The boys of Troop72.com set out for a more ambitous route on their second backpacking trip on the Ice Age Trail. This time we started east of County E, and hiked west for the first night of camping on Friday. Saturday morning we continued hiking west, headed for Harwood Lakes. We discovered that grid lines on a county map were not a good way to estimate distance! What we thought was about three miles turned out to be more like seven miles -- quite a long haul for a bunch of 12- and 13-year-olds (and dads!) with full packs. On Sunday, we left Harwood Lakes and kept going west until we got to Town Line Road (160th), which is where we left our cars. That last stretch, thankfully, was short and easy. All in all, judging from trail signs, it looks like we want almost ten miles! (Read a column about this trip.)