think that a tiny portion ….

think that a tiny portion of the Wisconsin Glacier had melted on his land. Bob telephoned Prof. Michelson and asked him whether there were any circumstances under which he would come to Taylor County and check out the ridge. Prof. Michelson eventually carefully inspected Red Pine Ridge and then gave Rusch his verdict: “I believe that the ridge is, in fact, a portion of the Terminal Moraine of the Wisconsin Glacier. It has all of the features that I would look for, including the large swamp on one side of the ridge which was created when the glacier laid there, melting and preventing the deposition of sand, gravel, stone, and other materials which the glacier carried.”

In 2021, at Bob’s urging, the Ice Age Trail Alliance committed to building the Ice Age Trail between County Highways C and D in the Town of Rib Lake and having the trail opened to the public no later than November 1, 2023. Last week’s work by the Mobile Skills Crew involved their getting up early each day and reporting for work at a makeshift parking lot along Ann and Bob Rusch’s driveway by 8 AM. The Alliance provided carefully-trained staff to match jobs with the volunteers. The route to be built was broken down into 22 sections, to which those assigned there worked. By noon on Sunday, May 22, they had mostly completed constructing a carefully laid out, scenic and safe hiking trail through the beautiful forest at the Terminal Moraine 40.

The Terminal Moraine 40 now has a special feature existing nowhere else on the 600 miles of Ice Age Trail built to date. The Ice Age Trail is bifurcated into one trail that runs on top of the ridge and another which runs along its base. This permits hikers to get magnificent views and further appreciate just what the glacier created. A specially-trained “rock team” has begun the laborious task of building a stone staircase to allow hikers to climb from the lower trail to the upper trail, where the two trails reconnect. The Mobile Skills Crew will return and complete trail construction on the Terminal Moraine 40 on September 13 through 17. Thereafter, they will build trail south and west to connect to the Taylor County Forest along Highway D. This new trail will be only one mile north of the Village of Rib Lake. Rib Lake businesspeople are already planning to create signs advertising the services available in the village where the trail will cross Surek Road.

Because the trail reconnection is not yet completed other than between County Highway C and the road walk on Rustic Road #1, it is currently closed. The High Point Chapter is already planning a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the reconnection of the trail. Reconnection will have required only 15 years. That will leave the Alliance with only approximately 600 miles of trail to build, so its route between Sturgeon Bay and St. Croix Falls can be totally off-road. In 2022, the sections of the Ice Age Trail in Taylor County which are open to the public are the Wood Lake Segment between State Highway 102 and the Lincoln County line, and the East Lake Segment between County Highway C and State Highway 13, and the segment of trail through the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest. All trail segments are open for free, non-motorized public use and enjoyment.