My Story about Hiking the Ice Age Trail:
I am now just slightly (just over 300 miles in.. by about a whooping 2.7 ! ) yet quite embedded into a focused effort (part of a dream) to hike the entire IAT.
It seems as though the fantasy turned into a reality by accident… so often dreams do. Something that causes the dreamer’s abstract yet solid vision to begin to manifest. The dream is dreamed and at some point, when the Heart is ready, the dream must be born.
… your dreams are the basis of all that becomes … Give your dream vision and then look around … one step at a time your dream unfolds … the right people, circumstances, successes and even failures come in to your life to help you evolve who you are…
My dream? … Well, I think I always had dreams of doing off the wall things that had to do with long distance anything. When I was in college I had a dream of riding my bike across the USA. I never did that and the dream was put out of mind but the spirit of that dream was never put out of my Heart .. thus to rise again to claim it’s birth at the right time. NOW? Yes, NOW.
It’s just a portion of the bigger dream which is continually evolving as I understand it more and more. I now understand that I will never fully know it … that bigger dream is a journey, not a destination.
So, the IAT dream…. I woke up one night, maybe a year ago, and dreamed I was Roz Savage, on her boat in the middle of the Pacific ocean, where she was at the time. Flashback to last February where we had a chance dinner meeting in Santa Monica… She is from England and I from Wisconsin … As we left one another I said to her, “One by land and one by sea” .. I had been seeing her vision playing out and I was starting to get some clarity on mine but it was still pretty foggy… She said that she couldn’t wait to see where Life would take me in the next year. We had another chance meeting at a restaurant in the Columbia River Gorge, an hour east of Portland, Oregon, a few months back. We compared journeys and told stories over wine and dinner. So happens my friend John Nagel was with me too and he’s the one who “virtually” introduced me to Roz.
… So I awoke with a start after dreaming that dream where I was at sea as Roz.. But I am Kristen and excitement filled my veins as the thoughts that made me awake were the “by land” part of who I am… “What are the three major trail systems?” I asked myself. And so I began to look into the Triple Crowne of trail hiking: the Appalacian Trail, Continental Divide Trail, and the Pacific Crest Trail, each ranging in length of between 2000 and 4000 miles through wilderness that makes my heart speed and my imagination dance…
As I began to arouse my senses with tidbits of knowledge I found that there are eleven named National Scenic Trails in the United States. I fascinated myself with the picture that showed them all and noted two that run through Wisconsin: the North Country Trail and the Ice Age Trail. 
The North Country Trail is the longest of all the scenic trails at 4700 miles! It travels from North Dakota east to New York State.
The Ice Age Trail claims Wisconsin as her own and travels over 1000 miles. … Thus a good start to the trail dream and it’s in my own back yard!
The Ice age trail continues to evolve as I trek along, section hiking the trail for the time being. Some of the challenges have been heat rash and mosquitos. Yet the trail is filled with a real feel of belonging there for me.
… … I was just asked in an interview yesterday by Kathleen McGuin, “what made you think to hike the whole Ice Age Trail?” .. Here’s what I had written a month or so back on my blog:
Well, the accident did of course… It was a day like any other day (if that’s possible) … I was coming back to my house on highway 67 from my parent’s house. Often I stop to run in the Kettle Moraine John Muir trails and I planned to do just that. But I passed a trailhead for the Ice Age Trail … I stopped and turned around to run this instead. This became Day 1 of my IAT quest. As I hiked and ran along I felt as of I were doing the whole 1000 miles. I could see it, feel it and taste it.
So the next week had me on different parts of the trail doing around 10 to 12 mile segments. I said at one point that I wondered when would be the best time to start a project of hiking the trail…. And then I had an epiphany – I had already begun!
So far:
On the (Ice Age) Trail With Kristen – Days 1 – 25, 302 Miles
Plan your trips with Kristen Westlake’s Trail Guides
About the Ice Age Trail (IAT):
In an email from Eric Sherman, Ice Age Trail Alliance Communications Specialist, Eric told me some little known but interesting facts. He said, “The Ice Age Trail is built and maintained largely through volunteer efforts. Many people have the notion that because the Ice Age Trail crosses a lot of county, state and federal land, that it must therefore be cared for by county, state and federal employees. That’s the exception rather than the rule. Last year, more than 2,200 different volunteers contributed more than 58,220 hours to the Ice Age Trail. More help is always welcome!”
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