IAT 8-18-2014 - Tisch Mills to Point Beach Segments

Started the day out with a nice shuttle from Dolly the Ice Age Trail Cold Cash Coordinator.  I later ran into here at Point Beach leading a hike!  She was very nice and does a great job helping out the trail.  After she dropped me off I made my way through the Tisch Mills segment which was a nice start to the day.  On the second section of the segment I came upon what I think is my first actual un-bridged stream crossing!  Although I ended making it a pretty easy rock hop and didn't end up getting my shoes wet anyways...  But finished up the Tisch Mill Segment and then it was a few miles of roads over to the next segment.

Nice start to the day along the Tisch Mills Segment.

Nice stream crossing.  Rock hop on the right made it a dry one.

Dolly tipped me off that there was a new trail segment that had just opened up and boy was I glad!  It was a great segment!!!  It started off with a beautiful boardwalk the wraps around to get you going.  Then it follows along the river near by with some really nice views.  Eventually it leaves the river and goes into a great forest area.  It crosses the river one more time on an old concrete bridge before a short walk back to the road.  Just a great segment overall.  Just wish it was longer!

Start of the new section of trail.

Nice views of the river right along the trail.

The trail eventually winds its way into cool section of forest.

Bird house???  Pretty cool looking one.

View from on top of the bridge.

After a very short road walk I then finished the first section of the Mishicot Segment where I ran into the owner of that section out for a bike ride.  We talked for a few minutes and he told me he owns the land I was just hiking on and does all the trail maintenance himself.  He encouraged me to get more hikers out there and he was trying to convince local land owners to do what he did and donate a small path of their land to get the trail off the roads.  He was a very nice guy and seemed to really care for the trail.

The rest of the Mishicot Segment was pretty nice for a road/city walk.  It goes over a cool bridge and then by a dam before a short suburb walk to the next connecting route.

Bridge in Mishicot.

View from inside bridge.

Mishicot dam.

After a longer connector I made it to Point Beach state park.  I thought it was a great plan to end my day in the woods and nice walk.  Well I was greeted by swarms of bugs...  I of course had no bug spray with me but they were firmly in control of the northern section of the park.  With 20 miles on my legs already that day I some how found it in me to run the next 5 miles just to get the hell away from the bugs.  It was miserable for awhile.  About halfway through the park they let up a little and I ended up meeting Dolly again out with a group leading a hike.  Shortly after passing them the trail led out to the beach (no bugs!!!!) and the lake.  It's a great couple miles of hiking along the shoreline.  After this hike I am done on the eastern part of the trail so it was a nice way to say goodbye to the lake.  Although it has confirmed that there is not a inch of Lake Michigan that is even close to being clean enough to swim in for my tastes which is just too bad...  But the sun came out a little as I walked along the beach and eventually made the short trek from the beach to the car and I was on my way home.

Who wouldn't want to hike here?  Great view.

Just a cool section of trail.  Love the woods, but love the beach too.

I was a little confused here since the sign was so close to the water and the land dropped off into the lake.

The best bench on the IAT?

Last view of the lake (on the trail).

IAT 4-12-2014 - Gibralter Segment to Eastern Lodi Marsh Segment

I had to make this a short day because of birthday party to get to, but thankfully I met a fellow hiker Kevan who was able to shuttle and hike with me.  We started out at the Gibralter Segment at the ferry.  It quickly rose to some nice views looking back and a cool bench.  It was a bit rainy and cloudy through out the day, but it held off for the most part.  After the Gibralter segment we had a short road walk passed Gibralter Rock and what will soon be a new segment of trail.  It looks like it will be a very nice segment and eliminate some of the road walk.

Bridge across Lake Wisconsin

Carins along the trail!  Pretty tough to get lost here.

Nice view of Lake Wisconsin.

Cool bench along the trail.

Nice farm and pond along a connecting route.

The short Groves-Pertzborn segment was a nice section of trail that climbs up and with a nice look back of Gibralter rock.  But that is short lived before you are back on the roads and wrapping around to the City of Lodi Segment.  Which begins with a nice mile in and out to the high school.  It ends with a pretty cool bridge and has some nice views - that you get to enjoy twice!  After doubling back the trail takes you through the downtown area of Lodi.  Looked like some nice bar/restaurant options if need them as well as the office for the Lodi chapter of the IATA.  After town the trail follows the stream for a little and has a short road walk leading to the Eastern Lodi Marsh Segment.

Good view of the school and area along the out and back.

The longest bridge on the IAT according to the companion?  Doesn't seem right...

This segment starts by going under some railroad tracks and bending around a farm area.  Eventually you are greeted with 2 or 3 nice climbs and descents.  There are some nice views through here and the sun looked like it wanted to come out a little while we were here, but I imagine on a nicer day this would be a really nice area.  But we made it back to the car just in time as the storms opened up.  Thankfully I was on my home by then - it was 85 and sunny there!

Need more of these signs!

Nice view from the Eastern Lodi Segment.

Grand Canyon - March 24 -28, 2014

With Spring Break here I took the family down to the Grand Canyon.  The planning started last November when we applied for and got our permit.  It was quite the chore, but we got our third choice out of three which really ended up being the best option.  Our route took us down the Grandview Trail to the Cottonwood Creek Trail the first night.  Then the next two nights were spent along the Tonto trail heading west till we reached the South Kaibab.  From there we went down to the Colorado and checked out Phantom Ranch before heading up the Bright Angel trail to spend the night at Indian Gardens campground before hiking out the next morning.

We stopped along the way at Petrified Forest National Park as well which was well worth the couple of bucks to get in.  Saw some amazing rock formations there and lots of petrified wood.  Eventually we made it to the Grand Canyon and spent a day and half on the rim.  We hiked down the South Kaibab to Ooh Aah point for the sunset and we were not disappointed.  The views were amazing and a couple of condors flew right over us for a while.  The next day we grabbed our packs, dropped off the car, and got a taxi to take us to Grandview Point to begin our backpacking trip.

View from Grandview Point

Starting out on the Grandview trail we began to go down.  Quickly.  It was pretty loose rocks held up by logs that acted as steps basically taking you straight down.  There were some great views along the trail, but the going was tough if you are not sure of your footing.  Eventually we lost enough elevation for the trail to level out and bend around before we reached Horseshoe Mesa.  This area was exposed to the sun and very hot.  There were a lot of day hikers and people hanging out having lunch.  We ate lunch and I gave the family the choice of going straight off the Horseshoe Mesa and wrapping around on the Tonto to Cottonwood Creek, or taking the Cottonwood Creek trail straight down and save a few miles.  They went for the less miles and we all regretted it.  The Cottonwood Creek trail was hard to follow right away and we got lost almost immediately.  After picking it back up we were faced with really poor trail conditions, blazing sun, and some steep drops.  It was slow going for half our group, but eventually we all made it down and setup camp next to Cottonwood Creek and enjoyed the night.

View heading down Grandview trail.

Huge rock along the trail.

View of Grapevine Canyon from Grandview trail.

Getting closer to Horseshoe Mesa

View along the Grandview Trail

Remains of old camp at Horseshoe Mesa

View from the Mesa.

The bottom portion of the Cottonwood Creek trail.

The area between the two forks of Cottonwood Creek.

The next morning we woke up and made the short trek over to the Tonto.  It was such a joy to be walking on level ground!  After making it to the Tonto we enjoyed the views of the canyon and made our way to the "sketchy" part of the trail.  We had read about the trail as you enter Grapevine Canyon so we knew what we were in for.  In reality it's not too bad, but if you lose your footing you could be in for an adventure.  But just don't trip and you're fine!  Later on there was an even worse section for people with large parks.  There is an overhanging ledge right on the trail which drops off right into Grapevine Canyon.  With both those obstacles behind us though we made our way to Grapevine creek for lunch.  By this time we had met the two other groups doing the same route as us.  There was a large group of kids from college and two women who spent more time exploring off trail then on I think.  They probably did double the miles we did!  But it was nice to see some other people.

View along the Tonto Trail

View along the Tonto Trail

View along the Tonto Trail

Some cool colorful cactus we saw.

The sketchy part of the trail as we enter Grapevine Canyon.

View from Grapevine Canyon.

Approaching Grapevine Creek

View from Grapevine Creek

After lunch we began the trek out of Grapevine canyon.  Eventually we made it to the area I thought we were supposed to camp in, but realized the next day I was one canyon off.  But we ended up with a nice campsite with a great view.  That night the wind started.  It was only about 20-30 mph's at times, but in a tent it gets your attention.  We had a great sunset and sunrise that night and managed to stay up late enough to see the stars for change!

View leaving Grapevine Canyon

Large rock over trail.

"The Big Group" taking a break.

Our campsite night 2.

Sunset night 2.

Our campsite at sunset night 2.

Stars at night at camp night 2.

Sunrise day 3.

Sunrise day 3.

Sunrise day 3.

Obligatory boot shot at camp 2.

The next day we woke up to pretty nice conditions and got cleaned up and started hiking on.  We made it to Lonetree Canyon for lunch and our last water stop on the Tonto.  Not as much water or shade here as Grapevine, but enough for us for the next 24 hours.

View along the Tonto.

First view of Lonetree Creek.

View along the Tonto trail.

After lunch the wind really started picking up as we headed towards Cremation Creek.  By the time we made it there it was consistent 30+ mph winds.  We met some rangers that suggested some better options for avoiding the wind - with the understanding there is no way to completely avoid it.  So we made our way down some more tough trail into the canyon right at the edge of the new backcountry/corridor marker.  They had just put up the new sign that went into affect the week after we left.  Setting up the tent in the wind was an adventure but we got it up just in time because eventually the worse of the storm came through for about 5 minutes.  Whatever rain fell didn't even saturate the ground and in a few minutes it was back to just crazy winds.  It calmed down enough for us to get some sleep and the next day we were on our way out.

Bones along the trail.

Our home in Cremation Canyon.

View from our tent.

Camp night 3.

Sunrise over Cremation Canyon.

View from the end of Cremation Canyon.

Leaving the (new) backcountry.

After a short trek we finished up the Tonto and hit the South Kaibab.  A highway compared to the trails we had been on so far.  We made our way down to the Colorado and passed our first mule train on the way.  We made our way across the black bridge and went to Phantom Ranch.  After checking out the over priced store we hunted for some showers, but found only bathrooms with hand soap available to us.  But that felt wonderful!  After our showers we went across the Bright Angel creek and found and empty campsite and ate lunch in the creek.  After lunch we started our hike up to Indian Gardens.  After crossing the grey bridge on the Bright Angel trail we crossed a stream several times on our way up.  It was quite a bit different from our last 3-4 days of hiking!  We were surprised how quickly we made it to Indian Gardens and found one of the few empty sites available and setup camp.

View along the Tonto.

View along the South Kaibab.

Hiking along the South Kaibab.

View from the South Kaibab

View from the South Kaibab

View from the South Kaibab

Squirrel along the South Kaibab

View from the South Kaibab

Getting close to the black bridge.

View from the black bridge.

View from the black bridge.

Under the black bridge.

Phantom Ranch

Helicopter over Phantom Ranch

Bright Angel Creek

Approaching the grey bridge.

View from the grey bridge.

The grey bridge.

View of both bridges from the Bright Angel Trail.

Climbing up the Bright Angel trail.

Deer near our campsite at Indian Gardens.

After camp was setup I made a run out to Plateau Point for the sunset.  It is an amazing view of the canyon.  We had a good night sleep there and we all woke up pretty early ready to hike out.  We made great time up the Bright Angel trail.  It was a ton of switchbacks and with every hour more and more day hikers coming down.  But we had our legs under us by this point and the end was in sight so we made quick time up to the rim.  It was a short walk back to the car and we were homeward bound!

Plateau Point sign

Plateau Point

View from Plateau Point

View from Plateau Point

View from Plateau Point

View from Plateau Point

Good sign when leaving Indian Gardens

View along the upper Bright Angel trail.