Ice Age Trail: Loew Lake Segment 1.30.21
IAT Loew Lake Segment 1.30.21
Whoooosh! We connected to IAT Loew Lake segment in a wide open prairie as we walked away from a cozy pine forest. The wind smacked us in the face until we could make the first turn onto the Ice Age Trail. Oh boy, was this how the whole hike would be??! It finally teetered off as we hiked further down the trail. I was able to start taking everything in. The snow was powdery under our feet since not too many hikers had been on before us. Maxie kept pulling off to the side digging her whole head in the snow and tracking all the smells. What a blast watching her do all her deep dives! It was my first time hiking this segment in the snow. It was so neat how the snow really helped outline all the hills and geographical features that would normally be more blended in shades of green. About 2.5 miles in, we ate lunch on a bench, on top of a hill where Holy Hill could be seen in the distance. While scenic, the wind was once again blowing right in our faces. We packed up and finished a little ways back with the protection of some trees blocking the wind.
As we headed back, I noticed white clouds against dark storm clouds giving the illusion of a blue sky in the distance. But, we knew the forecast and we were supposed to get 8-10 inches of snow starting that night. The wind started picking up and howling through the forest. I still couldn’t resist a little snow fun…and yep…back into the snow for another snow angel. Lucy made what I’m calling the “perfect snowball”. As we got closer to our starting point, we heard tons of laughing off in the distance. Folks were ice fishing on Loew Lake and clearly having a blast. In the spring and summer, the path to the lake was a little hard to see. Still unmarked, but now we saw a clear path of white all the way to the lake and finally went to check it out! In the parking lot, a guy grabbed his case of beer as he headed down the trail to the lake. I’m not exactly sure how much ice fishing he was going to accomplish, but good times were going to be had!
Loew Lake Segment is a mix of forest, prairie and hills. It’s part of Kettle Moraine Forest…so lots of geographical features….eskers (which look like a big hill, but cool to think they were made by glaciers.)
And that my friends is today’s Tail from the Trail.
Cheers!
Ellen
Hike Details
Out and back hike
GOOGLE MAPS PARKING LOT LOCATION
Emerald Lot
Bathroom facilities: Porta Potty
Nice post and really captures the day. Loew Lake has really grown on me over the last year in a very good way – been cool seeing it during the change of seasons.