2009 Northwoods Trip, part 2

Stephen enjoys the sand during our camping trip in Vilas County, Wisconsin, during our bigger northwoods vacation this July/August... We arrived safely in Monticello last Sunday evening after about 16.5 hours on the road. We departed from a brief visit in lower Michigan with Hope's family about 6 a.m. on Sunday, and drove straight through to Monticello. The 16.5 hours included a few stops to use the bathroom, get gas, and eat, but otherwise we aimed to make time--and we did! Here are some more shots from our camping trip to Firefly Lake in Vilas County:

The picture above is a view of the sand beach from along where our lakefront campsite was--the picture below is of Stephen looking back up from the beach through the pines to our campsite perhaps 100 feet off of the lake shore:

Here's Hope diligently finishing up setting up the tent--she fixed the camp while I watched the kids:

Here's Beth enjoy the cool, clear waters of Firefly Lake:

and Kenny's view of the world:

Our intent was to spend two nights camping near Rhinelander, and for sure our first night was just gorgeous. After getting our camp set up, we walked around the small Firefly Lake, which is in the Northern Highlands State Forest (http://dnr.wi.gov/forestry/stateforests/SF-NH-AL/):

You can tell from this picture that several years of drought have led to a dramatic lowering of the lake levels in the Northwoods: where Hope and Beth are walking should be under a couple feet of water at least... This did leave for large sandy beaches, just perfect for a lil' guy like Stephen:

We ended up staying only one night, in part because we could only get our beautiful Firefly Lake campsite for one night (someone else had reserved it for the next night), and in part because Stephen and the other kids haven't quite learned to keep their volume down at 5:30 a.m. in a quiet campground. The weather also turned rainy that day, so we felt fortunate to duck the rain while camping (at least for a while). While the weather has been less than ideal in the Northwoods this summer (cool and dry, with bouts of rain when we visit...), it has worked out to be a great year for berries. Kenny and Beth spent a LOT of time looking for blueberries and raspberries:

The patch we were picking in was on the neighbor George Croner's recently clear conifer swamp area, which opened the light for the small blueberry plants:

In addition to picking berries, we hiked in Mom and Dad's woods often, and visited some other friends. On the day before we left for Michigan, I went finishing on a small, undisclosed bass lake in the Rhinelander area. Though conditions were not ideal, they were more than adequate, and we really slayed the bass in the half-day we spent out there. Here is my buddy Kevin and the largest of the 10 or 12 largemouth bass he caught that day:

This one probably went well over 5 pounds. He caught another that went well over 4 pounds, and most of the rest of his went 1-2 pounds. I was not nearly as fortunate, landing only 4 smaller bass (this is my biggest one):

However, I am not nearly as skilled as Kevin in bass fishing, and as you can see from this picture, it was an absolutely fantastic day on the lake. We had plenty of action, and probably missed as many fish as we caught. We saw an eagle fly low overhead, and were the objects of amusement for a family of loons, one of which (probably this year's chick) that couldn't help coming within a few dozen feet of our boat repeatedly.

On Thursday, we left Mom and Dad in the morning and drove to the northern Lower Peninsula of Michigan to camp in a rustic campsite on the Pigeon River State Forest (http://www.michigandnr.com/ParksandTrails/Details.aspx?id=638&type=SFCG). Though not as nice as the one on Firefly Lake, we looked forward to an evening camping with Hope's parents Rich and Ann (Bumpa and Nahma, to the grandkids). After a nice meal of hotdogs and thin steaks grilled over a campfire, we were driven to bed early by a rain that started light and ended up a heavy downpour. Our tent was not nearly as waterproof as the new one Rich and Ann had just bought, so fortunately for them (and Kenny and Beth, who had decided earlier to stay with their grandparents), they had a relatively dry night. We did, too--after we left our leaking tent to sleep in our minivan (not very comfortably, I might add!). Stephen developed a bit of a fever that night (he's cutting some molars), so it was a good thing to get out of the rain for him...

The next day, we traveled a few hours south to a blueberry pick-your-own farm, and turned the kids loose:

Their interest in picking berries was not nearly as good as the adults, and we ended up with over 20 pounds of the large, luscious berries--which we'll probably be eating for days to come! At times, you would look up into a sea of ripe blueberries:

What an amazing patch! We then drove to Rich and Ann's home in Whitmore Lake. The next day (Saturday) was spent developing a more secure trailer lid (our bungee-cord approach couldn't handle the warped cover enough to make it watertight). We also dried our camping gear and repacked the minivan and trailer to store the piles of clothes Beth was given (and other local purchases and gifts). We spent a couple hours visiting Hope's grandparents before having dinner and turning in (relatively early). We then left early Sunday for Monticello. Below is a picture of a stand of ash trees in lower Michigan killed by the emerald ash borer, an introduced insect pest killing untold millions of ash trees in the Midwest, and coming to a forest near you SOON:

Today (Monday) was our first full day back in Monticello, and it has been rainy ever since we left. Today was sunny (after a brief heavy shower this morning) and very humid, and the rest of the week promises to be the same. Oh, well, back to reality!