Saturday, May 21, 2011

Trip #12 Glacial Drumlin State Trail, Sandhill Campground Site # 15

October 2001

"A 52-mile ride through glacial landscapes between Waukesha and Cottage Grove.  There is a 1.5-mile on-road near Jefferson.  The 12 miles from Waukesha to Dousman is paved."

Lake Mills, Wisconsin

http://dnr.wi.gov/org/land/parks/specific/glacialdrumlin/

Worst trip ever!!!  It was sooooo cold!  I had about five shirts and a couple pairs of sweatpants on the whole time.  We slept with about five blankets and still froze.  I took a camping class in college and learned that isn't the correct way to stay warm in this type of situation.  Your body heat has to heat up all the layers before you warm up.

This is the first time I camped at a state trail.  All of the sites were walk-in.  There were carts in the parking lot that you used to hike your gear in.  Another unique feature at this park, was there was no ranger station.  I made the reservation ahead of time and my name was on laminated card on the camping post.  The fishing totally sucked when we were there.  We didn't even catch one.  It was really miserable.  I'm not a quitter, but we definitely quit this trip.  The wood wouldn't burn either, which didn't help the freezing situation.  We got there on Friday and decided to pack it up Saturday night around 9:00 p.m.  We didn't even roll the sleeping bags or fold the tent.  We threw it all in the car and got outta there as quickly as possible!

Our Site

I like the big tree over the site.  

I didn't gain 20 lbs since the last trip.  I have about five layers on.

Mud Lake

Marsh land boardwalk

Fishing on a little pond with no success.

Ha! in a tree again.  That's the second picture.
I bet I'll find some more.

Monday, May 16, 2011

Trip #11 Interstate State Park, Site #40

September 2001

"Located along the picturesque St. Croix National Scenic Riverway, Wisconsin's oldest state park provides scenic views of the riverway and the steep-sided gorge known as Dalles of the St. Croix.  An Ice Age Interpretive Center features a 20-minute film, photographs, murals and information about the great glaciers."

St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin

http://dnr.wi.gov/org/land/parks/specific/interstate/

This is by far the best campsite we've ever had.  It was situated on the end of a cal du sac, along the St. Croix river.  This was the only site on the cal du sac, so we had plenty of privacy.  It was a huge site and a quick walk down a hill and you were on large flat rocks right on the river.

We didn't start our trip at the park though.  Since this was the first time we traveled this far, we decided to get a hotel room the first night.  We stayed in Bloomington, Minnesota in a very basic hotel room.  I found the cheapest room in the area.  Since we were so close to Mall of America we went to check the mall out on our way to the park.  We weren't there very long and everyone made fun of me for buying a shirt with one sleeve.

Another thing that made this trip so memorable, was it was Sarah's first trip.  This was the first of our many adventures together.  She was also our first medical mishap.  We had just started out on our drunken nature walk when she took a sip of her beer and was stung in the lip by a bee.  I had a box of benadryl in my camping stuff and my mom had written on it take two for bee sting.  What she hadn't taken into consideration was that we were drinking.  Sarah was out like a light.  She woke up hours later in a dark tent by herself and freaked out before realizing what was going on.  The rest of us continued on our walk.  There was some pretty rough terrain we had to cross.  Andy was helping me up a cliff and kicked me in the face.  Sarah's sting injures were worse.  This was a great park and I would highly recommend it to anyone.  We sat by the river and had campfires on the rocks, explored the cliffs, and had a great time hangin out at this park.


Fabulous hotel we stayed at in Bloomington, MN

Rochelle

Ahhh stop taking pictures of me!

Mall of America







Sarah

Andy and Chris bored out of their minds while I shopped for  the one armed shirt.




Me, Sarah and Rochelle at the theme park in the mall

Driving to the park.  Not sure if this is St. Paul or Minneapolis

Site #40
Best site ever!

Chillin on the site




St. Croix River

Lake O'Dalles

St. Croix River
I believe this was down by our site.

Creek that ran past our site

Sarah, me and Rochelle by the lake

Me by the river.  This was right below the site.  The only downfall to this site was you could hear semi trucks jake braking on the bridge above me at night.

Chillin!!!  This is what it's all about!



The gang

Start of our nature hike

More hiking.

Old Man O'Dalles
There's a face in the cliff, although it's kind of hard to see in this picture.



This park was on both sides of the state line.  In fact we went to the MN side first thinking we were at the WI park.  

Rochelle and I hiking on the cliffs.

Taylor Falls Queen



An old fireplace in the woods.

Hangin by the fire.  Notice we've got two fire pits pushed together.  Maybe  this site used to be two sites accounting for why it was so big. 

Rochelle by the camping post.

Monday, April 11, 2011

Trip # 10 Yellowstone Lake State Park, Site #59

August 2001

"One of the few lakes in southwestern Wisconsin, 450-acre Yellowstone Lake is a popular recreation area year-round.  Fishing, swimming, boating, family and group sites."

Blanchardville, Wisconsin

http://dnr.wi.gov/org/land/parks/specific/yellowstone/

This is a great park.  The drive around the lake up into the campground is really pretty.  It was HOT this weekend!  The lake was really warm too.  It's not a clearwater lake, in fact it was really murky.  I'm guessing the dark water is why it was so warm.  I'm pretty sure this is a man made lake.  There is one end of it that is completely straight and the land is significantly lower on the other side.  You can rent fishing boats at this park.  We caught a lot of catfish/bullheads.  Regulations state that you can't keep a catfish larger than 15 inches, which sounds backwards to me.  I caught one that was 16 inches.  It put up a great fight. Even if we could have kept it, I don't know that I would have.  I'm not familiar with cleaning catfish.  I would really recommend this park to others.  I'm kind of sad I can't go back here until I'm done with my mission.

I think this was the first time using the tent without the fly.  Sleeping under the stars is the best!

Still can't get over how clean our sites were.

Yellowstone Lake from the campground.



Bullhead we caught by the dam.

Mmmmm corn and cheddar wurst.  

Breakfast is served.  Spam anyone?

Goofin around.  I was so tiny back then.

Beach at Yellowstone Lake.  

End of the lake.  It was a lot higher on the lake side.  I've never seen anything else like it.

Sitting on the boat,  dying of heat!

My catfish that I didn't want to touch.  It was 16 1/2 inches.  

Yellowstone Lake from on the boat.

The dam near where we caught the bullhead.

Standing on the dam looking down.  Cool pic!

Alice (mom) Street in Darlington, Wisconsin