IAT - 3/9/14 - Cross Plains to Lodi Marsh Loop

The weather finally broke a little and I made it out for the first time this year!  It felt very nice to be back hiking on the trail even if I did start with a nice 11 mile road walk out of Lodi Marsh.  I drove up early and got the long road walk out of the way before my family came up to do some hiking and shuttling.  The road walk had a lot of climbing but I spent most of the second half trying to get cell service to let my family know where to meet.  I finished up the road walk and went through Indian Lake which is a short 2 mile segment.  It was pretty cool in the winter time, but not much to see except snow.  After that was a short road walk over to the end of the Table Bluff segment.  We then drove back up to my car and hiked the Lodi Loop while we were there.  It was pretty windy and with the snow on the ground it was some rough hiking for the group, but we made it around and back and then dropped my car off at Table Bluffs and drove down to the IAT HQ.

Of course the HQ was not open on the weekend but we took another look around now in the winter and then went on our way to the rest of the Cross Plains segment.  After walking through part of the town the off road part of the segment quickly climbs up the side of a moraine.  Once on top you there is a nice view of Cross Plains and the trail continues through some cool woods and a prairie.  Eventually it descends almost as steeply as it climbed up and you are back in Cross Plains just like that.  The wind was picking up pretty good and my one daughter wasn't feeling so good so the family took the short cut back to the car and headed home while I knocked out the road walk and began the Table Bluffs segment.

This is a pretty cool segment.  We had driven by and seen it and joked - boy hope we don't have to climb up there!  Well here I was about to climb up there!  Right away a series of switch backs take you to the top of the first Bluff.  The path we saw from the road was a actually a car path that is more gradual.  Once at the top there is a short white side trail that takes you out to the pavilion and overlook you can see from the road.  It was very windy and cold and getting a little dark at this point so I grabbed a few pictures and doubled back to the IAT.

The trail through this segment is great.  It goes up and down a series of 4 (or 5 if you count the last little bump back up at the end) moraines that are basically flat on the top - hence the "Table" Bluff name.  At the end of my first 20+ mile day of the season it was a good workout and I ended up at my car in a sweat. There were several other people out enjoying the trail as well and I could see why because this segment was a lot of fun and a great way to end the day.