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.