CAMPING – (part 2) Cedar River in the Escanaba River State Forest

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(this post was made by a solar powered laptop)

 

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Here are the photos that went along with yesterday's blog post....   

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This first pic is taken through the windshield as we drove in.  See… it’s a single lane gravel road with many twists and turns.   But we have been here before and knew we would make it.  Even with about 40 foot of motorhome and scooter up on back.

 

 

Here is the house made of round river rocks that I talked about yesterday. It’s on the way into the campground, just out of the tiny town of Cedar River.  It’s for sale now, and quite the interesting looking house.  Quite a difference from the common newer log houses that line this road up and down the river. 

 

 

Here is the sign where you need to turn into the park, it’s so faded you almost miss it, and as you come up the road there are quite a few trees blocking the view of it coming ahead.   So unless you know where you are going, you might pass it up.  And it’s a  LONG LONG way up the road further to find a spot to turn around, I tell ya!

 

 

Here we are on our favorite site, number 10.  Steve had the ladder out here in the this pic,  He was putting my aircard antenna on the roof in case it would pull in a better signal.  Nope, it actually got a better signal from *inside* the motorhome.  Go figger?

 

Our site backs right up to the Cedar River.  What a lovely place!   The river is calm and dark brown, colored by the tannin the water and from the needles of the Tamarack trees and cedars that line it’s banks.   We could put in a kayak or canoe here and end up down in the waters of Green Bay.   There is a poster for kayak rentals where they will deliver them right here to the campground, and pick you up at the end.  Neato!  Maybe next time….

 

Our kids hated camping here when they were younger, because there wasn’t a beach or swimming area.   Nice for us older folks and peace and quiet!

 

I just love how the cedars hang over the banks, growing at a graceful curve upwards.

 

 

 

Got the nice clean motorhome a tad bit dirty coming in here, huh?

 

 

Here are a few pics from our cross-country scooter ride.  They were doing logging on parts of this  road, we had to pass a staging area where they load up the trucks. 

 

 

Then we went on further, looking to get through to the east to M-35.  The map showed the logging road went all the way, so we made it.  Had to cut around a few gates, but there was room to get through.    In this shot below, you can see one of the two deer we startled as we came down the path.  I sure don’t think they were going to see a scooter come through their woods!

Once we reached M-35, we turned south and drove along to check out some of the other campgrounds.  

Here was campsite number 1 in the Fox Park, along the shores of the Green Bay waters.   We like to camp here too, and it’s the only site we fit on in this park.  We pull right in and face nose first out to the water and sand dunes.   But today it was windy and cold coming in off the water, so I am glad we had chosen to go further into the woods where it was easily 10 degrees warmer.

 

 

Here is a little map of our ride yesterday.  The blue and grey lines are either pavement or gravel roads, but the yellow squiggly one cutting across was the 2 track logging road we took!   About 20 miles round trip I think….

 

And here is our faithful “cross-country dirt bike”  (a.k.a. our Honda Helix scooter)

 

After our ride, it was time to get supper going. We were planning to sit out around a campfire, so Steveio got that going too.  Little did we know, we would get rained out!

We grilled out boneless skinless chicken breasts with a bit of Sweet Baby Rays’ BBQ sauce on them.   A few cobs of sweet corn roasted on the upper rack, a pot of mashed taters and some green beans, we were set!   What a feast!

 

 

 

Here are some pics of the family camped down in the lower loop with the ATV’s  … The daddy had taken the two littlest ones out,  and they came back with a load of firewood in a small wagon behind the dad’s fourwheeler.   The kids followed along like little duckies behind their daddy.  

 

**side note**

We used to ride our ATV’s a lot too.   Especially when our kids were little.  We would head up north into Michigan as there were a lot more trails we could ride on.  Pack a picnic lunch  and a cooler of drinks and off we would go.  Sometimes we would have as many as 15-20 machines in a group for long trail rides.

Our kids and the little cousins used to run on three little orange Suzuki’s behind all our big grown up ATV’s too.  They all learned the rules of the trail, wore helmets and behaved themselves.  Or else they didn’t get to go the next time! Or they had to ride in the little cart I pulled behind my fourwheeler with the coolers!

Here in this old pic below, we were teaching my MOM how to ride on one of the the little Suzukis  … heh heh … a lot of kids learned on those little machines.  They had automatic clutches and were easy to shift for the kids to learn on.  Moms too!

 

But we don’t go so much anymore.  We have sold our biggest one and gave mine to my folks.  I think we are enjoying the softer ride of the scooter and aren’t up to such rugged trail rides any more.  It’s hard on my stomach, all the bouncing and jouncing around.  I think we are getting old?

 

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Well, that was the rest of the photos I was going to post on yesterday’s blog….

here is today’s post:

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Saturday night it rained and rained and rained....   it put out our campfire, so we had to head in the motorhome.  We got out the cribbage board and played four games, of which I won 3.  Had to let Steveio win at least one game so he would not pout.  Tee heee

Had a better internet signal during the rain, go figger?   We were able to chat with my sister and her husband, who are still holed up in a hotel over in Ann Arbor Michigan while he undergoes treatment for stage four bone cancer.   They had the computer on there, so we bantered back and forth in chat --- some about our card game, some about camping stuff, and mainly just keeping in touch and keeping the spirits up.  

Our nephew Mikey is due for surgery first thing Monday on his stomach up in Marquette, Michigan.  He is my older brother's son, who is developmentally disabled and having a really rough time with stomach issues and Crone's Disease and who knows what else.   My folks are going up there to be with him during the surgery too.  Not sure what is all going on, but expect to hear more soon about that.

With the rain pounding on the roof, we took showers and headed to bed, high and dry.  Our Wave 8 catalytic heater was just about cooking us out of here, even set on low.   About half way through the night, Steveio got up and turned it off.  Even on low in a 40 ft motorhome, it sure puts out a lot of heat.  (we keep a window cracked too)  The temps only got down to 55 overnight, so I guess it really wasn't needed all that much.

Sunday morning dawned overcast and windy.  With no TV stations able to be picked up, we turned on the weather radio to check the local stuff.  I keep a printout of the NOAA codes so we can set it to the county we are in.  Things are looking pretty grim over Wisconsin today, and even further south and west are thunderstorms and higher winds than we are experiencing now.   I am thinking it is not a good day to take another scooter ride, huh?

I was able to get a semi useful connection on the air card to check emails.  My sister said they had tornados over by Ann Arbor!   She said one touched down in Dundee, about 20 miles away from them.  They heard sirens but didn't know what they were supposed to do, and the hotel never told them to leave their rooms.  ACK!   I woulda been in the basement before you could blink an eye!     But all was good and they were around this morning to send an email.  LOL

We got the coffee perking and I whipped up a batch of muffins from a mix.  We ate them so fast I didn't get a chance to take a pic!   Imagine that!   The doggers got out and sniffed a bit and did their business, but came back in for their muffin too. 

Sipping coffee and and the sun is poking it's light through the bright green fresh spring leaves... remember... this area just leafed out not too long ago and had snow as recently as 1 month ago.  It's still *Spring* here.

Ahhhhh I am now working on making some french toast… yummmmmmm and the sun is getting brighter and the winds are dying down.  Might be a nice camping day afterall?

 

After breakfast, we took a nice long walk along the river, found a trail for the doggers to sniff on, and made our way back about noon. 

 

 

Got ourselves road worthy and headed on home.  Stopping at Kmart in Menominee Michigan to pick up more AC freon for Steve to put in Heather’s car.  You can buy it over the counter in Michigan, but not Wisconsin. 

(we do have to go home later… sigh)