The Ice Age Trail Is A Gateway To Adventure

This month, the Ice Age Trail Alliance is hosting the Mammoth Hike Challenge, a 46-mile trek on the Ice Age Trail, along with visits to three Ice Age Trail Communities. You can spread those miles across the entire month, hike the same section more than once, use bonus miles, hike with a team, or simply use the challenge as an excuse to get out and explore.

Which had me thinking…

Are you an athlete? No? Me either!

That’s what I think many folks don’t understand about thru-hiking, trekking, distance hiking, or whatever label you want to put on it. It’s not necessarily about “leaving it all on the field,” pushing the zone, or “crushing it.” I mean, it can be if that’s what you bring to it. But I think that mindset can shut a lot of folks down before they even have a chance to figure out if this may be something they really enjoy.

My doctor often talks to me in terms of being “athletic.” As in, “That knee injury is to be expected at your age for someone as athletic as you.” It always makes me snicker because I am the antithesis of athletic. Music, nature, art, photography? Sure. But never sports.

However, I do enjoy a good adventure.

From Paddling to the Trail

That’s how I got into sea kayaking. (There’s always one more headland to see around!) Eventually, I came to love distance paddling. Not competing, but exploring. I became a coach. I traveled and trained on both sides of the Atlantic, and in time, I spent a month circumnavigating Puerto Rico while trying to avoid gunfire and a hurricane. (But that’s another story.)

Paddling comes with a big risk, though. You can’t always bail. If you’re five miles offshore, you have little option but to paddle back. In some ways, being out on the ocean, or the Great Lakes for that matter, is like hanging from a cliff. If you fall in or lose contact with your paddle or boat, you’re in real trouble.

On land, things get a bit more measured. You can choose your distances, and you can almost always bail out. That alone changes the calculus.

You can go slow or fast. Most of the time, it doesn’t really matter. You can rest as often as you like, or you can do two days’ distance in one if you’re feeling energized. It’s your call.

That’s not to say there aren’t challenges. There are. But they’re generally not the “enter the pain cave” type of challenges.

Eventually, for me, distance paddling turned into multi-day hiking and biking. For my wife and me, the Ice Age Trail around the Baraboo Hills became a good training ground, as individuals and as a couple, or maybe I should say conditioning ground. A place where, at your own pace, you can go from a mile to two, to ten or more miles as you’re feeling it. Sure, occasionally you’ll find yourself “embracing the burn,” but on your terms.

From the Ice Age Trail, we moved into multi-day bike trips and trekking. We hiked across the Scottish Highlands, averaging about 17 miles per day. We hiked the Alps from Germany into Austria and back around. Fewer miles, much more elevation. Two years ago, we landed in Dublin and walked south on the Wicklow Way, inn to inn. (Which is where my not-so-young knee showed up!) The IAT also gave us the confidence we needed to explore our national parks beyond the crowds.

And between adventures? We’re right back on our home trails. Devil’s Lake State Park and the IAT are home, and regular hiking is maintenance for both the body and the mind.

I think the thing many people get wrong about distance hiking is that while it’s not easy, it’s doable for most of us. It’s customizable. If you can get yourself onto the trail, you can find your own joy on it. It’s not about proving anything, and for many, it’s not about speed or athleticism.

Trail Vision

Distance hiking can also be about moving through the world at a slow and deliberate pace, where you focus on external and internal observation. It’s meditation. It’s learning about yourself, the people you hike with, and the world around you.

It’s about being out in nature long enough that you quiet your mind and actually start SEEING it, rather than simply passing through while performing a “sport.” In that space, appreciation can take real hold. There is a difference between being a nature lover and doing sports in nature. You can be both, but it’s not automatic.

For those reasons, I’d encourage almost anyone curious to take advantage of the Ice Age Trail Alliance’s Mammoth Hike Challenge this month. But don’t focus on achieving the “win.” Focus on getting out there and reaching your personal goal, whatever that may be.

The Mammoth Challenge might be the start of something new. As you know, the hardest part is often just getting yourself onto the trail in the first place.

From there, who knows where your feet will take you.

Learn More & sign up right here.