CAMPGROUND REVIEW- Dispersed Camping in the Machickanee Forest, Oconto County, WI

Going through the motions here, trying to do some "normal" things in advance of Steve's dad's funeral planning ... Steve and family are handling funeral home and church details and attending family meetings etc. The funeral will not be until November 4th due to scheduling conflicts and delays with the pastor and family schedules. 

Since we had some free time, we decided to pop some things into the motorhome and go camping nearby.

We have always been told that our Oconto County Machickanee Forest had dispersed camping. We recently found out there were some actual sites for dispersed camping, complete with picnic tables and fire rings! This is only within 15 miles of our home... 

Previously, we only knew of one spot, but it was right near the bridge and major highway noise and it was a spot where a lot of people go to put in canoes into the Oconto River. 

Right around the corner from the launching spot, in the pretty part of the woods, there's room for five or six campers. But it's so close to the highway and the railroad tracks so you hear all of the noise. That's the only spot we ever knew about.

We decided it was time to learn more. 

So we hopped in the Saturn and just took a ride. Back deep in the Machickanee County Forest just north of Abrams, WI on Hwy 141, Turn on Timberline Rd. and there is a parking lot that is maintained by a horse riding group. Right on the edge of their parking lot is another one of the dispersed camping spaces. If you like horses and want to watch them getting loaded and unloaded from trailers all day, that would be a really nice spot to park. The kiosk there had a handout map provided by the Wisconsin Outback Riders. They are helping to maintain over 25 miles of equine trails within the Oconto County Machickanee Forest. So on this handout map they nicely show 13 campsites! 

(The little triangles are the campsites)

Upon our calling Oconto County Courthouse Parks Dept. itself asking if there was a more detailed map, the clerk there informed me that actually the dispersed camping can be anywhere within the county forest as long as you are not blocking a roadway or a trail. You just need to register and pay a $10 permit fee per night.  They cannot tell you that you can only camp in certain spots. It's just that the map that the horse group created already shows some nicely established ones. 

We drove around and actually picked out two of them that were kind of nice. All of them were empty. It was a Wednesday, and there were only about six or seven pickup trucks with horse trailers in the one lot. But they were just there for the day. Nobody was in any of the actual camping locations designated on the map. 

We drove back home and finished packing up the motorhome. I followed behind in the Saturn because it was only 15 miles. 

The one spot we chose actually had instructions on the sign to return back to that horse trailer parking lot and pay for the site in the pay post located there. That's what we did.

Later on, we found out from the courthouse lady, she would prefer you go online and just click the permit link and apply there and pay with a credit card your $10 fee. All you have to do is give the GPS coordinates of wherever you have chosen to camp. So next time we will do that. 

Keep in mind, this is all rustic camping. There are no amenities included at all, and everything you take in, you should take out with you. 

The site we chose was well off the road. The trees are just about at their peak so the color was amazing.

I tried to do a panorama view of all the beautiful colors that were surrounding us on this remote site. 

This site happened to have a picnic table and a fire ring. Not all of them do. The ground was a little soft and we could see where someone had rutted in the mud a little bit. We were careful to park on a drier section of the land.

Sadly, someone left a big mess in the fire ring. There was a lot of trash around as well as a moldy heavy rain soggy carpet cast over the campfire. We got a couple large trash bags out and cleaned up. They did leave some firewood though.  LOL 

We got the camper all set up and made a little lunch. This was such a nice quiet peaceful place. We were really going to enjoy this. It was great to get away, even when it was so close to home. 

Steve had walked around the backside of the camper and along the edge of the campsite he discovered the gory remains of a freshly killed deer carcass! Evidently some hunter had chopped off the good meat and left the rest of the carcass and the head there to rot!!! 

Ewwwwww!!!!!!!

So that is when we called over to the county courthouse to ask if they did any type of maintenance on these dispersed camping sites. That's when we found out from the courthouse gal that next time we should pay online and not at the post. She said they really don't do any type of maintenance but then I explained that it might be a poacher who had chopped up a deer and left all the remains right in the campsite. It is bow season so it could have been a bowhunter and even then, it needed to be tagged and registered at a DNR station. Chances are, whoever got the deer thought it wasn't quite big enough so they would just take the meat and leave the rest there. Then they could save their hunting tag for their next kill that might be a bigger and better trophy buck! How disgusting that they left the carcass just lay there.

So the courthouse gal said she would ask the maintenance crew if they were in the area to come and take a look. Sure enough, within 15 minutes a truck pulled into our spot!

These two very courteous workers donned some of our disposable work gloves we use for our dump station duties.  They grabbed some big bags and they picked up all of that gooey icky fresh killed carcass! How nice of them. We really didn't know for sure if anybody would come. It's nice to see that people follow through and take care of things in our little county. We really appreciate it. 

Now it was time to sit back and relax and enjoy the colors of autumn. All around the campsite it was absolutely beautiful. We spent time talking about memories with Steve's dad, and how much he loved camping too.  We felt close to him, and I think he was there enjoying our little respite away.

The sky was starting to cloud up a little bit, but for the afternoon we got to enjoy the beauty of the Northwoods of Wisconsin. The birds were singing and we just loved looking around at the colorful woods.  

Binney wandered around the campsite checking things out and sniffing around. Of course, we didn't let her anywhere near where the deer had been.  She checked out our campsite and then curled up underneath our lawn chairs to take a nap. 

Since we had driven the Saturn separately, I tossed in my spinning wheel and a basket of fleece. It was nice to take it along for setting outside and doing a little spinning in the autumn woods. Peaceful soothing and relaxing. 

By supper time, it started to cloud over completely. The weather forecast had changed from what we had initially looked at this morning. The winds were suddenly blowing in from the east and storm clouds were building.

We nixed the idea of cooking outside and decided to make supper indoors. We had planned on grilling burgers outdoors and making a big salad. Instead I had some frozen stew I had grabbed from home that I was able to reheat for a nice cozy dinner, along with our salads.

The rain started coming down, so we curled up inside on the love seat. We had to move Binney over a little bit and we clicked on the Roku stick with Steve's phone as a tethered hotspot. He has a Visible Phone from Verizon with unlimited data. Great for streaming when the signal is good.

We watched some YouTubes of Kenny of All Trades.  He is a guy in Minnesota with a pickup truck camper. He enjoys finding out of the way camping spots and dispersed camping too. We really like his weekly posts, and we have now gone all the way back to the beginning and we are binge watching him from his first video post. 

We love his gentle nature, soft-spoken voice, and beautiful scenic shots and videos he takes. He does not blast you with crazy stuff to attract viewers or macho swearing or political crap. He's just a gentle guy that enjoys the woods.

Check him out at:

 https://youtube.com/@KennyOfAllTrades?si=1VJMkd3lcnzVyXsc

Well, it rained and rained and rained all night. We were comfy and cozy in the motorhome. In the morning we woke up to a lot of outside dampness, fogged up windows, and a weather forecast of more rain all day long!

Steve got out the fixings to make a nice breakfast. I stayed in my jammies until almost 10:00 a.m.! 

Even though we have a nice well apportioned kitchen, it really is made for one person at a time. Once he gets the bacon, hash browns and toast all ready... Then it's my turn to go in and make the eggs as he steps aside.  He fired up the generator just to make toast! LOL .. What a guy. 

The more we looked around at the muddy ground, and all of the impending rain to come, we decided it might be better to vacate our dispersed camping spot.

The last thing we wanted to do was get stuck in the mud with the motorhome! Because there's no real gravel parking pad or anything, and the low lying land, it's very possible to get muddier and muddier with the impending rainfall, and making a mess if we try to drive out if we stayed any longer.

So by 2:00 p.m. we decided to pull in our slides and head on home. We managed to get out of the campsite safely with no spinning or mud ruts. The ones that were there were made by some previous people. But we sure didn't want to get stuck in them.

We headed on home and unloaded the few things we had brought along. Of course, just as we got home and settled in, The sun came out!!!! 

Go figger! 

I was almost ready to suggest going back. But then we looked to the south and the east and there were huge storm clouds coming again. No sooner had we taken that picture when it started pouring outside. We got quite a bit of rain throughout the evening and all through the night. So I guess it was better that we had come on home. 

P.S. as I am typing this in and getting ready to post, a package just came from FedEx. It is the first of five packages that we are expecting in the next few days...

Hmmm what is this?? 

These are two pannier bags that are made to go on the rack of a bike. Also two adorable little bicycle bells that secure to bike handlebars.

Wonder why we ordered those?

For a month or so now we have been investigating the possibility of buying E-bikes. Yes --- electric bikes. We met a couple on our vacation in September who had ordered a foldable set to take in their RV. They can be ridden three ways:

One. Just as a normal bicycle with normal pedaling with seven speeds.

Two. Peddling as a bicycle AND using what's called "pedal assist"  with five different levels of help from a 500 watt electric motor.

Three. With the handle bar throttle, it can be used with throttle only, no peddling, kind of like riding a little motor scooter. Especially handy on hills or just when we are too pooped out and want to throttle the rest of the way back to the camper.  

After much research and reviewing, we decided on the Lectric brand of foldable E-bikes.

Pretty cool that they fold up and can be stowed away. Many RVers use E-bikes to get around to explore areas or even dash to a store to pick up a couple things. That's why we wanted the pannier bags. We've been going over some of the other features, and we got quite a few freebie accessories with our order.

We are watching the FedEx tracking on four more boxes. Two boxes are the bikes and two boxes are the batteries. We should have everything here complete by Tuesday. Lithium Batteries are shipped separately, as they are not put on FedEx Air transportation. 

This will be a new adventure, stay tuned!