Page 20 - Spring 2020 MT_v5.indd

THOUSAND-MILER journals

Hiking the Ice Age Trail NICOLE & JEREMY NOWICKI

with Children

How do you convince your daughters to where we’d stare hard at something and what animal left it, and what story it tells (a
complete a 1,200-mile hike? You call it a blink. This created a “memory picture.” It deer running from a wolf, or a red-headed
quest. You call it a challenge. You let them was a way to pay tribute to the trees and rock sandhill crane sauntering along, for instance).
dress up like fairies and princesses, choose formations we hiked past, around, or fell over. Blink. It’s a joy to see the girls’ confi dence
their own hiking shoes, and give them the Here are some of our favorite memories from grow as they start to lead our family’s hike.
GoPro camera to record whatever they want. our thru-hike. They capably fi nd the yellow blazes, tell us
You make it a habit to stop at every playground Blink. We hike down the snowy Kewaunee where to turn, and warn us about natural
you see, even if it means stopping twice in Segment and discover Bruemmer County hazards. They raise their hiking poles in an
a short period of time. You attend a circus Park. The playground gives the girls a welcome “X” when they spot animals so we’ll approach
and visit zoos. You reward them for small break from the Trail. They discard gloves and them quietly.
accomplishments as well as large. In other scarves as they scamper around in the below-
words, you fi nd fun in the millions of moments freezing temperatures. There’s a free county Blink. Piper runs when she sees the tent tops
you spend together on the Ice Age National zoo, too, and they bellow in excitement as above Circus World in Baraboo, her little pink
Scenic Trail. backpack fl opping back and forth in time with
they run from enclosure to enclosure, peering her pumping legs. Smiles are so bright as they
At the start of our family’s through-hike, our at animals whose tracks they’ve seen the last watch jugglers, clowns, acrobats and dancing
daughters, Piper and Bristol, then 4 and 6 several days. elephants. Their almost-rapturous expressions,
years old, respectively, wanted pictures of Blink. We stop to point out various animal when they actually get to ride an Indian
everything. Seeing the girls excited by what we tracks on the Trail, and give the girls time to elephant, made the torture of the Trail worth it.
were encountering, remains some of our most pull out their plastic tracking cards to decipher This stop provided a kind of joy that’s hard to
precious memories. Yet, to save on batteries which creature made it. It isn’t long before they explain, but easy to recall.
and digital space, we invented a procedure
are pointing out tracks we cross, describing
At the Western Terminus, Piper (left), Bristol (right) and Monty pose for the camera. Photo by Jeremy Nowicki.

20 MAMMOTH tales | Spring 2020