Trail improvement a labor of love for volunteers

On May 17, 69 unpaid volunteers assembled in the town of Rib Lake to reconnect the Ice Age Trail. Permit me to give you a mini-history of the Ice Age Trail at Rib Lake. In 1974, Bob Rusch, then Taylor County District Attorney, met Professor Adam Cahow, who had taught glacial geology at University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire. He was passionate about carefully laying out and building a non-motorized trail which would show off the outstanding landforms left in most parts of Wisconsin by the last trans-continental glacier, named for the State of Wisconsin, and which melted there 18,000 to 12,000 years ago.

Rusch immediately was enthralled by Prof. Cahow’s commitment to the trail. Adam was a happily married man living in Eau Claire, but he would spend his weekdays living out of his station wagon along with shovels, rakes, post-hole diggers, and other tools which he would use to construct and sign the Ice Age Trail. Prof. Cahow asked Rusch for help, and he said yes.

In the 1970s, the IAT was built by complementary organizations, the Ice Age Park and Trail Foundation and the Ice Age Trail Council. Their rules provided that the local group, now called the High Point Chapter, of which Buzz Meyer and Lee “Butch” Clendenning are coordinators, were authorized to determine what non-motorized activities were permitted on the Ice Age Trail. This led to a close partnership between the chapter and the Junior Chamber of Commerce, commonly known as the Rib Lake Jaycees. The Rib Lake Jaycees and High Point Chapter teamed up to build a hiking and skiing trail; this was the birth of the Ice Age Trail (IAT) at Rib Lake. By 1986, the “Jaycee Trail”, as the Ice Age Trail was frequently called, was a bulldozed trail stretching westward from State Highway 102 in the Town of Rib Lake to State Highway 13 in the Town of Westboro. Jaycee volunteers would use their snowmobiles to pull Christmas trees to “groom” this trail.

At that time, the trail was only built on county-owned land or the land of consenting landowners. In 2008, a landowner exercised his right to revoke permission for the Ice Age Trail, which led to the entire closure of the Ice Age Trail between Highways C and D in the Town of Rib Lake. This forced any hikers to bypass the closed area by walking on Rustic Road #1 and Harper Drive. That condition persists to this day.

In 2009, Bob Rusch began purchasing land on which the new trail could be built and donating that land to the Ice Age Trail Alliance, formerly known as the Ice Age Park and Trail Foundation. Bob’s immediate goal was to construct the Ice Age Trail northward from the parking lot and trailhead owned by the Alliance to Rustic Road #1. Rusch’s first purchase was from Steve Peters. Next, Bob purchased land from Cathy and Dennis Scheithauer. Kyle Patrick generously donated an easement adjacent to Rustic Road #1, and Beverly and Bob Butler donated both a trail and conservation easement. The Ice Age Trail Alliance in 2016 built the Ice Age Trail from its trailhead to Rustic Road #1.

Later, additional landowners, including Rodney and Kristin Strobach, donated easements allowing the Ice Age Trail to be built southward from the trailhead to Bear Avenue. In January 2021, Cindy Hanke donated a trail easement, authorizing the construction of the Ice Age Trail from Bear Avenue to the “Terminal Moraine 40”, the SW NE , Sec. 13, T 33 N, R 2 E. Ann and Bob Rusch donated that 40 to the Ice Age Trail Alliance in 2019 because it has a spectacular ridge of land over 25 feet tall running through it where the Wisconsin Glacier stopped its southward movement and melted!

The trail volunteers working May 18 through 22 concentrated on building the Ice Age Trail through the Terminal Moraine 40. So who are these volunteers? They are unpaid volunteers that learn through the media that the Ice Age Trail Alliance needs them to build the trail. Last week, over 69 volunteers came from all over the United States to form what is called the Mobile Skills Crew. They camped out at Wood Lake County Park, where they were provided breakfast and supper by the Alliance. Many members of the Mobile Skills Crew come back year after year to experience the camaraderie of the group and to have the satisfaction of knowing they are building something that will be utilized by thousands of people when they are long gone.

Bob Rusch had owned the Terminal Moraine 40 since 1968, when he paid $5,500 to buy 200 acres of Rib Lake land which had been clear-cut in the 1950s. He knew of the existence of the ridge there and called it “Red Pine Ridge” after some Norway pine which grew on top of it. Bob first learned of its glacial significance in the 1980s by reading the book “The Glacial Features of the Ice Age Trail” by Prof. David Michelson. Bob was astonished to come across text and maps in that book, leading Bob to