Thursday, January 4, 2024

Hiking the Ice Age Trail through Fond du Lac and Sheboygan Counties

If you love to hike up and down rolling hills and along the tops of wooded esker ridges, you will thoroughly enjoy the Fond du Lac and Sheboygan County portions of the Ice Age National Scenic Trail (IAT). This stretch consists of a delightful 30 trail miles through the Northern Kettle Moraine in Fond du Lac and Sheboygan Counties and only 10 road miles. The Kettle Moraine is known for its eskers and kames with kettles and small lakes. 

I hiked the IAT through Fond du Lac and Sheboygan Counties in a series of several day hikes starting the first in late autumn, completing the majority of miles in winter, and completing the last road walk shared with Manitowoc county in early spring. The fall burst with color from the many maples growing in the kettle moraine area. The trail provided quiet beauty and solitude in the winter months. As the leaf cover grew thin, my reward for hiking in the cold became more frequent deer sightings and views of the sun on the horizon through the now bare trees.


Fall in the northern Kettle Moraine

Road walk from the LaBudde Creek to the Walla Hi Segment

Winter sunrise in the Northern Kettle Moraine

Along the Milwaukee River Segment

Still hanging onto those leaves!

Parnell Segment of the IAT




Click each segment and connecting route link for details, route maps, mileage information, and photographs illustrating what you can expect to see along the way:






The IAT through Fon du Lac and Sheboygan Counties

   
That's all for now. Let's get outdoors and keep our wild places wild!


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