The Official Unofficial MSC Blog

(Editor's note: I'll add pictures later, I'm heading up to the Chequamegon Sunday! The before and after pictures of this project are unbelievable)

The Mobile Skills Crew (MSC) big top rolled into Southern Dane County May 3-6 to complete the Montrose Segment started last October (Here's the recap). I had the opportunity to help layout the trail through this property and was excited about the trail we built last year, but after walking the flag line this spring, I realized the best part of the segment hadn’t been built yet.

Storms were in the forecast Wednesday night and Thursday, but we lucked out with the bad stuff missing us and only having a little rain Wednesday evening. The project may have evaded the storms but the humidity was another story. It was hot and sticky as crews continued tread work started by the Dane County Chapter on the “North Horn” and invasive species removal at Young’s Prairie. It was a little different project as the North Horn and Young’s Prairie were well over a mile apart with no easy way to get between the two other than on foot. It was like two mini projects going on at once.

Project support (i.e. kitchen crew) was lacking because none of the regular folks (Thelma, Bill) could make it, but in MSC fashion, everything came together in the end with a lot of people pitching in to make sure everyone was fed. Brad talked me into cooking, well grilling, a meal. I wrangled Poster Child Luke into helping me grill brats, burgers and veggie pizzas, along with rhubarb crisp on the grill for dessert. The food I cooked was edible but Luke’s pizzas were delectable (He has some experience grilling top-notch meals). Homemade crusts and from-the-garden pesto created the base to build the pizzas on. Organic peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes and from the block, freshly grated mozzarella topped the thin-crust pies. It was a great change of pace meal and no one got sick so that was a good sign! It was an early night as the campfire became lonely shortly after 9.

Crews were split again Friday as more tread and log retaining walls were constructed on the North Horn while the Young’s Prairie crews continued the restoration work by annihilating the honeysuckle and other invasive species. Local volunteers have been working hard over the last 20 years to tease out and help the remnant prairie at Young’s gain in size and health. Young’s Prairie has had a varied history. There are shallow exploratory pits from the mining days (presumably for lead) still visible and the area was also heavily grazed, but through all that a dry short-grass prairie remnant survived. The goal during the project was to enhance and expedite the restoration process. The MSC does not just build trail, but works to improve the land the trail resides on through stewardship practices.

When I first arrived at the North Horn Friday, I was taken aback by how awesome the new trail looked. It blew away my ideas of how the trail would fit in with the landscape. Holy Cow. My crew of Bob, Sue, Tom, the Schwilkster and the Groove Train went at trying to replicate and extend what previous crews had done. We added a rock wall to protect the roots of an old oak and Schwilkster and the Groove Train went old school by using picks and pinch point pry bars to chip away stubborn bedrock in the trails way.

Fred and his dirty dozen (their numbers may not have been a dozen, but they did they work of 12 people) worked down the trail, carrying innumerable buckets of duff and soil away and hauling in black locust (harvested from Young’s) to function as retaining walls to hold the loose soil in place. With the steep terrain and loose soil, slough was inevitable. The soon-to-be high trafficked segment needed wider trail. Going from 24” to 30” may not seem like much but the wider the trail, the further into the hillside you need to go, greatly increasing the amount of displaced soil (at times like this, a group of high schoolers can be very beneficial to get those buckets moved).

After a good morning of work, the hungry crews were ready to head back for lunch, but word came that we had to keep working; a camera crew was coming out to tape us working. The footage was to be used in the new video being created for the Ice Age Interpretive Centers around the state. The old video was dated to say the least. The volunteers kept working diligently to help introduce thousands and thousands of people to the Ice Age Trail. My crew was on the end, patiently waiting for our chance for glory. Alas it was not to be, the camera crew decided they didn’t need film of the best crew working to really put the video over the top. They were too enamored with Poster Child Luke to film Tom or the Groove Train dominating 4-step.

New recruit Lisa showed up to lend a hand. Her first experience with the Ice Age Trail was the previous weekend at the Annual Conference where she sat at a table with Fluff Tater, Theresa, Rod, Kevin, new board member Rebecca (who Fluff mistook for an intern) and myself. Fluff found dirt in her salad, which led to hysterical laughing and a fantastic photo. The fact that Lisa came back to help after that adventure is a testament to her sense of humor and willingness to help out. The afternoon progressed with the need for more retaining walls growing. It was shaping up to be a doozy of a Saturday.

One of the best parts of a long day in the field building trail is having a beer before heading back to camp to decompress and reminisce about the day that was. We had that opportunity Friday and it was priceless. Barbara brought the house down with her turkey call she cultivated as a youth. I don’t think much needs to be said.

Back at camp, new volunteer Al tended to the kitchen. IATA staff member Jo had lucked upon and recruited Al, who had been a caterer, to help out with project support for MSC. Talk about a fortunate meeting! The food was excellent and the campfire crowd stayed a bit longer this evening.

Quotes out of Context (or just weird things MSCers said)

“Everyday is shit for Mark.” – Luke

“Its got good feng” – Brad

“That’s like an inverted fart” – Luke

“Everyone wants a piece of this” - Barbara

“You can’t build a fort out of rain” - Leah

Saturday was going to be a push. 800 feet of tread had to be built by Young’s Prairie (the trail through the immediate prairie will be mowed to minimize disturbance) and a few hundred feet of tread had to go in on the North Horn along with some retaining walls. The first task on the North Horn was to carry the black locust logs that had been harvested from Young’s 1000 feet to where they were needed down the trail. Wet locust is not exactly light. A rotating group of volunteers grunted, stumbled and laughed their way to the worksite with the logs. The night before a new girl, Michelle, arrived and soon there after “volunteered” to work at the Horn on Saturday. She jumped right in and helped carry every log I believe. Now that’s a heckuva volunteer! By 10 o’clock all the logs had been finally moved, or so we thought.

Luke, Matt and I were the crew leaders on the Horn and only Matt tried to keep a cohesive crew together. The rest of the people under our watch were spread out in small groups getting the work done to progress the trail. As soon as the locust logs were in place, Lisa came over and just started drilling. Lisa manned (womanned?) the drill with the glee of a kid who has a new toy to play with. Hayward and Animal came next with the rebar and sledgehammers to secure the retaining walls in place.

You never know whom you’ll work with at an MSC event. Another new girl, Niccola, had the bad luck of working with me for a while. Turns out she’s majoring in African Languages, specifically Yoruba which is one of the main languages spoken in Nigeria (I’m guessing she’s the first MSCer that can speak Yoruba). She wants to go to Nigeria and help do some environmental work (and if moto-polo, polo played on motorcycles with regular beer breaks, keeps spreading across Africa, she could have a new game to play!) And then there is Animal. I’m not even going to get into his story (I don’t think any of it is fit for this blog, and that’s saying something!).

With Luke calling the shots, work kept moving forward. The need for more retaining walls became apparent and a call to Young’s provided the materials. Matt’s crew kept pounding in more tread through the sod near the, hopefully, soon-to-be prairie. I’m not sure what everyone else was doing, but the work seemed to get done. Leah has had the misfortune of trying to soften the edges of the newbies after I give them the run through. She had a penchant for showing up just in time to lead a crew in the past, but with more and more people becoming crew leaders, that need has passed and she now shows up in time to be a grunt (and the brains) of my crew. Trying to retrain someone after my teachings can be very, very difficult and Leah handles it with grace (and dirt on her face).

Throughout Saturday, the completion of the North Horn went from confidence to despair and back again. I’d feel great about the progress and then lunch hit and we still had 8 sections of retaining wall to build. Those 8 sections were knocked out within an hour after lunch. It helped that IATA Executive Director Wollmer came over to help. If you want work done, call in Wollmer. It’s great that the head of the IATA comes out on the weekends and gets his hands dirty to help the Ice Age Trail. How many organizations have the head person out doing the dirt work? Thanks Wollmer!

Volunteers kept showing up throughout the day to bolster the ranks. Tom and Shannon were supposed to head over to Young’s, but wandered into the Horn. Within 20 minutes we had installed a 20 foot red cedar retaining wall…and they hadn’t done trail work in a few years (When they first arrived, they volunteered to go on a beer run. We would regret this denial later). The work on the Horn got done as I lounged around. People were thrown into new situations and the skilled crew leaders shepherded everyone into accomplishing the goal.

We like to have fun and work hard (excluding myself of course). Laughter permeates the air at MSC events floating from one crew to the next. At the end of the day the folks working the greeter station told us they could hear us laughing on the Horn throughout the day. That’s over a quarter mile away! Awesome.

The talk from the Young’s Prairie crew had rung loudly the last few days and Saturday was no exception. Hikers began wandering in shortly after 3:30 to see what the hooligans had been up to on the Horn. They exclaimed of the work accomplished and enhancement of the view they had accomplished at Young’s.

Luke and I came to the horrible realization in the afternoon that there was no beer waiting for us at the end of the trail. The horror! The horror! Jamie offered to make a run. We gave her money, explicit instructions and informed her of the gravity of the situation. Crews began cleaning up and heading back while Luke, a few others and myself tidied up a few loose ends to give Jamie time to get back. When we arrived at Frenchtown and Pillar, Jamie was nowhere to be found. Apparently she didn’t understand the enormity of the problem. As we headed back to camp, we passed her hustling to meet us. Fail. At camp, Jamie told us that she was 99 cents short on the purchase and instead of running out to the car to get change; the cashier finagled a coupon code and gave her a deal. Score! Next time, I hope she moves a little quicker on the beer run (or we plan ahead to make sure a cooler is waiting for us at the end of the day).

Saturday also happened to be May 5^th, Cinco de Mayo! Marilyn was gracious enough to provide everyone with margaritas! This was definitely an MSC first (and hopefully not last). Dinner was tacos to continue with the Mexican theme. There was a healthy crowd around the campfire as Lisa and the Groove Train played their guitar and Autoharp, respectively. Not only was it Cinco de Mayo, but it also a super full moon! The moon was supposedly 14% bigger than usual as its orbit reached the perigee. Clouds obscured the super moon when the size would be most pronounced, right above the horizon, but they eventually cleared to give us great views. Full moons have different affect on people. This one caused Luke to fire up the grill to make another pizza! Luke had leftover pesto and dough from Thursday night so I scrounged through the coolers to find toppings for the pizza. We ended up with a poblano and green pepper pizza with cheddar cheese. It was delicious and a great way to end a fantastic day in the field!

The only work in the field Sunday was signage, putting up draft blazes, digging in posts and pounding in carsonite posts. A few folks did that while everyone else helped clean tools and pack up camp. The storms that had eluded us earlier in the week were bearing down on us. I ventured out to hike the whole segment and get pictures at Young’s because I hadn’t made it out there during the project. The clouds and the sounds coming from them were not promising, but I pressed on anyways. I was within sight of Young’s prairie when the skies opened, unleashing the rain and lightning. Standing on a hill in an open prairie with lightning crashing down around (it was close!) is not something I would advise. Luke called and offered to pick me up at the other end on CTH D. I was completely soaked. On my way out I was looking at the trail we built last fall and saw a few problems with the plumbing and probably talking to myself when I saw big Jim emerging from a protected spot on the hill followed by Jen and Fluff. They had taken shelter during the brunt of the storm (and were a lot smarter than I). The major work had been finished even with the wet Sunday.

The Montrose project opened up one of the best segments of Ice Age Trail in Southern Wisconsin and emphatically puts the scenic in Ice Age National Scenic Trail. This will be a much beloved segment for many years to come.

The Ice Age Trail can be transformative. It can reclaim land overrun by invasive species, open up a little used property and turn it into a hiker mecca (exhibit A – the Montrose Segment). The trail isn’t just a linear footpath across Wisconsin, but an avenue with which to explore and get closer to the myriad habitat communities in the state. A lot can be noticed from a car while driving around, but it pales in comparison to what can be gleaned on foot.

The trail can be transformative for people too. Thru-hikers and 1000 milers may see the world differently through the eyes formed after days and months on the trail. It can also foster a lifestyle change to become healthier, to get or stay in shape with daily or regular hikes. So head over to the new Montrose Segment and check it out for yourself!

MSC doesn’t take a break as we head up to Taylor County and the Chequamegon National Forest May 15-20. We’ll be rerouting trail and building a 67-foot bridge over the Yellow River on the Jerry Lake Segment. The area from Hwy 64 to the Mondeaux Flowage is one of the best places to hike along the entire IAT with ample solitude, scenic beauty (hemlocks!) and actual rustic campsites! Join us for a week of trail building and camping in the North Woods!