Hiking the Ice Age Trail through Marquette County

A trail lover at heart, I took a deep breath, sucked it up, and began my road-walk through Marquette County. Thirty plus miles of road-walking had me avoiding this county for some time. As I walked down country roads as the sun rose, and I watched golden leaves twirl in the wind I got to thinking. Thanks to crisp, sunny autumn weather, this walk I had been avoiding wound up providing more beauty and solitude than I could ever have imagined.






With connecting routes comprising more than 90% of the distance, I had hiked the short 1.7 mile John Muir Segment and the portion of Marquette County between the Portage Canal and the John Muir Segment in past years. Then procrastination took over. Intimidated by another lengthy road-walk along narrow-shouldered country roads on which cars fly by, I skipped over to a different portion of the Ice Age National Scenic Trail (IAT). In addition to dealing with traffic, I worried about finding places to park and places to stash my bicycle so as to could break the walk up into bite-sized chunks, self-shutting back to the car after finishing. 

Video hiking the IAT through Marquette County

When I finally returned to finish Marquette County, the beauty of the countryside overwhelmed me. Yes, caution is required on country roads, but there is much beauty to enjoy along the way. With some careful searching around on Google Maps, I did find places to park and places to lock my bicycle, and I will provide links to the posts where those are shared. I also chose a few Sunday morning walks to avoid peak traffic. Everything turned out wonderfully.

Spectacular leaf color in the Township of Springfield on the road-walk through Marquette County

The IAT winds in a lopsided, sideways "Z" for more than 1,100 miles through Wisconsin. It follows trails, sidewalks, and country roads. The portion of the IAT that passes through Marquette County follows along 1.7 miles (2.7 km) of trail and between 30 and 40 miles (48-77 km) of connecting routes (country roads and highways) depending which way you connect the segments. The IAT trail through Marquette County carries the hiker down county roads past fields, farms, wetlands, forested areas, and trail towns.

Sunrise along the roadwalk through Marquette County

For details, photos, information about local amenities and where I parked, as well as the connecting routes I chose to walk, check out the following links:


Connecting Route from the John Muir Segment to the Portage Canal Segment 

John Muir Segment

Connecting Route from the John Muir Segment to the Chaffee Creek Segment


I have been following the maps in the 2014 atlas published by the Ice Age Trail Alliance (IATA). If you check the interactive hiking map currently available on the IATA Website, a new walking route is recommended from John Muir Memorial Park Segment to the Chaffee Creek Segment of the IAT. This route is 39.4 miles long (as opposed to the 29.4 miles I walked) as this new route now heads through Montello. There are camping opportunities along the new route as well as the opportunity to walk through the small city of Montello.

Christensen Lake along the road-walk through Marquette County

If thru-hiking, the new route may be a better option assuming you seek camping opportunities, a grocery store, or restaurants. For IATA "Thousand Miler" recognition, connecting routes must continuously connect each official trail segment, but the selection of which roads and footpaths to walk is at the discretion of the hiker. Perhaps one day a portion of the new route will become an official IAT trail segment, but at the time of this writing, it is one of many routes one could choose to fulfill the  requirement. 


That's all for now, let's get outdoors and keep our wild places wild!