church cemetery to look around.  It was kind of funny looking down the hill, there was John walking around the parking lot talking on a cell phone with nobody else around. 

I left for home at 12 noon.  John was well supplied and ready to go. 

I called him up Sunday night to see if he survived the tornadoes that blasted thru southeastern Wisconsin.  He was fine; the weather was fine except for a little bit of rain Sunday morning. 

On Monday evening Mike Wollmer, John, and myself are planning to get together for a meal.  Mike said that John could stay at his place Monday night and do his laundry. 

I plan hiking two days with John, this coming Saturday and Sunday (6/24 and 6/25).  I’m figuring John should be in Waukesha County by then.  If anybody lives in that area and could give me a lift back to my car that would be appreciated. 

Happy Trails,