Monday, 7/19/21: On The Road Again | |
After spending three months in the spectacular desert canyons of New Mexico and Utah, the lush greenery of Wisconsin took us by surprise. Is it more verdant this year, or is it just because we spent so much time hustling around vegetation-free red, brown, orange, tan, and black rock formations? Even the corn fields, normally knee-high by the 4th of July, were actually neck-high by the 4th. We just let the color green wash over us, delight us, rejuvenate us. | |
July through mid October in central Wisconsin, where we live, and northern Wisconsin, where we often vacation, is breathtakingly lush. | |
Our house, taken from the drone. This is where we go to get “re-centered” after long trips. | |
Neck-high on the 4th of July. | |
July 4th fireworks at the tiny town of Sayner, nestled in the in north woods of Wisconsin. | |
Rasberries, Black Raspberries, Blackberries, and Blue Berries are abundant this summer. | |
Northern Wisconsin is home to vast forests and thousands of lakes born from the glaciers that retreated some 10,000 years ago. Boating, swimming, trail hiking, UTVing, and biking are our favorite “ing-ing” activities that we enjoy. Of course, eating also makes the list. Below is our small portable pontoon boat that we launch in about 150 lakes each summer. (The term “ing-ing” is derived from all the activities that we enjoy that end in ING). | |
Getting the gang ready to ride the Bearskin “Rail-to-Trail” Bike Trail from Minocqua to Tomahawk. This gorgeous trail through lush woods, over many trestles, and past blue lakes is just one of 200 miles of bike trails in north central Wisconsin. | |
|
Being home in central Wisconsin centered us again after roaming the southwest all Spring. However, with three weeks of centering, it was time to explore. The extreme northwest corner on Wisconsin, with its abundance of State Parks protecting several waterfalls, seemed like a good candidate for a short shake-out van-camping trip. We left V-Jer at home, converted Saturn to allow us to sleep in, and took off for Two Lakes Campground, a National Forest campground on beautiful Lake Owen.
Normally, we would have trailered our mini-pontoon boat or our UTV, but this was just a short trip to make sure we have the van set up correctly for camping. Without all the amenities of V-Jer, we had to make some modifications. Our two most important mods were: 1) We will eat at mom’n’pop restaurants. We love checking out these little gems. They are usually inexpensive and the food is mostly homemade. That eliminates any need for a cook stove, a big honken’ cooler with food swimming in melting ice, a sink for dish cleanup, etc. 2) We brought along our pop-up privacy tent and portable hot shower set up. It works great. A bunsen burner heats up 3 gallons of water to about 100º in 5 minutes. Once heated, we pump air into the tank to pressurize it. Then turn on the spigot at the end of a hose - viola, a hot shower.
Saturn is plenty big enough for a bed with a thick memory foam mattress. We have some homemade mosquito netting for the door windows and Wanda made some privacy curtains. This all works because when we hit the road, we don’t sit around the camp relaxing. We only sleep at camp. The rest of the day is exploring the area.
Fortunately, Two Lakes Campground has several first-come first-serve campsites and we found about a dozen opening. We picked the very private #30. With our senior pass, it cost $11.50 a night. Funny, the fee station didn’t mention honoring the senior pass. Most fee stations at national parks and national forests mention it. I knocked on the camp host’s door to verify my old geezer discount. “Of course we honor your discount,” the ranger proclaimed.
| |
We left V-Jer at home and slept inside Saturn, our van. | |
A Bunsen burner quickly heats up the tank of water. The pop-up tent provides privacy. The hose, wrapped around the top of the tank, has a shower spray and an on-off valve. | |
|
It was 1 pm by the time we were settled in at campsite #30. I was biting at the bit to explore. We immediately entered Copper Falls State Park into Google Maps. It spit out an interesting route that included 5 miles of gravel roads. After driving the crappy unpaved roads in Utah, I was braced for the worst. No problemo, Wisconsin knows how to properly maintain dirt roads. Now if Wisconsin would only fix it’s pot-holed and cracked paved roads.
Copper Falls State Park is one of three State Parks huddled around the Lake Superior city, aptly named Superior. Two creeks merge in the park as they literally tumble towards Lake Superior. Trails loop around both creeks as the creeks shoot down fast rapids and spill over two water falls. The forest and canyon that the creeks cut through presents a wonderful spectacle that rivals some of the southwestern sights we enjoyed this Spring. Although lacking the vastness of the southwest, its concentrated beauty is impressive.
| |
Great trails, boardwalks, and bridges follow the two creeks as they meet in the park. | |
The two creeks merge in the middle of this photo. | |
|
We caught the scenic highway 13 loop in Ashland. This highway loops around Bayfield County, Wisconsin’s only Lake Superior peninsula. The towns of Washburn, Bayfield, Red Cliff, Cornucopia, Herbster, and Port Wing are along the highway. Washburn, at 2100 residents is the largest town.
Bayfield is the hands-down tourist winner. It is the very definition of quaint and picturesque. Set on a steep hillside overlooking Lake Superior, it features grand old homes that are now hotels and B’n’Bs. There must be a city ordinance that requires every home and business owner to have an expert landscaper on retainer. Flowers, gardens, and unique yard sculptures rival what we have experienced in Holland.
Bayfield is also the gateway to the sublime Apostle Islands looming just off the tip of the Bayfield County peninsula. The car ferry departs from the Bayfield Marina every 30 minutes for Madeline Island, the largest and only inhabited island of the Apostle Islands. The remaining islands are part of the wild and primitive Apostle Islands National Lakeshore.
Today, being so late in the day, we were just passing through these towns on our way up to see Siskwit Falls, a mile or so from tiny Cornucopia. The Siskwit River sprints its final stretch to Lake Superior over a series of rock steps. This blocky deep red slab of rock underlining the river is compressed sedimentary rock. We learned in Utah that a combination of volcanism and shallow seas were the origins of just about all the rocks in that region. The same is true in northern Wisconsin with the addition of thick glaciers scouring and compressing the soils.
I have a vague memory of sliding down these rapids on a slippery plastic snow sled about 40 years ago. I can’t figure out if that really happened, who I was with, or if it was just a fun idea that I had conjured up the last time I was up here. After spending less than two minutes on my failed memory, it was time to eat.
Cornucopia has a couple of taverns with bar food, and a fish shop that also serves fish sandwiches. We got a couple of fish sandwiches and bought some smoked boneless whitefish fillets cured in brown sugar for later. We hope to return to Bayfield County to better investigate the little towns when we have more time.
| |
The Fisherman’s Hideout fish shop in Cornucopia. The wonderful brown sugar cured smoked boneless whitefish fillets were almost candy. | |
|
On the way back to camp, we came across the tragedy of Pigeon Lake. The water level of Pigeon Lake, a fairly large lake with no creeks draining it, suddenly began rising about 18 months ago and hasn’t really stopped. Cottages and homes that were on the lake for decades were flooded out. Roads that passed by the lake found themselves submerged. We read that insurance companies wouldn’t pay out and government emergency agencies were unable to assist. Sudden rising lake levels not connected to any weather event just doesn’t fit a typical flooding category. Even home owners on higher ground weren’t spared as their septic systems were inundated. Sad!
On a brighter note, the brown sugar cured boneless smoked whitefish fillets, made a terrific evening snack.
| |
A road next to Pigeon Lake that had to be raised. | |
Glossary of terms used for newcomers: 1) V-Jer. The name of our camper. 2) Saturn. The name of our Van. 3) Duende. Our mischievous gremlin that breaks things. 4) Tata. The good gremlin that helps us fix Duende’s dirty work. 5) The Black Hole. This is what we call Walmart because every time we go in for just a couple of items, we come out spending way more than we figured. 6) QT. Quaint Town. 7) Little Buddy. This is what we call our Dyson cordless stick vacuum. | | | | |
