Camping at Goodman, But Checking Out Bear Lake

 

On Tuesday morning,  we had glorious sunshine streaming into the bedroom windows when we opened up the mini blinds. I like being parked right in the woods close up to the trees. With all of the big windows, it's like letting the outside in.

Steve took care of perking up a pot of coffee and brought a couple donuts back to bed. We shared some donut with Binney, and enjoyed a soft quiet morning of sunshine surrounding us with autumn leaves and green pine trees.

We turned on some music and it was a very nice relaxing way to start the day. I use a little battery operated mp3 player with these tiny speakers. The whole thing runs off one AA battery and doesn't drain any of the motorhome power reserves.  Rosie Dupuy, do you recognize that little braided mat underneath the wooden carrier? 

We pulled out the paper map and GPS. Further down the road to the west, about 13 miles, on an ALL GRAVEL road that is, there is another campground. It is called Bear Lake. It is a National Forest Campground. That means if we went there, we could camp for half price with our Senior Access America the Beautiful Pass. 

Bear Lake National Forest Campground near Laona Wisconsin

We wanted to do some future research for next time. We decided to take a drive over to check out Bear Lake. Hopping in the Saturn, we took the short distance on the gravel road for 13 miles. We are not intending to drive our motorhome on this gravel.

The campground is beautiful and we took the time to write down and circle every site that our rig can fit on... and add stars to the most special sites that we think are the most beautiful.

There's about four or five of the sites that we can pull into nose first, facing the lake with the most beautiful view, but only if we enter the campground from a backwards direction on the loop. We might plan to come up here next week, if the weather cooperates. 

If we wanted to get there now, to get from Goodman Park over to Bear Lake by taking paved roads it would take us 46 miles around, versus the 13 miles straight across on the gravel.

We came back to our campsite to an absolutely beautiful day. We made a late breakfast / early lunch. I cooked up some of my french toast with cinnamon and vanilla in the batter. Steve did up some thick sliced bacon and we really enjoyed our morning.

We took a little walk around the campground, seeing a lot of little red squirrels scampering all over with acorns, working furiously to store them for winter. 

Part of the campground is located in an old overgrown pine tree forest plantation. Some of these very large pines are planted in row after row. When you look up it makes a definite path to the sky. I wasn't sure which way to take a photo of it. This way?

Or this way? 

There is only one other tent here now that is attached to the back of an SUV. The other couple from Porterfield left to head back home. They gave us their business card before they left. They are both book authors. We will look them up and see about maybe placing an order in the future.

The temps are up in the seventies and it's absolutely beautiful for an October day. I heated up a mug of apple cider with mulling spices in it.

Every now and then a little breeze comes along and dislodges some of the leaves overhead. They come floating down, almost like a fairy tale or a snow globe. We have soft music playing and it's so relaxing.

We did walk again down by the river, and scope out what it looks like alongside the campsites on the rest of the loop here at Goodman Park. It's quite a ways down to the water from the campsites on a pretty steep slope. Not sure if I would want to camp in these sites if I have small children.

I am debating between taking out some knitting, taking out some sewing, or just taking a nap! I set the camera up on timer to take this shot of both of us with the motorhome.

Sadly, we looked up the weather reports for tomorrow. It is a 90% chance of rain in this area all day and into the night and the next day, ugh.  We think tonight, before bed, we will stow away any of our outside gear. That way in the morning, if the rain has started, we can just lift our hydraulic jacks, remove our blocks, and take off.  We will utilize the nice dumpstation here if it's not pouring rain!

Steve decided to start putting things away. One less thing to do later.

We would love to stay for a few more days--- or work our way over to that Bear Lake national forest campground, but I don't think the weather is going to permit that. We are looking at 2 full days of rain, and then 2 more days of VERY cold temps in the 20's at night.

I think we will head on home for a few days, regroup and refill for next week. We may help the kids at the cabin with some more drywall....  or head to a funeral in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan this upcoming Saturday for a long time camping friend who has passed away.

Life is too short. That in itself inspires us to get out and go camping more. 

 You never know when your time is up.

Wednesday morning was gloomy and dark. The weatherman said there's up to an inch of rain coming later today, then more tomorrow. We perked up some coffee and then hit the road back home.

Since there wasn't anybody at the dump station, Steve took the time to give our tanks a good rinse and everything is dumped out free and clear. That way, in case we don't go camping again, it's done for the winter.

We found the paved road heading south and east from the campground, just like that other couple told us. We followed it all the way down to Silver Cliff and we knew the rest of our way home. Although it was bumpy, it sure was pretty! 

The photo below is a bit out of focus because of a bump .... but this is the type of road we found to head back home.

It sure was a lot nicer than the gravel road going in on Monday!