Hiking the Drifted - IAT Chippewa River Segment (WI)

The WI Natural Resources Foundation annually sponsors over 260 field trips from April -November. The widely varying trips might be hikes, climbs, paddles, hands-on work with resources or rides to see a natural phenomenon. These low cost trips have a strong learning component.

Image - Lavon Court

Recently, a friend and I went on one of their three-hour, 4 mile hikes on an Ice Age Trail (IAT) in north-central WI on the Chippewa River segment near Cornell. The IAT is a 1200 trail through WI's glaciated area that hugs the edges of the area where the glaciers stopped. The trails wind and head up and down over moraines and around kettles. 

The glaciated terrain is quite different from the Driftless where we have more massive bluff trails and flat river trails. The moraines and kettles that the glaciers carved create rolling landscapes with plenty of rocks that "float" to the surface. Trails meander around these hilly features and the bogs and marshy wetlands are part of the kettles throughout the glaciated area.

Image - Lavon Court

While our hike focus was on wildflowers, we also learned about how glaciation impacted the trails and area we were hiking in. I was particularly interested to see the flora 100 miles north of us and compare it to the wildflowers we are currently seeing in the Driftless. The trees on the trail were *just* beginning to bud (here the leaves have busted out in earnest and we are in shade tree heaven).

Image - Marge Loch-Wouters

My expectation on this hike: I would see many of the ephemerals that had been abundantly present in our area 1.5 -2 weeks ago. But I got a surprise!

We saw many of the same ephemerals blooming there as we have blooming here - despite the distance! Along the trail, I saw early spring beauties along with a huge number of fully bloomed trilliums. I don't always find those two flowers blooming at the same time. We also saw two-leaf miterwort, marsh marigolds, little leaf butter cup, bellwort, white and yellow blooming trout lily, woodland horsetail, white rattlesnake root, wintercress, meadow rue, wood anemone - and a wood frog!

Image - Marge Loch-Wouters

The hike itself was very interesting - especially in pre-mosquito times. With the lowlands and bogs as well as springs and rills, it is a wet environment - especially in the spring season. The trails are well maintained by the local Ice Age Trail Alliance folks. It is a fairly easy to hike and has great views of river, wetlands and forest.

THE HIKE

A 4 mile, out-and-back hike that starts along the steep north shore of the Chippewa River (the terminal moraine for the glacier) across from Burnet Island State Park. After a short segment, cross the highway and head into the Krank Nature Preserve (Chippewa County Land Conservancy made possible through the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship program) where the trail has plenty of ups and downs and twists and turns following the moraines and skirting many kettles and lowland bogs through hardwood forests. Trails can be muddy.

Image - Marge Loch-Wouters

Location:  23778 County Highway CC, Cornell, WI 54732

From Cornell, WI: take Hwy 64 (Bridge Street) west across the Blue Bridge. Turn right on Hwy CC.  Travel 2 miles  on Hwy CC, along the west side of the Chippewa River. Look for Ice Age Trail parking area signs and kiosk.

Image -Marge Loch-Wouters