Are you a hiker? June 5 is National Trails Day and what better time to premier my Ice Age Trail poster.
Like many people during COVID, I became hooked on hiking. In an effort to avoid Coronavirusing, I made a conscious decision to regularly hit the trails. Along the way I fell in love with Wisconsin’s Ice Age Trail and needed a way to log my progress.
Voilà! An Ice Age Trail checklist.
According to the Ice Age Trail Alliance, the Trail is a 1,200-mile footpath meandering along the edge of Wisconsin’s glacial drift. This means the topography is filled with kettles, moraines, drumlins, and all manner of dramatic glacial effects. In the 1950s, lawyer and hiker Ray Zillmer recognized the significance of this landscape and proposed a statewide trail. It was designated a National Scenic Trail (NST) in 1980 and a State Scenic Trail in 1987.
Gorgeous scenery aside, what’s special about the Ice Age Trail is the community behind it. Along with the Ice Age Trail Alliance and its supporting membership, there are 19 volunteer chapters that are its heart and soul. They build and maintain the trails. They host hike days and fun challenges. They serve as trail angels to assist hikers (the very kind and accommodating Barb transported us to one end of the St. Croix Falls segment so we could hike to our car at the other end). There are also social media groups that share fun stories and gorgeous photography, like this one on Facebook. Wisconsinites do love their trail and we do believe in working together.
On that note, here’s my poster!
With a nod to the geological history of the Ice Age Trail, I’ve fashioned it after vintage maps. I designed it as motivation to get up and go—we all love checklists, after all. It’s printed on art-quality, eco-friendly paper so you can check off the segment listings and color in the trails as you hike. Circle interesting landmarks when you find them. Make this your poster, it’s super fun for the whole family!
And let’s not forget the community part. From these poster sales, 5% of proceeds will go to the Ice Age Trail Alliance. Together, we can enable the Alliance to acquire and preserve land, build and maintain trails, and ensure the Trail is here for future generations.
Just get up and go!