The Mondeaux Esker Segment of the Ice Age Trail is an 11.7-mile footpath in the Chequamegon National Forest in Taylor County. This segment is considered difficult, and in some spots, it is. But its length can be broken down further into distinctive bites. Sections of this hiking trail in the Mondeaux Flowage Recreation Area are well-defined and easy to walk, while the east-west tails that head off away from the flowage are obstacle courses impressed with the footprints of only a few most intrepid Ice Age Trail hikers.
When it comes to hiker amenities this trail is served like a destination hiking location. Along this one length of trail, there are no fewer than four drive-in campgrounds: Spearhead Point, Eastwood, West Point, and Picnic Point. But, if there’s no sites available in these popular campgrounds, primitive camping is allowed in the national forest on each of the east-west tails heading away from the flowage between the forest road and the next major road crossing.
Parking lots are located at each campground, plus three more at the Mondeaux Dam Lodge, Lakeview Picnic Area, and Mondeaux Drive at the West trailhead. More parking is available on the shoulders of forest roads near trail intersections.
Restroom buildings are located at each of the campgrounds and picnic areas, with flush toilets at Mondeaux Dam Lodge. Grubby backpackers can enjoy 24-hour access to coin-op hot showers.
Potable water is easy to access at each campground, picnic area, and lodge, and a continuously flowing 4-season artesian well is less than one-quarter mile off the trail.
When the weather gets stormy in Wisconsin, it can be life-threatening. That’s why it’s always a good idea to know where the closest sturdy shelters are before setting off for a backpacking trip. You can find a hearty picnic shelter at Spearhead Point and Mondeaux Dam Lodge.
And, as of 2023, there is now a full-service restaurant serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner on the trail at Mondeaux Dam Lodge.
With those trail amenities laid out, you can understand why Taylor County is among Wisconsin's top overnight backpacking destinations. The Mondeaux Esker Segment is at the heart of it.
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| The Ice Age Trail crosses over Mondeaux Dam |
It took me three visits to Mondeaux Dam to complete the Mondeaux Esker Segment. My first visit was for a backpacking trip. My group convened at a campsite at Spearhead Point, and we shuttled around to the Lake Eleven Segment and spent two nights camped on the trail as we backpacked our return to Spearhead. The second was an early spring trip to a cabin in Phillips. I took an afternoon to side trip down to Mondeaux to out-and-back the East end of the flowage. And finally, I made a weekend reservation for a site at Spearhead Point for an Ice Age Trail hiking weekend. My group hiked the west end of the flowage from Picnic Point to Mondeaux Dam Lodge. The next day, I got a shuttle ride to the Fawn Ave trailhead and solo hiked back to my car, which I had left on the shoulder at Forest Road 104.
So, I've seen the trail in sun and heat, rain and cold, spring and summer. This trail has sort of become a special IAT segment for me.
What I enjoy most about it is the forest. The Chequamegon (she-want-me-gone) National Forest. The IAT doesn't have many miles in national forest, but these three segments (Lake Eleven, Jerry Lake, and Mondeaux Esker) are fully Chequamegon. The forest here is significantly and notably different than on any other segment of the Ice Age Trail. These are deep woods.
From the West trailhead heading towards Mondeaux Dam, you'll be shaded by massive hemlock and white pines that have conspicuously dropped into the middle of towering deciduous forest. Girthy birch trees, bigger than you can wrap your arms around, are bursting with chaga mushrooms. Standing snags make high-rise condominiums for woodpeckers. Bird song in the morning can be deafening. And the nightlife is punctuated by howls, hoots, and loon cries. These are signs of a vibrant and healthy forest on the verge of remembering its old growth glory.
The wilderness feeling here is only slightly tempered by the park-like feel of the Mondeaux Flowage Recreation Area and its ruby necklace of glowing campfires along its shores. It is a surprisingly quiet park. In the morning, I expected to be greeted by the drone of RV generators and speedboats and the screams of children coasting their bikes around bendy camp roads. Instead, I was the last one still tending my campfire after 9pm, and bass fishing boats parked in adjacent sites disappeared before dawn with little more than the sound of a truck door closing. For as many people as we know could be tallied in the recreation area, a feeling of solitude is the surprising upshot of camping here. There's just enough space for everyone to be spread out.
Nonetheless, the trail on the west bank of the flowage between Picnic Point and Mondeaux Dam is well worn and gentle. It is wide, with log steps where the hills are steep. There are hills to climb, but between them, you'll ride the top of an esker, the proudest esker I have ever seen. The top of the Mondeaux Esker is like walking the ridgeline between mountain peaks. Embankments fall off steeply on either side of the trail, and you'll get the occasional long view framed by bundles of white pine needles. When we walked it, we were protected from driving rain beneath the dense pine forest above.
The trail descends in long arcs around an impressive glacial kettle. Coming into the Mondeaux Dam area, you'll feel that vintage call of Northwoods recreation. Like the dining hall of a scout summer camp, the newly restored Mondeaux Dam Lodge and its brown timbers set onto a green grass knoll commands the carefree doings of summer afternoons - sandcastle building on the beach, fishing from the end of a boat rental dock, smoking some hot dogs on a standup cast iron grill beside a picnic table adorned in red and white buffalo check.
The reality is more like an empty trapezoid defined by a float line attached to a dump of sand marking the swim area. Picnic tables punctuate the lawn like tombstones strewn with acorn shells, making great tables for the squirrels. And mildew is growing thick on the bottoms of overturned canoes. Indeed, these recreation areas are vintage. It makes me long to see back into a cold-war past when places like these were loved by families and didn't have to compete with themed waterpark hotels at every highway exit.
But, even if kids are no longer entertained by building sand castles in the sun, I still appreciate the golden shellacked gloss of the timber tables and hand-stacked stone fireplaces of the Mondeaux Dam Lodge. So, I guess this place was restored to recirculate the nostalgia of dreamers like me. The warmth of the lodge on a rainy morning and the smell of wood burning fireplaces combined with the sizzle of a juicy burger on the grill was enough for me to shake off the damp from a morning hike on the Mondeaux Esker. The only sensation that could add to this is the creak beneath my slouched body in a rocking chair on the flagstone patio. These simple pleasures are all I can think about all winter long.
Then there's the wild side of this trail. And boy, does it get wild.
Heading eastbound after crossing the dam, the trail gradually loses its park-like feel as it stretches further away from the lodge. And, then abruptly it disappears into mudpits and darting corners around stumps and over blown down trees. It can be difficult to even see the trail. Keep an eye out for the IAT's gold blazes on downed logs beside the trail when in doubt. Steep climbs up and back down are frequent along the east shore of the flowage.
Where the trail turns east, it becomes even narrower, cutting a jagged sawtooth-like path through thick vegetation that encloses and will knock the hat off your head. After picking through intense vegetation at a stream crossing, you'll begin to climb a long set of uphills toward the trailhead at Fawn Ave.
And then, unceremoniously, the trail and its wild and free journey through the Chequamegon end at the paved Fawn Avenue – a long connecting route to the next set of trails cobbled together between ski areas and Taylor County forest.
If you've found the Ice Age Trail hikes through the Chequamegon to be as enjoyable as I found them, then I can point you in the direction of the North Country Trail in Wisconsin, where you can expand on this dose of freedom, free camping, and great distances of wilderness between Copper Falls and Solon Springs.
Ice Age National Scenic Trail Mondeaux Esker Segment
COUNTY
TAYLOR
COMMUNITIES
WESTBORO, CHELSEA, RIB LAKE, PERKINSTOWN
TOTAL MILES
11.7-MILES POINT-TO-POINT
DIFFICULTY
DIFFICULT
LOWEST ELEVATION
1380AMSL
HIGHEST ELEVATION
1660 AMSL
TOTAL ELEVATION GAIN
1613 FT
NEXT IAT SEGMENT EASTBOUND
IAT PINE LINE SEGMENT
NEXT IAT SEGMENT WESTBOUND
IAT JERRY LAKE SEGMENT
Directions and Trail Map
If viewing on a mobile device, open the trail map above to load into Google Maps App by touching the expand rectangle in the upper right corner.
Address for your GPS: W7969 Park Rd, Westboro, WI 54490
| coordinates: 46.34055115571312, -91.23820071838573 |
| From Milwaukee | 4 Hours |
| From Madison | 3.5 Hours |
| From Green Bay | 2.5 Hours |
| From Wausau | 1.5 Hours |
| From Minneapolis | 3 Hours |
| From Chicago | 5.5 Hours |
Photos
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| View of the Mondeaux Flowage from the east banks on the Ice Age Trail |
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| Single track trail along the east side of Mondeaux Flowage |
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| Single track trail along the east side of Mondeaux Flowage |
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| Single track trail along the east side of Mondeaux Flowage |
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| Single track trail along the east side of Mondeaux Flowage |
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| Single track trail along the east side of Mondeaux Flowage |
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| As teh trail turns east away from the flowage it gets rugged |
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| Single track trail along the east side of Mondeaux Flowage |
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| Single track trail along the east side of Mondeaux Flowage |
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| Single track trail along the east side of Mondeaux Flowage |
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| Single track trail along the east side of Mondeaux Flowage |
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| Trail along the esker on the west side of Mondeaux Flowage |
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| Trail along the esker on the west side of Mondeaux Flowage |
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| Trail along the esker on the west side of Mondeaux Flowage |
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| Trail along the esker on the west side of Mondeaux Flowage |
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| Some old trees on this segment |
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| One of the longer runs of stairs to climb on the Mondeaux Esker Segment |
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| Approaching the main Mondeaux Dam Picnic Area |
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| Mondeaux Lodge Historic Dedication |
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| Inside the recently renovated Mondeaux Lodge |
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| The Mondeaux Lodge serves breakfast, lunch and dinner and is a good restaurant in its own right. Much more than a concession stand. |
Links
Mondeaux Dam Lodge
Chequamegon National Forest
Spearhead Point Campground
Picnic Point Campground
West Point Campground
Eastwood Campground