May 17-20 - New Trail, Rice Lake Area, Kettle Moraine SF, Walworth County  - IAT Thank You!

Hello!! 

            Thank you for your time and talent May 17-20 in the Southern Unit of the Kettle Moraine State Forest helping hand craft a superb NEW section of the Ice Age National Scenic Trail!   Folks of all ages and abilities will walk this path for decades to come.  Although they will not know you by name, they will know you by the quality experience your work makes possible, and by your cooperative spirit, embedded silently in the Trail.   

            13 tons of lumber; 3000 feet of sustainable tread; 25 or more tall garbage bags of garlic mustard pulled and removed; unknown numbers of buckthorn and honeysuckle eradicated; one 30-foot bridge and most of the an 80-foot puncheon built; one climbing turn and several fine rock walls crafted; multiple trail signage posts and internal signage needs installed; over 100 hungry trail workers feed morning, noon and night.  Collectively, over 2000 volunteer hours went into this effort (we’re still tallying figures!) and a trail with purpose and identity is born.  

            Thanks too our many local donors including Goehner Industries (Dousman), corporate sponsor David Hobbs Honda (Glendale), Kikkomen Foods Foundation (Walworth), Panera Bread (East Troy), Nicomus Bread (E.Troy), Jennio Turkey (Baronet), Starbucks Coffee (Lake Geneva), Super Value (Paddock Lakes), Franks Country Market and Big Apples Bagels (Lake Geneva), Culligan (Whitewater) and all others, large and small!!  Many thanks to the National Park Service and Department of Natural Resources for their ongoing financial support of the Ice Age Park and Trail Foundation Mobile Skills Crew program.  Lastly, thank you to our host Walworth Jefferson chapter volunteers for the hundreds of advance planning, on-site AND follow-through hours invested to make such an event possible.   

            What’s next?  For starters, this section of trail will be featured National Trails Day Saturday, June 2.  Contact Gary Klatt, klattg@uww.edu, for more information.  Also, please take a few minutes to jot down your thoughts in the survey attached / pasted below.  Finally, please join volunteers from throughout the state and beyond June 21-24 in Rusk County for the upcoming Murphy Flowage Recreation Area Mobile Skills Crew project near Birchwood, located a few miles north of Weyerhaeuser, and west of Ladysmith, in the fabulous Blue Hills.  That project announcement will be emailed soon.  

            For more MSC Projects and other IAT events visit the Ice Age Park and Trail Foundations website at www.iceagetrail.org  

            Happy Trails!