Third Annual Camping Trip - North Woods Wisconsin

We went on our third annual Fourth of July camping trip.  This year we headed way up north to the tip top part of Wisconsin to a campground in Copper Falls State Park.  It was the best camping trip yet. 

And Dan is back behind a camera... he decided that he really just doesn't care as much about the whole SLR and manual settings thing and much prefers having something small that can fit in his pockets easily.  So the point and shoot is back in rotation and we get a little bit of a view of the adventures from Dan's perspective... which is nice.

Anyways, this might be a huge post. 

We started the trip with a stop at the Lisle Eyes to the Skies balloon fest.  So we got up at 4:30am...  Dogs aren't allowed at this festival but it was relaxed that morning and we just acted like it was okay that they were there.  Dan helped one of the balloon people pack up and then chatted up the pilot.  We also checked out the fireworks remenants.

Then it was time for a nearly 8 hour drive.  Oy.

And then we made it to the campgrounds only to find out that two bears had been "making mischief" so the rangers had setup a bear trap, caught the smaller bear and were working on catching the bigger bear... the bear trap was next door to our campsite.  Lovely.  I had been kind of freaked out about camping bear country but we decided not to move to the overflow site.  We had really been looking forward to the walk up site that we booked.  And our cooking was planned to be minimal with zero dishes so no problem.

We did not see any bears.  Or any wildlife other than ticks and man eating mosquitos.  Thank goodness for frontline.

The campground has several hikes that included waterfalls.  The red granite falls hike was our favorite.  The copper falls hike was super moderized and not a real hiking trail which we find lame.

Since we were only 30-45 minutes from Lake Superior we had to check it out.  It made for a fun second day to head to Bayfield and then take the ferry to Madeline Island.  The picnic at Big Bay State Park beach was a highlight of the trip.

This was my first time taking a vehicle on a ferry.  It was kind of expensive but was worth it.  And Shelby was starting to get brave or antsy or something... after we got back to Bayside we stopped to fill the jeep and Shelby jumped out of the back window... yeah.  Nine year old beagles should not be jumping that far... nor should any age or any breed really.  This is the second time this summer she has tried to be an escape artist (the weekend prior she escaped as we were packing up from visiting Dan's parents). 

We spent plenty of time chilling and being goofy at the campsite.

That is a deck of cards, by the way, and Dan just might have won at gin rummy for the first time ever.  I need some bootcut jeans to wear with hiking shoes- wowza was I stylin. 

We finally invested in self inflating sleeping pads... oh my goodness why did we wait so long.  They made all of the difference as we actually slept at night.  So worth the money.  And we cut back our packing significantly including no "real cooking" to keep it all super simple.  Dan wants to eventually get to backpacking and we both wanted to simplify the whole process of packing and unpacking. 

And then we started the long drive home.  Chatting about dreams of having a vacation house on a lake.

It was a very very good if very fast trip. 

Comments

[Michael]

Question, were the Tecates and PBRs actually consumed or only present as props? Is that how you kept the bears away? I would just man up and punch the bears in the face.

[youonlygetone]

Michael - Don't you know that cheap beer is bear repellent? The more you drink the more likely the bears stay away from you.