Autumn Splendor on the Ice Age Trail – Milwaukee River Segment!

October 25, 2023  |  Topics: Places

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By Eddee Daniel

It was a glorious afternoon in mid-October. A perfect sky—broken clouds that allowed the sun to peek through at regular intervals—provided a backdrop for distant views, while also allowing for saturated autumn colors in the shade of the forest. I was hungry for those autumn colors, which had been too long in coming this year. Or so it seemed. I headed north to Washington County and the Ice Age Trail.

There are those who aspire to hike the entire Trail, which meanders for 1,200 miles through much of Wisconsin, following the geology of glaciation in the state. An admirable goal. There are also those, like me, who love the idea of the Ice Age Trail but mostly just want to get out for a walk now and then. Fortunately, the Trail is organized into bite-sized segments that accommodate this desire! The other thing I like to do, as followers of this blog well know, is explore new places. With those two goals in mind, I tried out a segment of the Trail new to me.

There are three sections of the Milwaukee River Segment. I began in the middle of the Washington County portion at the Hwy H parking lot. From there you can go south or north. (The third section is in Fond du Lac County, which I saved for another day.) Heading south, the trail shoots through wide open spaces between farm fields and the river, which wanders around disappointingly in the distance. Being named after the river, I had expected this segment to run closer to the water and provide views of it. I had to leave the trail itself and bushwhack through some riparian vegetation to get my only view of the river—if you don’t count the bridge crossing at Hwy H.

After a foray south, I backtracked and went north. In this direction the trail plunges right away into deep woodland with no hope of any views of the river. The oaks, maples, basswood, and beech made up for the deficit with their spectacular autumn foliage. The rugged, rocky trail rises steeply at first, but once up on the ridgetop it levels off. Almost immediately a spur trail branches off leading to the Raymond T. Zillmer (founder of Ice Age Trail Alliance) shelter for backpackers to use on overnight hikes. It seems to me like an odd location, close enough to the end of the trail that traffic on Hwy H is clearly audible.

The characteristically gravelly trail dips and sways along with the ridge line it follows. The composition of the ground and the hummocky topography are legacies of the glaciers, of course. This is the Northern Unit of the Kettle Moraine State Forest, after all, where two lobes collided during the last Ice Age. As the Green Bay Lobe and Lake Michigan Lobe scraped past each other they deposited the rocks and organic debris that now make up this gorgeous landscape. Kettles and ravines drop off precipitously all along the trail.

It being a lovely Sunday afternoon, I was never alone for very long, as you can see from the photos. Most of the time we fellow hikers smile and greet each other in passing. But I met one who told me that he was just completing a day-long hike of the entire Milwaukee River Segment, a total of approximately 23 miles round-trip. I didn’t go that far, but I did manage to capture the photo essay that I share with you here.

Related stories:

Duluth woman aims to complete winter thru-hike of 1,200-mile Ice Age Trail

The Ice Age Trail – Waterville Segment to be improved!

Hiking with the Ice Age Trail Alliance

Hiking Hartland Marsh and the Ice Age Trail

Eddee Daniel is a board member of Preserve Our Parks.

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