Hometown Heroes 8/25 - Chase and Jon Jones of West Salem
This week’s Hometown Hero is Chase Jones of West Salem and his dad Jon. Together, they are hiking the entirety of the Ice Age Trail and if all goes as planned, they will finish next summer making Chase the youngest person ever to do so.
Chase, who is 11 and will be starting sixth grade soon, first learned about the trail in fourth grade. The Ice Age Trail follows the edge of glaciers from over 12,000 years ago and showcases some of the most beautiful parts of Wisconsin. It is over 1,200 miles long beginning near St. Croix Falls, passing Eau Claire and Wausau before turning down towards the Dells until it reaches Janesville, then turning back up to Door County. So far Chase and Jon have covered about 40% of the trail or 429 miles.
In order to reach their goal of accomplishing this feat before Chase’s 13th birthday (the current record holder’s age), he and his father regularly hike 18 miles a day. They are going section by section through the trail and are preparing this weekend to hike near Antigo.
When Chase first brought up the idea of hiking the Ice Age Trail, his father thought it was quite a big task, especially for a 5th grader. In a recent article in the La Crosse Tribune, Chase noted that “it took Dad about a year to want to.” But after Chase received lightweight camping gear for Christmas, the dream started to become a reality. Most of the time they go for weekend hikes and the whole thing becomes a family affair with Chase’s mom stationed at a home base with a car ready to pick up the tired hikers. Other times, Jon and Chase go for over a week with only the two of them on their own.
Each county on the trail has an extensive network of volunteers ready and willing to help hikers on their journey. Jon says one evening when they were running out of water, one of these trail angels dropped off much needed supplies. He says that they couldn’t do this without their help and while it may be just him and Chase out there, it really is a team effort.
Sometimes, the guys get tired and sometimes they miss home. But Jon says that they talk each other through it and keep their spirits up. Before they started this journey, neither Jon nor Chase had ever done anything like this. Now they are experienced hikers, with Chase carrying a 20lb backpack and Jon hauling 40lbs.
In addition, Chase writes a blog where he documents their progress. He charts how many miles they hiked each day and how many miles they have put in on the trail so far. As of August 12th, they were at 429.2 miles after an 8.5 mile day. No doubt that number will soon be going up.
With the school year starting for both Chase and Jon (Jon is a math teacher at West Salem Middle School), this might be their last big hike for a while.
There is another part of this story and one that made me recognize Chase’s name when I was reading through the paper. During the budget debate, one of the big issues of debate was the virtual elimination of the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program. Jon wrote to my office with his concerns about this program because he understood how vital it was to the future of the Ice Age Trail. He wrote “My son Chase (5th grade) learned all about the Ice Age Trail in 4th grade social studies. He is an outdoor enthusiast who someday plans to become a park ranger. He has been begging me for a year now to hike this 1,100 mile plus trail. I am going to make his dreams come true by hiking with him this summer.”
I think you can see now why Jon is a Hometown Hero too.
To keep up to date on Chase’s progress and to see beautiful photos from his hikes, check out his blog hikingwithchase.wordpress.com. I know I will be following along.
So congratulations to you, Chase and Jon. Keep up the good work and the 18 mile days and I know you will reach your goal. We all can’t wait to see you reach the finish line next summer.