Ice Age National Scenic Trail Thru-Hike Permit

No. Dispersed Camping Areas set up for long-distance hikers need no reservation or permit at all. The one exception is backpacking shelters, which the National Park Service says must be reserved in advance, and some primitive camping areas that may require a permit depending on who manages that stretch.

The Ice Age Trail Alliance's own figure is about 1,200 miles total: roughly 700 miles of yellow-blazed dedicated trail plus about 500 miles of unmarked connecting routes on roads and other paths.

The western terminus is Interstate State Park in St. Croix Falls, on the Minnesota border. The eastern terminus is Potawatomi State Park in Sturgeon Bay, on the shore of Lake Michigan.

Not anywhere you like. Long-distance hikers can use designated Dispersed Camping Areas without a permit, but you have to camp within sight of the DCA sign, keep your group to six people or fewer, stay one night only, and skip fires except a backpacking stove. These DCAs are not open to single-night out-and-back hikers.

Five separate Kettle Moraine State Forest units the trail passes through: the Northern, Southern, Lapham Peak, Loew Lake, and Pike Lake units, all named by the Wisconsin DNR as part of the route.

30, according to the Ice Age Trail Alliance.

On land the Alliance calls SIATA (Segments in Active Trail Acquisition), no hunting or trapping is allowed within 100 yards of the trail. Elsewhere, check the local land manager, since hunting seasons are active on many of the public lands the trail crosses.