Thursday, July 29, 2010

They Should Just Castrate Them the First Time

I'll explain the title later. I took off on the 28th of June and it was a first good day on the trail. I made 13 miles and lost a lot of blood from mosquitoes. I was a day early coming through Sturgeon Bay, because on the 29th there was city wide yard sale. I passed my first bar there too, but only to regret it later. But I did see a sweet playhouse!

Not the actual playhouse

I got to Maplewood and walked straight to the bar. As I walked in, I happened to start a conversation with Richard of Richard's Pub & Grill and I had a beer and a place to set up camp in less than a minute. As I was sitting down to eat, a lady next to me at the bar-she had a mullet-told me "they should just castrate them the first time" in reference to a story of a repeat sex offender on TV. My kind of place.

The next day -the 29th- I got another late start and stopped in Forestville, where I found a cougar working in a post office and took the opportunity to mail back home a few pounds of crap. My feet were hurting cause of blisters, so I made a switch to my Chacos. Made it halfway between Algoma and Casco where I met Scott who offered up a place behind his barn for me to pitch my tent. Nice guy who would like to hike the IAT some day, but says he just needs to find the time. Now I'm on my way to Moe's Corner Bar to have another beer. The Ice Age Trail has inn to inn hiking; they should add bar to bar hiking as well! I think that would really increase the usership!

*This post was dictated to me, Slota. To note, Dave was very difficult to understand. Because he stutters. Good thing I'm a speech pathologist!

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

So it Begins

I like to read books about exploration, especially polar exploration (hows that for a lame first line). Many men have slogged through tougher terrain than me with heavier packs and primitive gear. There is Cook and Peary on their race to the North Pole, Amundsen, Scott and Shackleton in the south. They did their exploration in the early part of the 20th Century man-hauling sledges that weighed hundreds of pounds (except for Peary who became an invalid and was dragged by Matthew Henson and then stopped the sled one day and said, "Yep, this is the North Pole" and was hailed as a hero when he returned. Cook was screwed! Although you have to give it Henson, as an African-American in the U.S. in the 1910's, he single-handedly saved the Peary expedition knowing full well he would get no credit for it. Quite the man.). Amundsen used dogs, Shackleton tried ponies, but in the end they all had to haul sleds and even boats across the snow and ice at some point. What I'm trying to do is a helluva lot easier than that! Shackleton's family seal reads "By endurance we conquer." I'm taking those words with me and whenever I start to falter, I'll think about Shackleton rallying his men when hope was nearly extinguished to carry on and persevere. Through Shackleton I conquer!

As I stand here looking and contemplating the task I have set before myself, I take pause and think about all the work that was done by countless volunteers over the last 5o plus years to make the Ice Age Trail what it is today. It's quite amazing. All those volunteers (and maybe a few paid staff here and there, but I've seen the IATA staff in action and the only people who work less are state workers) working together doing back-breaking work all in the hope that someday the Ice Age Trail will be completed. Being a part of something larger than you can be very satisfying. You don't have to work on the whole thing, all you have to do is work on your segment or region and when you combine all those segments you have something greater than the sum of its parts. That's the attitude I bring to my saunter, a single step will not complete the trail, but adding those thousands and thousands of steps together will complete the goal. All right, enough with the bloviating! Thanks for all the support! Here I go!

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

King Tut Says Goodbye

Last night I was lucky enough to have Steve Martin throw me a going away party. What a nice guy! He was in EC with the Steep Canyon Rangers and played an awesome bluegrass show. Turns out that Steve Martin is actually funny. Steve won the grammy for best bluegrass album this year and it showed with his pickin' skills and original songs. The highlight may have been when they played the only non-original song "Orange Blossom Special" and the fiddler just dominated. I usually dont get too worked up about fiddlers not named Allie, but this guy can play!


Anyways, it was a sad, sad moment when I said goodbye to my grill. I'm not going to use him for a couple months which may be my longest streak since I started grilling. I felt like Bob and Doug McKenzie in Strange Brew when they are separated, with me being Doug and having a smart-ass thing to say as I walked away.
Thinking about all times I've started something and then failed to see it all the way through, makes me feel like I actually need to complete something. Completing the thru-hike would be a huge step for me to doing something with my life. I can wear out my welcome pretty quick when I'm staying on your couch (or as my friends move up in life, the guest bedroom), although I dont think I'll ever be too good to sleep on a couch! The only reason I havent worn out my welcome at MSC events (maybe I already have!) is there is always a rotating cadre of volunteers so most people only have to deal with me a few times a year. Everyone is rejoicing that they wont have to suffer through my jokes (but they'll still have to suffer through Randy's singing) and other ramblings for a couple months. Its pretty easy to ignore a blog! IATA staff wont have to worry about trail thats "close enough" and having to come behind me to clean up the mess.
This whole operation of mine may be a lot of shooting from the hip, but that worked pretty good for John Wayne so I think I'm in pretty good company. I'd like to thank everyone who has given advice and words of encourage the past few months, especially Luke and the MSCer's. I wouldnt be here without them. Just in case I do succumb to a bear attack or a fatal bout of lymes, I have a few requirements for my funeral. First, I want whatever money I have left over to go to having an open bar somewhere so everyone can have a last drink (or four) on me. I probably owe all of you a drink, except those of you who are cheap bastards who I'll let drink on my tab one last time. Second, I want Neil Diamond's "Dry your eyes" and "Hell Yeah" played at the funeral. Classic songs by the greatest musician ever. Lastly, Im not sure if funeral pyre's are legal these days but something involving a chimney starter and charcoal would be sweet. Happy thoughts!
Thanks again for all the support and perhaps I'll see you on the trail!

Monday, July 26, 2010

The Story Begins

Hello all. You may know me from such failures as college, the Navy and talking fluently. I'm about to embark on what could be my greatest failure yet - thru-hiking the Ice Age Trail. If you arent aware, the Ice Age National Scenic Trail is an 1100 mile siniuous footpath that weaves its way through the great state of Wisconsin. I'll be starting at Potawatomi State Park in Door County and ending at Interstate State Park in Polk County. The hike is scheduled to start July 28 and, if everything goes well, take about 2 months. It should be a pleasant jaunt. If I hurry up I could make it back for Boats and Bluegrass in Winona. They have a killer line-up this year and whats better than a little PBR and bluegrass to reacclimate myself with society.

Like most things I do, there will be a fair amount of "winging it" going on which only seems right for someone like me. Who needs plans anyways? Going through a lot of towns will make food fairly easy to attain, except in the Northwoods where my plan is to chase wolves off a fresh deer kill. Mmmm fresh venison! If that fails, I'm sure there will be plenty of mysterious berries to fill me up along the trail. Hey, it worked for Alexander Supertramp!

I'm pretty excited to be working towards checking another dream off the list, thru-hiking the Ice Age Trail. Dreams for other people probably differ quite a bit from mine. Take Gareth Keenan from Slough, England. His dream is two lesbians, preferably sisters, with him just watching. Last year I was lucky enough to check a dream off - compete in the Klements Sausage Race. My dream didnt entail wearing the sausage costume at the Brewers game (although that would be sweet), but eating all five Klements sausages, chorizo, hot dog, brat, polish, and italian, in one sitting. It was awesome! I have since lived that dream another 3 times. I may not be the quickest, but the satisfaction of scarfing down five sausages, shotgunning a PBR and running to the edge of the parking lot and back is what really does it for me. My coworker Jason holds the record at 3 minutes and 43 seconds, quite the athlete at his old age.

A lot of people get too worked up in doing what they are "supposed" to do: get an education, get married, buy a house, have a kid (I apparently failed at all of these). Their life is dictated by the norms of society and they dont live the life they wanted or perhaps that is the life they want. Thats not how I want to live my life. But what about the future Dave? Shouldnt you be saving money and planning for your retirement? Hell no! The future is the future and I cant control it, I'm just along for the ride. Its like the weather forecast, it changes from day to day and you dont know how it is going to be until it actually happens. Sure you can get a rough guess of whats coming up, but I always carry a rain coat so if it rains, life goes on. I was put here to have fun, enjoy nature and be a smart-ass. If life is a trail, I'm probably on a spur trail or a section that has been closed.

This should be a fun couple months! I'm looking forward to having friends hike and share a beer with me (I'm sure the Hoofers would be up for a beer) and meeting new folks along the trail. This will be a great experience, granted I actually complete the whole thing. I figured that by talking this up and starting a blog, I have to finish the trail or I'd be letting everyone down again and I dont want to do that! As a great man once said, onward and forward.