Hiking chequemegon national forest

[puddingboy]

August 6-9 I will be hiking the chequemegon national forest but looking at the ice age trail website http://www.iceagetrail.org/HighPoint/trail.htm i discovered that the trail is overgrown and will be hard to follow. I also heard that the beavers are very active in the jerry lake section and they may flood part of the trail along with alot of river and creek crossings.

Has anyone hiked this trail recently?
How difficult will it be?
Is it overgrown and tough to navigate?
Have beavers flooded it recently?

Also what does it mean when it says the trail crosses the tops of beaver dams? Does that mean i will be hiking through wetland?
And should i start at the remote SW end and hike towards the mondeaux flowage area, or vice versa?

[bugnout]

Also what does it mean when it says the trail crosses the tops of beaver dams? Does that mean i will be hiking through wetland?
And should i start at the remote SW end and hike towards the mondeaux flowage area, or vice versa?

I did the area west of Woods Lake a couple of years ago. The trail did indeed cross some creeks that had been damned up. I crossed a couple of pretty impressive beaver dams. be sure to unhook your waist belt and chest strap before you cross. A walking stick helped make me stable during the crossing. The top of the dam was slippery.

There were areas that my boots got wet, but don't recall any major fords or water over my boots.

Parts of northern Wisconsin are in drought. don't know how Taylor county is fairing.

Give Buzz Meyer a call, he organizes the Taylor county IAT maintainance.
http://www.iceagetrail.org/HighPoint/index.htm

[puddingboy]

Thanks bugnout, im gonna give buzz a call.

I have one more question, are you actually crossing the top of a wooden beaver dam? It just seems like that would be really unstable and big logs would be breaking off all the time.

[bugnout]

Nothing broke off as I went across. Those beavers are pretty good engineers.

[puddingboy]

Nothing broke off as I went across. Those beavers are pretty good engineers.

wow they must be, beavers are amazing

[mkmangold]

wow they must be, beavers are amazing

I concur. Have a great trip!

[puddingboy]

I concur. Have a great trip!

I'm planning on it. I just cant wait.