I happen to have some free time away from work, so it’s time to sneak in a quick hike. And if you only have two months beginning in August, then Wisconsin is not a bad deal.

Fires are raging in the west, so they are out. Oppressive heat is still blanketing the south, so that is out. The east coast is at peak humidity, so that is out. The only thing left in the 1000 mile range is the Ice Age Trail. Sounds perfect.

The Ice Age Trail is one of the 11 national scenic trails, too, which is a plus. I have only spent a small amount of time in Wisconsin, so this sounds perfect.

The only thing not perfect is the schedule leading up to the hike. I have been in an 8 week cohort learning to teach Data Science and Machine learning that ends with an AWS specialty certification in Machine Learning.

These certification exams are not trivial. They take 3 hours and get very specific. But I also have another three AWS certifications expiring in October and another Microsoft one expiring in September.

So between last Wednesday and Monday, I passed one AWS specialty certification, one AWS professional certification, and another Microsoft one. My brain hurts, I need some trail time.

The trail itself is about 1150 miles long from Sturgeon Bay on the east, to St Croix Falls on the west near Minneapolis. About 500 of those miles are road walks, so I am expecting it to feel like the Florida trail in that regard. It is not mountainous and has plenty of water features, so it is like the FT in that regard, too.

I am not going to be changing any of my gear from the last Florida hike except for fewer warm clothes. So this should be an easy preparation and transition to this new trail. Bugs and thunderstorms will play a prevalent part of the experience. Fun, fun.

I have been walking 8 miles nearly every day for the last month and running some, so I am hoping that will be enough conditioning as long as I start out slowly.

Emotion of the day

Anticipation, definitely that. It has been a while since a longish hike and it seems like I have just been tied to a computer for the last year and a half. I definitely can’t wait to stretch my legs and beat up my feet again. I have been wanting to really get to know Wisconsin better as well. I am anticipating that this hike will be a lot of new experiences for me.