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).