Trail Focus
East Lake trailhead, winter photo by Mark Ulrich
The East Lake Segment of the Ice Age Trail in Taylor County is a remote, hilly and point-to-point trail that highlights the head-waters of the Black River, historic logging sites and Moose Mountain, and features signs along the route. Loggers report these forest acres to be the “hilliest hills” in all of the Taylor County Forest lands. The entire East Lake segment is 6.4 miles long, with an elevation gain of 711 ft.
At the CTH-D trailhead, this segment begins with a steep hill climb as it connects with and overlaps the Rib Lake Ski Trail network before continuing southwest. As the trail winds through hilly terrain and mixed hardwood forest, look for signs noting points of interest and identifying a variety of trees.
Pass the shore of East Lake, a classic (5 acre) kettle lake, and observe a landscape of dramatic high-relief hummocky topography. After passing East Lake, the segment skirts a wetland area and crosses a bridge over an unnamed creek as the trail continues in a southwesterly direction.
East Lake Segment Location
• Hiking from Hwy-D north of Rib Lake Village to Highway-13 wayside north of Medford.
• GPS Navigation – Decimal degrees (DD):
| East trail head: 45.34493, 90.21634 >
| West trail head: 45.32027 , 90.28902 <
Notable Features
| Find the headwaters of the Black River located in a scenic hemlock grove. |
| At Moose Mountain, notice erratics of various sizes, shapes and colors scattered around, and in some of the surrounding areas. |
| Observe the Taylor County aspen regeneration project area. |
| Look for many varieties of plants, and wildlife habitat. |
| At the segment’s west trailhead on Highway-13, the wayside facilities are closed, but parking is available year-round. |
More
• “Hiking the Ice Age Trail East Lake Segment” (2020), Wisconsin Explorer – blog by Kenneth Casper
• “Photos of Ice Age Trail: East Lake Segment“, Alltrails, (over 40 pictures)
Trail Resources
• The Guidebook with detail descriptions for the entire Ice Age Trail.
• The Atlas of maps for all Ice Age Trail segments.