Even though it’s very tempting to stay inside all day where it’s cozy and warm, I layered up and drove to Swamp Lover’s Preserve on Scheele Road, just past Cross Plains, to hike a few miles of the Ice Age Trail. I’ve been to this stretch of the IAT three times this year to do some trail maintenance, but just once to hike the trail all the way out and back; this is my second time.

Conditions were just about perfect for a winter hike: almost the whole length of the trail was covered in snow from one end to the other. Yesterday when temps were in the 40s and it was raining all morning, the snow would have been slush and the exposed dirt would have been mud, but today, a clear, sunny day with temps in the teens, the dirt was frozen solid and the snow was solid enough that it didn’t collapse under my weight. I strapped crampons on my boots for traction and easily walked the 4.1 miles out and back in 1 hr 55 minutes.

This is a very pretty stretch of the IAT to walk, and the route they laid out is anything but boring. From the parking lot at Scheele Road it climbs rather abruptly to the top of a bluff which overlooks the wide flat valley below. From there, the trail wanders through the trees along the tops and sides of the hills for about a mile and a half until it gets to the far end, where it drops into the valley and crosses over to the hill on the other side. A pretty nice feature of this part of the trail is that there are two alternate trails at either end, so I could make a dogbone loop instead of just turning around and heading back on the same trail I just walked.