From its eastern end at Potawatomi State Park on Green Bay, the trail route follows in places the present and former shorelines of Lake Michigan, the crest of eskers, and the edges of bogs in Manitowoc County. In several long existing segments and in many short ones, the trail continues over the rolling upland of Kettle Moraine on public and private lands for more than 100 miles through Sheboygan, Washington, and Waulesha Counties. From marshes to hilltop remnants of prairie oak openings and along waterways through oak, hickory, and maple forest, the trail threads its way among many towns and villages of the densely populated southeast portion of the State.

In northeastern Rock County, the trail route follows railroad corridors north of the end moraine. The trail then meanders through Janesville, utilizing its system of parks and greenways. In Green County, a segment of the trail follows the Sugar River State Trail, affording an opportunity to explore the eroded remnants of features left by the glaciation prior to the most recent Wisconsin Glaciation.

The trail route returns to the end moraine of the recent glaciation in Dane County, skirts Madison's west edge, and leads to several glacial meltwater channels cut into the bedrock hills of the Driftless Area, such as in the Cross Plains Unit of the Ice Age National Scientific reserve. The resistant quartzite of the Baraboo Hills halted the glacier's advance in Sauk County and provides the greatest relief found along the trail - over 880 feet!

Just north of Devils Lake State Park, the trail divides. The western branch passes the Dells of the Wisconsin River, which were formed by glacial meltwater, and crosses the flat bed of glacial Lake Wisconsin in Juneau and Adams Counties, passing sandstone buttes rising among scruboak and jack pines. The eastern branch follows the moraines through Columbia and Marquette Counties and joins together with the western branch in Chaffee Creek Fishery Area.

Following the hummocky topography of the moraine in Waushara County, the trail route winds among numerous kettles and along the Mecan River and several other trout streams. The route swings east along moraine deposited as the glacial margin retreated. It passes through drumlin fields and among kettle lakes in Portage and Waupaca Counties, and continues north across outwash plains and end moraines in Marathon County.

In Langlade County and counties to the west, long segments of trail have been established on county forest lands. Amid the northern forest spruce, fir, maple, and birch in Langlade County, the trail enters a region full of lakes and bogs formed by the melting of the glacier. In the lake-sprinkled Harrison Hills of Lincoln County, the high point of the trail--1,875 feet--is reached on the shoulder of Lookout Mountain. Timm's Hill National Trail, a side trail in eastern Taylor County, leads north 10 miles to the highest point in Wisconsin--1,951.5 feet-- in Price County. While walking the crest of eskers in Chequamegon National Forest in Taylor County, one gets a hint of what was once the great white pine and hemlock forest that provided the lumber to build the cities of the Midwest, and the tanbark for the leather industry in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

In Chippewa County, the trail again winds among numerous lakes and bogs in the moraine of Chippewa Lobe. Bearing north, the trail goes over the high quartzite shoulder of the Blue Hills in Rusk County amid small streams in an ash, birch, and maple forest. The northern most point of the trail is reached in southeastern Washburn County along the Tuscobia State Trail at the Red Cedar River. The Trail route winds through the dairy country of Barron and Polk Counties to its western end in the Interstate State Park Ice Age Reserve Unit at the Dalles of the St. Croix River.

Additional Information

For specific information on specific segments of the trail of State lands, write to:
WisconsinDepartment of Natural Resources
Box 7921
Madison, Wisconsin 53707
Telephone 608-266-2181

Information on trail segments on county, municipal, and private lands can be obtained from:
Ice Age Park and Trail Foundation
PO Box 423
Pewaukee, Wisconsin 53071
Telephone 1-800-227-0046

Information on the segment in the Chequamegon National Forest can be requested from the Medford Ranger District:
Chequamegon National Forest
850 North 8th Street
Highway 13
Medford, Wisconsin 54451
Telephone 715-748-4875

Request for additional general information may be addressed to:
Ice Age National Scenic Trail
700 Rayovac Drive
Suite 100
Madison, Wisconsin 53711-2476
Telephone 608-264-5610

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