CAMPGROUND REVIEW - Boulder Lake in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest

This is a blog post from camping during the second week of September. It was going to be one of those absolutely beautiful Autumn weeks to go camping, with lower temps and no bugs in the National Forest Campgrounds of Northern Wisconsin.

We hopped in the motor home and hit the road!!

The sky was blue, the roads were clear wide open and away we went. This is my favorite season of the year and it's time to get in some camping.

We headed north west over to the Chequamegon Nicolet National Forest. There are a number of nice campgrounds up in this general vicinity around Mountain, Antigo, Lakewood, Townsend and Wabeno area.  We chose Boulder Lake this time. It's been quite a while since we have been there. It is a very popular and busy lake during the summer time. So we decided we would go there for some fall camping and maybe be lucky enough to score one of the electric sites. 

Not many National Forest Campgrounds have electric sites, this one happens to have electric in two small loops out of the 82 campsites in the park. The rates are $28 for an electric site but after the Interagency Senior Access Pass, it brings it down to $19 a night. That's kind of reasonable, so we thought we would see what we could find. Potable water is available to fill your fresh holding tank at the dump station, but there's no water or sewer hookups at the sites. There are a few fresh water faucets located throughout the park for filling water jugs.

Of course, we are comfortable camping without electricity and relying on our solar and our catalytic heater, but sometimes it's nice to just be able to plug in and not think about solar exposure in the heavily wooded National Forest campsites.

Here is the link to the information about the campground:

Boulder Lake in the Chequamegon Nicolet National Forest

It's located on quite a large lake with a lot of cottages and vacation resort activity in the area. But the campground itself is far away from that, secluded and quiet on National Forest land.

There are two nice new shower buildings with flush toilets, and other pit toilets located throughout the campground. Everything is neat and clean and well kept on blacktop roads.

The campground has basically four different loops of newer campsites with other ones scattered along the waters edge. Those are older sites and shorter and mostly tilted, not good for the big rigs. The only drawback about being back in the loops is that it's quite a walk down to the lakeside to the beach or the boat landing. Since it is quite a ways, my kids never liked camping here when they were little. We would have to pile the swimming gear and kids into the car just to drive down to the beach. 

We drove in to the main parking area by the kiosk and unhooked the towed Saturn. That way we could drive into the campground through the loops and find a site that we liked without driving all the way through each one with the motorhome.

We found a very nice level site number 44 that also happened to have electric hookups. Of all of the sites in this loop with electric 40 through 54, they are all level and even and big enough for our rig.

We backed in, put down our levelers, and we were all set to enjoy three or four or five days of nice comfortable camping.  Ahhhhhh

All of the campsites are spaced far apart with a lot of lush vegetation in between. With all of the leaves still on the trees yet at this time of year, our solar access is somewhat limited. That's why we opted to go for an electric site. We prefer to not run the generator to charge up batteries either.

It was so peaceful and quiet. We took little Binney out for a walk and we went a little further than I think her idea of fun had gone. She said enough is enough and gave out and put herself on a sit-down strike!

(after all, she is 10 years old and has had serious health issues her entire life)

What more could we do but pick her up and take turns carrying her back to the campsite? It was either that or I could sit and wait somewhere with her until Steve could walk back and bring the Saturn to come and get her. She had just decided enough was enough and she wasn't going to walk anymore. Spoiled baby.

Another added benefit of camping with electric hookups is that I can run our electric pressure cooker. I keep a mid-sized one in the motorhome at all times, and I keep a larger one and a smaller one at home. I tossed in a big pork roast for close to an hour with seasonings and onion soup mix. I did a quick release of pressure. Then I added some potatoes and carrots at the halfway point, closed it back up and let the pressure increase again for another 15 minutes.

The smell was amazing and it came out perfect!

It was so fall apart tender, 

it just fell off the fork!

We each ate our fill, and then the leftovers were packaged up and put into the freezer to make some stew on another day. Food always taste better when you cook it while camping. Why is that?

After supper, we settled in with our portable wood pellet fire pit. It's called a Flame Genie. We opted to use this instead of firewood this weekend. Many parks are banning the importation of outside firewood due to the emerald ash borer. This fire pit uses bagged hardwood pellets, and presents no danger of moving invasive insects around from park to park.

Here is a link to a short video clip

 of Steve using the Flame Genie

 that I shot 2 years ago:

We got ours from Amazon:

Fire Genie on Amazon

We put up our awning and our party lights. It's nice to get settled onto our campsite with our "outdoor living room", which really is just the space under our awning. We like sitting outside and watching the squirrels and chipmunks run around --- as long as they stay away from the wires on our Saturn! We put out bags of mothballs to help repel them from under the vehicles.  Read back a couple blogs were the little buggers chewed up the wire harness on the Saturn and we had to replace things!!!

The campground was very quiet and we were relaxing and enjoying our week.

Sometimes I bring along my spinning wheel. I sat back and spun up a couple nice bobbins full of soft creamy white merino. It's a very soothing and relaxing task as the fibers slide through my fingers and onto the spinning bobbin of the wheel. I like to keep busy.

On another day, I brought out my little singer featherweight sewing machine. It's a gorgeous little antique that sews so perfectly and is easy to transport. I am working on a new quilt with some beautiful autumn colors called a pineapple block.

Underneath the motorhome we carry this big folding table in one of our compartments. I like to set it all out along with the little folding tables for my ironing and cutting surfaces. I bring along all of my tools that I need, and keep a duplicate set in the motor home at all times.  

It is a Quilter's Dream to be able to sit out in the relaxed afternoon weather, and creatively work on a quilt in the peace and quiet.

Of course, a sip or two of a favorite beverage helps make the work go along with enjoyment.  I drank a toast in honor of Fred Franzia, the creator of  'Two Buck Chuck,' who has died at 79 (my beloved favorite wine)

fred-franzia-two-buck-chuck-wine-bronco-dies

Here's to you, Fred!

After we were all settled in for a couple days, we looked up to see a Saturn exactly like ours driving slowly through the loop of the campsites.  It looped around again and the people got out and hung a tag on the site.  Looks like we were getting neighbors!   With the same tow behind vehicle as us, same color and almost the same year! 

They left, and then a few minutes later they came back with a beautiful vintage Grand Villa Foretravel motorhome to back into the site next to us!  We could tell it wasn't his "first rodeo" by the skill and finesse that he backed into place and set up all in one swoop. 

We met this delightful couple named Norm and Mary from the middle of the state. They travel in their Foretravel, which is just as beautiful and vintage and well taken care of as we try to do with ours.

The commander of their vehicle is this elegant and noble gentleman named Rocket. He tells them where to go and they obey his commands.  They said the rig belongs to him. They only drive it. 

Steve and Norm found about a million things to discuss and talk about on their motorhomes. Steve went over to help him figure out something on the generator which happened to be just like ours. And it happened to be just the same exact problem we had been having with ours. It was great to lend a hand and know exactly where the wiring snafu is that tends to erode over time. They were able to figure it out and get the generator functioning again. 

Although they didn't need to have the generator running at this particular time, because they had electric hookups, it still was good to repair it. Norm was extremely happy to have Steve help troubleshoot and trace back to the wiring connector that was giving him grief.

We really had an enjoyable time camping at Boulder Lake. But then the weather was going to turn stormy and cooler so we decided we would spend one more night and then pack up and headed on back home. 

~~~~~~~~~

As for projects around the house today, we did a couple different things. One was that I wanted to get all of this rooted coleus planted into fresh new soil in window boxes and move it down to the basement. I have kept these same strain of coleus going since the late 1980s, and it was a gift from my friend Connie Schultz from her home. The plants are too tender to winter over in Wisconsin, so they need to be either cut down and dug up, or new snips rooted in water, to plant indoors over the winter. So that's just what I do. I snipped these a few weeks ago and look at the abundance of roots I have in the bottom of each jar.

Steve helped me fill these two large window boxes with new dirt and carry them down into the basement. Then I got all of the little rootings settled into their winter dirt home. 

These two large windows in the basement face to the South and allow them to grow throughout the winter. I'm able to water the window boxes and let any excess water run out the bottom and it just leaks down onto the basement floor and out through the sump pump.

A few different years I tried wintering them over up inside of the house. But it's so warm in the house that they grow rangy and long and awkward and they make a real mess with dropping leaves as they keep growing taller. It's easier to grow them down in the basement and keep the mess contained to that one area, instead of on my hardwood floors of the upstairs

Now that that is all done, I can comfortably know that the coleus will be preserved again for another year. We have had a couple of harsh frost outside already and some of the outdoor plants are looking worse for the wear. Another strong killing frost and they will all be shriveled up for the season. I'm glad that I was able to rescue these and keep the strain going.

I also took in three hanging ferns from our front porch and two of them from our oldest daughter's house. I transplanted them all into indoor house pots and I hope they will become nice plants indoors, at least till next spring when I can move them back outside again. 

We took a nice ride this afternoon in the convertible, but we kept the top up as it was only 55° outside. 

We cruised out to the Breakwater which is in the harbor right near our home. It is on the shores of the Green Bay which opens up out into Lake Michigan. 

This is the end of the Breakwater, where we can turn around and drive back to the main harbor.

Such a beautiful day with blue sky, but there's clouds coming in on the horizon from the west. They are talking about a turn in the weather by the weekend. So we better enjoy these days while we can

We like to buzz out here and look around a little bit and see what's going on. Lots of fishermen coming and going even for a Monday.

I will go over this now and check for any typos and boo boos and get it posted before supper is ready. Tonight Steve is cooking his favorite casserole,  so I am off the hook for making something.  

I am starting to roll my newest quilt into the frame,  I will post about it tomorrow.