09/24/06

IAT Thru Hike

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

2006-07-21 / Friday

10:00 AM Status * “unable to receive calls at this time”

Hi Friends of the IAT,  

Well you guessed it, the subject line contains part of the pre-recorded message that I received when I tried to call John on his cell phone today.   However, I do know where John will be tonight and that’s at Camp New Wood County Park on the Wisconsin River in Lincoln County (Map 83e).   I’ll tell you a little secret that John told me the last time I had contact with me, at the last MSC project at Camp New Wood he stashed a couple of brews in the Wisconsin River, to get them chilled, he new he would come back on his thru hike, now he can celebrate. 

Wow!  I can hardly wait to finish work today to get on the road to spend two days hiking the IAT with John.  I’m excited, we’ll be hiking 45.9 miles in two days over some rugged and primitive terrain.   Mark Berglund suggested that I take a bear bag and rope to protect our food from the critters.  Our second segment tomorrow morning will be the Turtle Rock Segment which is along the west bank of the Wisconsin River.  Some say this is the toughest mile for mile segment of the IAT.   We will have numerous opportunities at stream crossings.  At night we may even hear the howl of wolfs since packs of them do roam the countryside.  A real taste of the IAT is what I want and I think I will have had a good sampling by Sunday night. 

Happy Trails,