A thru-hiker swapping Idaho for the Upper Midwest may sound like a downgrade in drama, but the Ice Age Trail (IAT) serves up a very different kind of adventure — one measured in humid air, mowed prairies and daily tick counts rather than Sierra passes.
The journey to the trailhead was already a cautionary tale. Flying Boise–Denver–Minneapolis on Frontier turned out to be no bargain at all: checked bags cost $30 more than standard carriers, a paper boarding pass ran $25 (waived only if you install the app), assigned seats were $25 a pop, and the limited schedule forced an overnight hotel stay in Minneapolis. Sometimes the cheap flight is the expensive flight.
From Minneapolis, a bus north to the commuter town of Forest Lake, a five-day resupply at Walmart, and an Uber ride delivered the hiker to Interstate State Park on the Minnesota–Wisconsin border. At 8am the next morning came the final Minnesota mile along the St Croix River, then a bridge crossing into Wisconsin and a hand on the rock marking the IAT's western terminus. Celebration: two donuts and a cold Mountain Dew. Reality check, six miles later: the first tick of the hike.
The first few days on trail offered genuinely useful intel for anyone considering this 1,000-mile ramble across Wisconsin. Maintenance is impressively good — the meadows and prairie sections that look like bushwhack territory are actually cut with a wide mown swath. Water, on the other hand, is a mixed bag; early sources reportedly tasted of rotten eggs, iron and, charmingly, two-day-old socks. And summer here is no joke: on day four the phone flashed a heat advisory reading 90℉ with 90% humidity, conditions that had the hiker sweating through every layer for weeks. No jacket needed, just a towel's worth of tolerance. Bugs and heat aside, the route through small towns like Centuria and along rail-trail corridors makes logistics forgiving — post offices, Walmarts and gas stations with gloriously crisp air-conditioning are rarely far away.
The writer also frames it with the hikers' "fun scale": type one fun is fun now, type two is misery now but a good story later, and type three means you should probably quit. The Ice Age Trail in high summer sits firmly in type two — sticky, buggy, character-building — which is exactly why it lingers fondly in memory afterwards.
If you've been toying with a long-distance hike that's lower-altitude, cheaper and less crowded than the big-name triple crown trails, Wisconsin's IAT deserves a spot on your list. Just budget for donuts, deet and a very thorough tick check.
Reporting via The Trek.
