New Ice Age Trail segment coming to Waukesha County after DNR land purchase
Hikers in Waukesha County soon will have an extra mile of Ice Age Trail to explore thanks to a land acquisition by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
The 38-acre property in the town of Ottawa will provide an important link in the trail's Waterville segment, eliminating most of a dangerous road walk between DNR-owned land north of County Highway D and land the Ice Age Trail Alliance owns just south of the Glacial Drumlin State Trail. The alliance, together with the DNR, plans to build about one mile of new Ice Age Trail plus a short interpretative loop trail and a new parking area on the land east of Waterville Road near Parry Road.
“We’ve seen this as a key property for more than 20 years,” Kevin Thusius, senior director of land conservation strategy for the IATA, said in a release. “It is vital for the connection of the Ice Age Trail.”
Only about half of the 1,200-mile Ice Age Trail, which winds through Wisconsin from Interstate State Park in St. Croix Falls to Potawatomi State Park in Sturgeon Bay, is complete, with blazed, official routes. The rest of the trail is made up of connecting routes, typically low-traffic roads. While the IATA and DNR are working to turn those connecting routes into official off-road trail segments, it's becoming increasingly more difficult and expensive as land is sold and subdivided, especially in the southeastern part of the state.
Currently, those who want to hike the entire Ice Age Trail — people known as thru-hikers — must walk along those connecting routes, including about half a mile along Waterville Road, which does not have a shoulder.
While the road might be scenic to drive in your car, "it’s not a very pleasant road to walk when cars pass you, because it’s rather narrow," said Drew Hanson, partnerships liaison for the DNR, noting that hikers' safety was a primary reason the DNR purchased the property.
He said they started discussions with the property's landowners to purchase it 20 years ago, and while the family was always amenable to selling it, they didn't agree on a price until recently.
“We play the long game on the Ice Age Trail — a lot of patience,” Hanson said.
That price was $582,000, the majority of which came from the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program, which allots $1 million for Ice Age Trail fee and easement acquisitions per year, plus a $21,500 donation from the Ice Age Trail Alliance. The Wisconsin Natural Resources Board approved the purchase last August, with the stipulation that the state offer for sale 10 acres of the land within the next year. Once they sell that parcel, the final plot will be about 28 acres.
The purchase comes after the IATA launched a campaign in 2020 to "Close the Waterville Gap" and eliminate the then-1.2-mile walk along the road. After successfully reaching their $60,000 fundraising goal, in 2021 the IATA built nearly half a mile of new trail east of the busy rural road, plus made improvements to other areas of existing trail to the south including constructing a new boardwalk, thanks to the nearly 100 volunteers who put in 1,900 hours of work.
The new land will close all but about a quarter-mile of the remaining gap, getting the IATA closer to its goal of creating a continuous 4-mile off-road segment between County Highway D and the Glacial Drumlin State Trail south of Highway 18.
“This is one of the most populated areas of the state, and the public lands in the area are receiving extensive pressure from outdoor enthusiasts,” Thusius said in the release. “This will give folks another recreational opportunity in the area.”
The new property is also geologically significant. It includes a small drumlin, a teardrop-shaped hill made up of rock, sand and gravel that was formed under a moving glacier. Wisconsin is home to one of the largest concentrations of glacial drumlins in the world, but the formations "are pretty rare on the Ice Age Trail because drumlins form up ice from the terminal moraine,” Hanson said. The IAT roughly traces the path of the last glacier's terminal moraine, or its farthest reach in the state.
The new land, which is between of the Kettle Moraine State Forest's Lapham Peak and Southern units, will be managed as a State Ice Age Trail Area, a property owned by the DNR primarily for the trail. It will be open for hiking, snowshoeing and other activities, possibly including hunting, although that will depend on the final layout of the trail within the plot since hunting is not permitted within 100 yards of it. The DNR hopes to eventually restore the agricultural land to what it was before European settlement, whether that be forest, prairie or savanna, Hanson said. While the DNR works on that restoration plan and getting the funding for it, the agency will continue to work with the farmer who currently leases the land to use it for agricultural purposes.
Hanson said they might open up a temporary trail route along fence lines on the property by the end of the year, with the hope of opening an official trail segment in 2024.
Contact Chelsey Lewis at clewis@journalsentinel.com. Follow her on Twitter at @chelseylew and @TravelMJS and Facebook at Journal Sentinel Travel.
More:5 unusual things to see along the Ice Age Trail, from an airplane wreck to a Stone Elephant
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: New Ice Age Trail segment coming to Waukesha County
