Latest / Coffee People Podcast / Sarah Driscoll from the Ice Age Trail Alliance joins Coffee People to chat about exploration in WI.

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Sarah Driscoll from the Ice Age Trail Alliance joins Coffee People to chat about exploration in WI. · Coffee People Podcast

• 0:27
  You're recording. It's amazing.
• 0:30
  Welcome back to the Coffee People podcast.
• 0:33
  We're here with the beneficiary or the representative of the
• 0:36
  beneficiary of our Inery collaboration.
• 0:40
  This is Sarah. I'll let you introduce yourself.
• 0:44
  Who are you? Hi everyone.
• 0:45
  My name is Sarah. I'm with the Ice Age Trail
• 0:48
  Alliance, which is the nonprofit partner of the Ice Age National
• 0:53
  Scenic Trail. What, Just for people who are
• 0:57
  like thinking about getting this coffee and want to feel good
• 0:59
  about it? Yeah.
• 1:00
  What is the Ice Age trail 1st And then we can go and know the
• 1:04
  Alliance. Yeah.
• 1:05
  So the Ice Age Trail is a 1200 mile footpath that travels all
• 1:11
  the way throughout Wisconsin. It traces the last glaciation
• 1:15
  that happened in Wisconsin. So about 10,000 years ago, a
• 1:19
  glacier was here and receded. And so it traces where that
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  glacier was. A lot of people don't know we
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  have like world renowned glacial features here in Wisconsin.
• 1:29
  So what, you get to see all those cool things.
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  The Ice Age National Scenic Trail is a unit of the National
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  Park Service, which is really cool.
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  And yeah, 1 of 11 National Scenic Trails in the country.
• 1:43
  Wisconsin, as far as I know, is not 1200 miles across.
• 1:48
  Yeah. So I'm assuming this is kind of
• 1:50
  a. Yep.
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  We're going to see all kinds of different landscapes.
• 1:53
  Yep, Yeah. So it's one of the really cool
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  things about the trail is that when we planned it, it actually
• 2:00
  purposefully goes through communities.
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  So you get a little bit of everything.
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  It goes through the Northwoods, so you have like some really
• 2:07
  remote sections through the woods.
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  It goes through communities like Janesville near Madison and then
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  up into Door County where you were just on the trail.
• 2:18
  So it's just at the eastern terminus, Potawatomi State Park.
• 2:21
  Yep. And climbed up on the tower
• 2:24
  there. If you didn't know, the tower
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  was closed for a long time. It's open and you can see out
• 2:28
  into the Bay. I was beautiful.
• 2:31
  The Ice Age Trail Alliance. What is that and how does it
• 2:35
  benefit the trail? Yeah.
• 2:37
  So, yeah, we're the nonprofit partner, so we work closely with
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  the National Park Service to support the trail.
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  And what that means is we do trail building, trail
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  maintenance, we protect land for the trail, We're an accredited
• 2:50
  Land Trust, and then we actually restore that land, too.
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  So we do a little bit of restoration work.
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  And then one of our really cool programs is we also work to get
• 3:00
  kids on the trail, too. So every year we have the goal
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  of getting 10,000 fourth graders out on the trail.
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  So we really love to get people out and seeing it and exploring
• 3:10
  really the trail that's in their backyard.
• 3:12
  So it's really neat, Yeah. The Ice Age Trail Alliance is
• 3:16
  online I ICA Yep TA. ICE trail.
• 3:24
  Yeah, so ice trail, iceagetrail.org.
• 3:28
  Oh my goodness. We're gonna put it on the
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  screen. You'll find it.
• 3:31
  It'll be right there. Yeah, and we're always looking
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  for volunteers, so if you wanna get involved, we're supported by
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  over 2000 volunteers. So we have a huge community,
• 3:43
  great way to do some trail building, trail maintenance,
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  outreach, whatever you want. So yeah.
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  If I if you do me the luxury kindness of answering a personal
• 3:54
  question, okay, what does working with the trail or what
• 3:58
  does being on the trail mean to you?
• 4:00
  Why does this work that you want to do?
• 4:02
  Yeah, besides, like I'm assuming an exorbitant paycheck that you
• 4:05
  get working for a not. For a non rabbit, to me the
• 4:09
  trail is really truly about community.
• 4:12
  Like I said, we have 2000 volunteers.
• 4:15
  The hiking community is amazing. I've met so many great people
• 4:18
  hiking the trail and yeah, it's just been like an amazing way to
• 4:24
  see really cool parts of the state get to partner with
• 4:26
  awesome businesses like this. Yeah, I love it.
• 4:30
  It's just taken me to so many cool places that I wouldn't
• 4:33
  normally just go on my day-to-day.
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  So it's been a really amazing experience working for the
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  trail. Plus I have really awesome Co
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  workers which helps too. Anything else that I didn't ask
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  or that we should know about the trail or the Alliance that we
• 4:48
  want people to know or or how can they find more information?
• 4:51
  Yeah, yeah, check us out on our website.
• 4:55
  We have lots of different maps and so you can find the trail
• 4:58
  that's really close to you. Yeah.
• 5:01
  And just support us. Like I said, we're a non profit.
• 5:03
  We do lots of great work restoring land, building trail,
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  getting kids out. So yeah, become a member.
• 5:09
  Iceagetrail.org According to this fancy brochure, yes, I was
• 5:13
  on the interactive map, which was like really super
• 5:16
  functional, which is awesome. Functional maps.
• 5:20
  Thank you for being here. Thank you for letting us partner
• 5:22
  with you. Yeah.
• 5:22
  We're. Super excited.
• 5:24
  If you're watching this, you've already been watching the show,
• 5:27
  so you know where to find us. But you can find this coffee at
• 5:30
  the Pinery Coffee Co in Wausau and of course on their website,
• 5:33
  which is probably somewhere on the screen or down below.
• 5:37
  Thanks for being here, Sarah. Thank you so much.
• 5:39
  We're going to cheers. Because that's how we're doing
• 5:42
  it today, I guess. Thanks.
• 5:47
  That's it. Easy peasy.
• 5:50
  Thank you for doing that. None.
• 6:44
  Oh, just OK. Rhubarb.
• 6:46
  Rhubarb, rutabaga, heart, watermelon.
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  Yeah, we're just kind of hanging out and talking.