This challenge encourages Wisconsin hikers to hit the Ice Age Trail in October

An annual hiking challenge is back this October, encouraging people to get outside and enjoy the fall colors along the Ice Age National Scenic Trail in Wisconsin.

The Ice Age Trail Alliance’s Mammoth Hike Challenge encourages people to hike, walk, run, backpack — or even saunter or skip, the alliance’s website says — 45 miles of the Ice Age National Scenic Trail and visit three Ice Age Trail communities during October.

The Ice Age National Scenic Trail spans around 1,200 miles in Wisconsin, passing through multiple state and federal lands. It’s primarily for off-road hiking and backpacking, and showcases landscape features formed by Wisconsin’s last continental glacier. The path goes through or borders 26 official “trail communities,” which the alliance describes as part of a “symbiotic relationship” with the trail. In southeast Wisconsin, trail communities are Delafield, Hartland, Palmyra, Slinger, West Bend and Whitewater.

Registration for the challenge is free. Those who complete it will be awarded a limited-edition patch and certificate of achievement.

Hikers can sign up as individuals or as a team, which allows each person to complete fewer miles, but still receive their own patch if the team completes the challenge.

According to IATA, reporting miles is “scout’s honor,” so hikers are allowed to track however they prefer. The Alliance does offer a Mammoth Hike Challenge hiking log, available on its website, for personal use.

Participants have until Nov. 15 to fill out a completion form.

If 45 miles seems too much to complete by foot, there are also ways to achieve “bonus miles,” according to the IATA website.

To earn 10 bonus miles, participants can:

• Become an Ice Age Trail Alliance member.
• Volunteer with the Ice Age Trail Alliance.
• Give an alliance membership to recruit a new Ice Age Trail Alliance member.

To earn five bonus miles, participants can:

• Visit more than three trail communities.
• Attend a Mammoth Hike Challenge event, which are listed on a calendar on IATA’s website.
• Hike a segment in a state park, in celebration of 2025 being the 125th anniversary of Wisconsin’s first state park, Interstate Park in St. Croix Falls.

To earn two bonus miles, participants can:

• Utilize “trail magic” — a coupon or special code from local shops and merchants in a trail community. Participating locations are listed on IATA’s website.
• Share a photo of their experience at a trail community of social media using the hashtag #MammothHikeChallenge and tagging @iceagetrailorg.
• Take a picture at a Trail Community Hometown Highlight — which are murals, monuments and landmarks in communities. The list of Hometown Highlights is available online. Hometown Highlight stops can also allow visitors to be entered into a drawing for a chance to win a gift certificate to the Ice Age Trail Alliance online store.
• Introduce someone to the Ice Age Trail and hike with a first-timer.

Contact Kelli Arseneau at (920) 213-3721 or [email protected]. Follow her on X at @ArseneauKelli.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: This challenge encourages Wisconsin hikers to hit the Ice Age Trail in October

Reporting by Kelli Arseneau, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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