Patty Loew:
Native American influence can be found all around Wisconsin's national park areas.  Archaeologists found Native American artifacts right here on the former Muir property.  And Muir himself wrote about two possible Indian burial mounds here.  As for the Muir family themselves, well, their traces of time on the land have all but disappeared.  In fact, not one of the original buildings constructed by the Muir family is standing today.  Not even Muir's boyhood home.  

Dan Small:
But this private residence is built on the exact foundation.  And this property is classified as a national historic landmark.  Some of the original silver maple trees planted by the Muirs are still here.  

Patty Loew:
The homeowners are helping to restore the property to its natural state and share the same view John Muir wrote about.  His preservationist efforts began in his 20s when he tried several times but failed to purchase and preserve a 40-acre parcel of sedge meadow here at fountain lake farm.  

Dan Small:
The panoramic view was eventually preserved.  And today it closely mimics the historic accounts as seen in this sketch John Muir drafted from the ridge top overlooking the lake more than 150 years ago.  Muir's idea of buying and preserving the land is still evolving today, as Wisconsin moves to purchase more land for the Ice Age National Scenic Trail.  

Patty Loew:
10,000 years ago, this land and much of North America was buried under a huge glacier.  The Ice Age National Scenic Trail traverses the glacier's edge, and just so happens to run right through the Muir property.  

There are only eight national scenic trails in the country.  And this...  is the only one that celebrates glaciers.  The ice age national scenic trail winds for some 1,200 miles across Wisconsin.  Hiker Tim Malzahn of Lodi explains.  

Tim Malzahn:
What that crazy kind of a "U"-line shape represents is the furthest advance of a continental glacier, that only receded about 10,000 years ago.  

Patty Loew:
What was left after the last glacier retreated is a geological bonanza.  Wisconsin is one of the best places in the world to view the effects of glaciers on a landscape.  It's the mission of the Ice Age Trail to showcase that amazing natural story.  

Tim Malzahn:
So I just wanted to explore Wisconsin.  And I can't think of a better way to do it than with the ice age trail.  I didn't expect to fall in love with it, and still be involved with it 17 years later, but so it goes.  

Patty Loew:
Malzahn hiked the whole trail some 18 years ago.  But understand that the trail is not completely finished.  The ultimate goal is to have 1,200 miles of uninterrupted scenic trail.  So far, they've finished about 600.  In those places where the trail is not finished, they often route it along local roads.  The non-profit Ice Age Park and Trail Foundation hopes to replace those road segments with real trail.  To that end, they're always acquiring new land and building new trail to get to that 1,200-mile goal, which is where Malzahn comes in.  

Tim Malzahn:
It feels pretty good.  

Patty Loew:
His walk-about has become a kind of professional vision quest.  Hiker Malzahn is now one of the foundation's five paid staffers.  His primary job is designing new trail.  We caught up with him on two very different places on the trail: this newly completed section in the Timberland Wilderness in Lincoln County, and here in the heart of winter in the city of Baraboo, where he is mid-design, marking, making decisions, tons of decisions, about where a new chunk of trail will go.  

Tim Malzahn:
A rule of thumb is 100 hours of trail layout and design time for a mile of trail.  

Patty Loew:
The goal is to get hikers looking at glacial landforms like this one, a kettle lake in Kettle Moraine State Park, to keep them looking at the story of glaciers in our state and not at their feet.  

Tim Malzahn:
My introduction to the ice age trail is as a hiker, so I'm listening to my feet in terms of how I'm moving through the landscape, am I tripping over rocks.  It's how the feet feel as you move.  

Patty Loew:
Great trail is not about the shortest distance between two points.  It's about an experience.  And curves are welcome.  

Tim Malzahn:
Undulation and meander, those are key terms that help to provide variety, a sense of playfulness, surprise, mystery, to a trail alignment.  And that's our movement through the landscapes.  

Patty Loew:
They want to remind the hiker that we, too, have been part of this landscape.  Consider this bridge, designed and built by Malzahn and volunteers.  It's on the Timberland Wilderness section in Lincoln County.  

Tim Malzahn:
What we see is a former narrow gauge railroad bed that was used around the turn of the century to extract timber from this part of the north woods.  So if you can imagine teams of horses and men creating first, this rail bed through this environment, the effort was mind boggling.  

Patty Loew:
This beautiful, hand-crafted bridge celebrates that story.  

Tim Malzahn:
This adds a little bit more sizzle to it.  

Patty Loew:
Nearly 20 years after he first traveled this trail, Malzahn is still leaving his imprint on Wisconsin's Ice Age Trail.  

Tim Malzahn:
It's an absolute gem.  It's a treasure.  And it gives back to me more than I think what I can ever give back to it.  So I hope to be involved with the ice age trail for another 17, or 27 years, or however long we've got left to walk.