A well-deserved rest - we biked 20 miles and hiked over 8 miles today.

There are two state campgrounds in the Kettle-Moraine State Forest Northern Unit: Long Lake, where we are staying, and Mauthe Lake, 7 miles to the south. We discovered that a bike trail connected the two campgrounds. So, you guessed it, it was time to break out the ebikes.

This short 7-mile trail had it all: boardwalks through swamps, deep woods, open prairies, lakes, a quaint town, bridges over creeks and rivers, twisting curves, vistas, etc. The town of Dundee was just 2 miles down the trail. We stopped at a gas station to pick up some cold water. I noted that the gas was $2.89, far cheaper than the going rate of $3.09 that most stations were charging.

The small downtown looked interesting, so we detoured to check it out. Camp Dundee, a great funky looking tavern, stood out. With canoes tacked onto the building, an outdoor bandstand, and rustic signage, I was saddened that it was only mid-morning and Camp Dundee was closed. I would have loved to have seen the interior.

Kiddie corner to Camp Dundee was McJuggers Bar and Grill. Although not as funky as Camp Dundee, McJuggers looked like another fine establishment. Next door to McJuggers was a hamburger joint. All the seating was outside and the smoke from the grill wafted through town. The burgers must have been good as several people were mowing them down for their breakfast.

Just before reaching Mauthe Lake, the trail emerged from a thick pine forest into a strange holloween-like lowland forest. All the trees were leafless sticks pointing skyward. A plaque denoted this area as a state natural area. Apparently, the sticks were still alive and had just lost their leaves early in the fall.

Both Mauthe Lake and Long Lake are kettle lakes, that is, formed by a big chunk of glacier ice imbedded in gravel. Mauthe Lake, however, was only a quarter the size of Long Lake. The campground was nice, but we liked our campground better. The sites at Long Lake were a tad bit roomier and Long Lake wasn’t just larger than Mauthe Lake, it was much clearer.

All-in-all, we stretched the 14-mile round trip into 20 miles with some side trips. I was very pleased with the trail. It was one of those hidden gems that we occasionally run across on our trips.

Unloading the ebikes. Time to ride!

This turned out to be a terrific bike trail with a variety of cool sights.

The funky Camp Dundee Tavern in downtown Dundee.

The other tavern in Dundee. The town consisted of two taverns, a burger joint, a gas station, and a handful of houses. Not bad.

The low-land forest.

Mauthe Lake

A map of the bike trail - follow the yellow line.

After the bike ride, it was 12:30 and time to find a hiking trail. The Kohler-Andrae State Park, on Lake Michigan just south of the brat capital of America, Sheboygan, sounded good. We loved Point Beach State Park just 30 miles to the north so we had high hopes for Kohler.

And we weren’t disappointed. Technically, Kohler is two parks mashed together: John Michael Kohler State Park and Terry Andrae State Park, but you’d never know it. They are completely mashed up into one continuous park. Unlike Point Beach, where the dunes developed a thick forest, Kohler’s dunes are all sand. Miles of cord-walks crisscross the dunes. Cord-walks? These are planks strung together with ropes and laid down on the sand. It serves double-duty by making the sand easier to walk on and protecting the dunes by funneling all the foot traffic onto the walkway.

The dunes are elegant waves of gorgeous sand flowing out to a spectacular sand beach. Like the beach at Point Beach, this beach goes on for miles. We did two long hikes. On our second hike we included a mile of beach walking. I only wish it had been warm enough to swim. A couple of courageous kids were in the water, but no adults.

The cord-walk over the dunes.

With the afternoon waning, we drove into Sheboygan, a city of 120,000 right on the lake. I had read that Sheboygan has a riverwalk along the Sheboygan River as it runs into Lake Michigan. We parked downtown, opened the Gaia hiking app, and sure enough, we located the riverwalk. Ok, we didn’t really need Gaia, just follow the river to Lake Michigan - duh!

Sheboygan surprised us. It is a clean and prosperous city. However, unlike most towns in the area, Sheboygan was brand new. It was nicely brand new, not like the junky slap ‘em up franchise buildings that many American cities get stuck with, but we didn’t see many grand old turn-of-the-century buildings.

The riverfront, with its big condos and cutsie shops and restaurants, looked like it was built yesterday. Big charter fishing boats and pleasure yachts lined the river. Two beautiful sand beaches were on the lakefront both north and south of the river. A lot of money was recently put into the river area, and it was done surprisingly well.

The riverfront had lots of sparkling condos, resorts, and apartments.

Working boats. I looked for a smoked fish shop but to no avail.

A restoration project.

The breakwater where the Sheboygan River reaches out to Lake Michigan.

A round map of the river walk area was helpful.

Downtown Sheboygan - very clean and prosperous but surprisingly nondescript.

From Field to Fork Restaurant - great name. I am assuming that they specialize in locally grown ingredients.

We did find one grand old ornate building downtown.

I wanted to see the town of Kohler, just outside of Sheboygan. It is supposed to be a quaint town. I put “downtown Kohler” into Google Maps. This usually does the trick, however Maps just dumped us off in a residential area. We drove around a bit, but I couldn’t find anything but houses. It was getting late, so we quickly gave up.

The town next to Kohler, Sheboygan Falls, was more like it. The downtown had spectacular old buildings nicely maintained. Unfortunately, the evening was starting to impinge upon us and we just slowly drove through.

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.

Dave and Wanda

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