CAMPGROUND REVIEW Twelve Foot Falls Campground - Marinette County Parks

On Friday morning, the weatherman gave us a wonderful surprise of promising some sunny 70° days here in Wisconsin! We don't ever get that in mid to late October. That's about 20 to 25° above average. I convinced Steve that we should toss some groceries and clothes into the motorhome and take off. We wanted to go try out one more campground before the end of the camping season arrives. And before the *S*N*O*W* flies.

We perked up a pot of coffee in the morning, grabbed our mugs, hopped in the rig and took off. The colors were ablaze as you can see in this picture over Steve's shoulder as we headed north.

It really feels good to sit in the sunshine as we're cruising down the road, looking out the big picture windows of the front of the motorhome. In a way, I wanted to just keep on going and going and going. We are making some plans to maybe head south this winter in January or February. Maybe northern Texas, southern Arkansas, into Oklahoma maybe, or even into New Mexico and Arizona. Who knows. A lot depends on the diesel prices.

The beautiful blue sky was having some wisps of clouds come across, but nothing that promised any rain. The temperatures were climbing as we headed north to a county campground that we have wanted to try camping at. What a great day! 

We turned off the highway onto some back roads and worked our way back into the campground. It is all pavement until the very last mile and a quarter into the park. Then it turns to gravel.  We don't care for gravel much, because our diesel air filter is at the back of the rig with our engine.  Dust is not good in that.  But the roads were not busy, so there wasn't much dust in the air.  Just what we stirred up. 

The campground we were headed to is called Twelve Foot Falls County park, part of the Marinette County Park system. It is a rustic campground without any hookups. There is a  handpump well for water and pit toilets. No showers, no flush bathrooms. There are three garbage cans in each area for garbage pickup. There's no dump station, but you can drive to the other County Park at Timm's Lake to dump there if you camp here. But it's quite a ways away.

The campground is comprised of two loops:

The first upper loop has sites one through seven. We can fit easily on campsite number one.  We can also easily fit on two and three.  Those two are together, great for people who are camping in pairs and want to share the larger site space.  Number four is actually around a little corner into the trees, but there is a long stretch of gravel road into it leading to a defunct wood-selling shed. A big rig could easily park on the long stretch and still occupy campsite number four. Campsites number 5 and 6 both would work in a pinch but maybe for a smaller camper than us.  Site six is actually a pull through right in the middle of the loop, but short. Number seven is a nice deep site but the way the trees are positioned at the opening, it would be very difficult to get a large rig into it. Maybe a fifth wheel could get in with careful turns and maneuvering. 

In the lower loop down along the river there are five more sites. Some are sloped and some are very tight. We would never get down into them. The road down to the parking lot and those extra sites is kind of steep. I would not go down there with a big camper or a motorhome. Perfect for pop-ups, small campers, truck campers, or tenting.  NO ATV's or UTV's allowed in the park. 

TAKE NOTE: THERE ISN'T A GOOD SPOT IN THE ENTRY TO THE PARK TO STOP AND UNHOOK YOUR TOAD (YOUR TOWED BEHIND VEHICLE ON A MOTORHOME).  WE HAD TO UNHOOK RIGHT IN THE CAMPGROUND LOOP. IT IS BEST TO UNHOOK SOMEWHERE PRIOR TO ARRIVING AT THE PARK SO AS TO NOT BLOCK CAMPGROUND TRAFFIC. 

We were the only ones there, so it didn't matter to us.  But in the busier summer months, this could cause a problem. 

The beautiful waterfalls attracts a lot of visitors on the weekend. About every 5 minutes there were cars going back and forth down to the main parking lot. Up in our loop, we were the only ones camped there, with nobody else around. In the lower loop there were two pickup trucks--- one with a tent and the other one had a hammock. I can't imagine sleeping outside in a hammock because it got down to 33° at night. I kind of think he switched and went back inside of his pickup truck? No idea. 

As for the campground, the rate is $15 a night. That includes two vehicle stickers. Otherwise if you just want to come as day use you have to pay an additional $5 for a vehicle sticker. I do believe that you can buy a yearly pass on their website. 

Cell phone reception is a little weak, one bar or two bar limited LTE signal. But it was enough that we could stream Roku late at night to catch up on the weather and TV shows. Over the air TV antenna signals fade during the day but in the late evening they come back. We could only pull in the NBC 26 and CBS 5 from Green Bay. We could get PBS out of Marquette in a weak signal that would pixelate in and out. But we could not get the FOX 11 network. That's important, because the Packer game was on Sunday. And we could not pull in FOX. More on that later. LOL

Here is a link to their website and note that some of the campsites are actually reservable. I think it was the even sites were reservable and the odd sites were first come first serve? Don't quote me on that because I kind of forgot what it said on the sign. I'm sure the website has more information:

Twelve Foot Falls County Park

This is copied and pasted from the website:

TWELVE FOOT FALLS PARK – This park was built in 1956 and 1957 in the center of the County’s largest forest plantation. The construction work was done by the Marinette County Forestry Department. Old time river drivers, who helped move the pine timber logged in the area named the falls by the distance the river dropped over the rock edge. Rustic camping sites are located near the reflecting pool of the falls.

We got all set up on campsite number one. It was very nice to pull in nose first. The campfire pit was positioned up near the nose of the rig so you could either back in or go in nose first, either way for this site. But there was more grass and open area if we drove in nose first. We also chose this site because it seemed pretty open to get some solar exposure. This time of year with less daylight hours, every bit of solar that we can get is better than running the generator. We have 500 watts of panels on the roof that are slightly tilted. We have a bank of four large 6 volt golf cart batteries that do quite well with any of our electric needs overnight. But we do need to charge back up during the day.

Here is a photo of the little loop of the top end camp sites. As you can see, we are the only ones here. At the far end there is an outhouse, three garbage cans, and a defunct wood selling shack. There's a sign there saying you have to go over to Morgan Park at Timm's Lake near Pembine to purchase firewood.

We set up in the sunshine and rolled out our tarp. The nice grassy area kept down the dirt or the dust. Some of the workers had recently been through there and pushed back or brushed back or blew back all of the pine needles and falling leaves. They must have been there just before we got there because everything was clear and neat as a pin. There were clean new fresh bags in the trash cans and plenty of toilet paper in the outhouse. Very well kept campground.

We walked down by the waterfalls. This one is called Twelve Foot Falls and there's also a sign to hike over to 8 Foot falls. There is a whole map if you Google Marinette County Waterfalls Tour . I think 10 or 11 different waterfalls in the area are marked to travel to. We had done it once years ago when we were on our little Honda Helix scooter. It was fun.

Here's a little video clip I shot of the waterfalls

It sure was pretty, sitting on a bench watching the waterfalls. There are three or four benches in the area to sit down on, as well as a nice big parking area, picnic grounds, and more out houses.

Our little Binney enjoyed the walk down to the falls, but it was quite a hike back up the hill for her. She is now 10 years old and with the damage the heartworms had done to her heart before we adopted her, it takes a toll on her. She needs to stop and take a break. So do I! 

We walked back up into the campground and I took this panoramic view. The entry point kiosk is on the right to pay the camping fees at the self-pay post. Otherwise you can also pay for your site online. It was nice to be the only ones in the campground loop. Peace and quiet--- ahhhhhhhhhh.

I took out my new-to-me red oak spinning wheel. This is the one that I will take along camping from now on, and leave my other more delicate Wee Peggy New Zealand wheel at home. This one is made to be much more rugged. Here is my previous blog post about the wheel and how it came to be:

Peshtigo-red-oak-spinning-wheel

Steve grabbed my phone and took a picture of me while I was sitting in the sunshine, with my little dog at my feet. It was a beautiful way to spend the afternoon.  It is hard to imagine that last week we had *S*N*O*W* in many parts of Wisconsin! 

I spun up an entire bobbin of cream-colored sheep wool blended with caramel colored llama, and then I started on some soft fluffy gray sheep wool that I had taken along. This will make a snuggly warm winter hat.

The birds were singing, there were little red squirrels rustling around in the leaves, and it was just so completely peaceful. If it hadn't been for cars every now and then driving down to the waterfalls, it would have like we were the only people all alone in the woods.

We were getting the grill out, ready to sizzle up a big plank of salmon for supper, we had a couple cocktails. Well, actually one each. 

Steve prepped the salmon while I made the salads and some pasta.  We do put the grill away at night, so we don't attract bears or coons.

The temperature was dropping quickly, and the weatherman forecasted we would be probably down into the freezing range for the night. We went inside the motorhome and got cozied in for the night and decided to not light the campfire after all. 

Even though there aren't any hookups, most people with built in propane furnaces really wear down their battery overnight by running the furnace with the electric blower fan on it.

Instead, we have long ago installed this Olympian Wave 8 catalytic heater by Camco. It doesn't use any power at all.  Only propane. On "low" it keeps the motor home very comfortable, especially in the evenings during regular camping season. Knowing that we were going to have such bitterly cold temperatures, we turned it up to "medium" for the night. You can see the red glow of the catalytic pad. We keep everything away from the front of the heater and have one window cracked for extra ventilation.  This size works quite well for the space in a 40 ft motorhome without slides. 

Here is a past blog post about the heater and how we installed it: 

motorhome-modifications-o-is-olympian wave 8 heater

In the morning we woke up and it was pretty chilly outside. But we were cozy and warm inside. 

We like having all of the creature comforts of home.  We set the Wave 8 to "high" for a while, so we could sit around in jammies and relax. 

Looking out of the windows, it looked like it was going to be another beautiful day with clear blue skies. We turned on the tv, streaming through Roku, and picked up the local weather. Yes, it was going to be in the 70s again!

We set up the old glass Pyrex flamethrower coffee pot on the stove. I have such fond memories of this type of coffee pot when I was a kid. Dad would fill it up in the morning and it would be on the stove in the dim morning light of the kitchen in the middle of winter, before the sun came up. The first few perks would be caramel colored swirls coming down into the water underneath. Watching the bubbles go up the clear glass stem in a rhythmic perk perk perk as the scent filled the air.  I put a paper coffee filter in the glass basket for easier clean up. 

Steve, the chef, cooked us up a hearty breakfast of hash browns and bacon, and I cooked the eggs. We had picked up farm fresh brown eggs from the Mennonites when we picked up the thick slab bacon at Brubaker's in Lena on our way North. We only had plain bread because we weren't going to run a toaster on the inverter and our batteries.

Steve looks pretty happy to be spreading

  homemade jam on his plain bread.

He grabbed the phone and snapped one of me 

even with my messy bed hair!

Sipping my fresh perked coffee, I was looking out the windows of the motorhome while still being inside and comfortable. Waiting for the temperatures to rise outside before I was going to go outside for the day.

Once it warmed up outside, Steve pulled out my white Cosco folding table. We shortened the legs just a little bit so it would be the perfect height for sewing. I brought along my little antique Singer Featherweight sewing machine. It can run on electricity if we want, but it also has a little hand crank device that I have added so I can run it without electricity. I turn the little crank and it sews nice little short seams for my quilt blocks. I wouldn't want to do big long seams with it. But it works perfectly for working on quilts.

Steve relaxed in his chair for the afternoon while I was working on my quilt. 

He looks pretty happy.

The sun was streaming down and filling up our batteries with solar power. If I really wanted to, I could run the on-board propane generator to sew with electricity. Not really noisy, but I really didn't want to do that. Also I have a pure sine wave inverter that I could transfer the battery power over to 120 volt electric AC electricity to run the sewing machine. But I really wanted the limited solar exposure this time of year to work to top off our batteries. Getting them back up to 100%. So instead, I just crank crank crank on my little sewing machine and enjoyed myself.

As evening came on, Steve broke out another beverage and I had to have another glass of my Two Buck Chuck wine from Trader Joe's.

Steve had marinated some tenderloin steaks all afternoon. I cut up and sliced some potatoes with onion and olive oil and seasonings and rolled them in tin foil to go on the grill. A crunchy salad with the very last tomatoes from our garden topped off our meal.

I took out the spinning wheel again to spin by the fireside as Steve got the wood stacked to get the campfire going. It was a nice warm evening after a relaxing day.

 Isn't that what camping is all about? Relaxing.

 Got some more grey wool spun up. 

Watching the flickering flames as we sat and talked about our upcoming travel plans. Everything of course is just ideas, nothing written in stone yet. But it's nice to talk about places to go, or things to see if we decide to take off this winter and go south.

Once the snow starts piling up, Steve gets a little antsy and would like to be somewhere warm. Me, on the other hand, have plenty to keep me busy and tucked away in my She Shed all winter long. I can be quilting or weaving or knitting or spinning and be content. The nice thing is, when we go in the motor home, I can still bring along all of my fiber fun stuff. I can do it wherever we are! 

While we were talking, Binney was curled up on my lap. She enjoys being close by the heat of the campfire as the temperatures were dropping again for the night.

We woke up to a very cold and chilly 38°. It wasn't quite down to freezing like the night before. But it still was very strange because we were getting a heavy mist and fog. Things felt damp. No sunshine!

I looked out the windows to see a whole bunch of neighbors lined up for their turn at the outhouse? It was a whole flock of turkeys! They moved eerily through the mist, not a peep or flutter. 

The silly little things were wandering around pecking and looking for something interesting. I don't know if turkeys need to eat little bits of gravel for their gizzard like chickens do? But they sure were busy over there and they must have found something good.

Well now, back to the TV station thing. Because we weren't able to draw in the FOX network channel 11 out of Green Bay, Steve would miss the Packer game at noon. I figured we could watch the recap of it or even a repeat of the game on Roku later.

But he was kind of chomping at the bit that maybe we should head on back home before noon. We were only 60 miles from home. Also, the weather reports for Sunday night, Monday and Tuesday look to be pretty windy and rainy.
Sigh.

I got things roadworthy inside while he packed up a couple things outside. We were ready to go in a matter of minutes. He raised the jacks and backed out of our campsite. Once he was out, he BARELY made it around the loop with the 40 ft motorhome but he had to jig jog a couple times. I would recommend that if you do come in with a big rig, that you take the time to back out the same way you came in. If you are in a truck pulling a trailer or a fifth wheel you should easily be able to fit around the loop. We hit the road heading back out of the campground and encountered even more fog.

It was only this way for a couple miles and then the sun started burning through and we were able to get out to the highway with ease.

Home again 

home again 

jiggity jig.

The Packers played horribly and lost at the end. 

I think I would have rather stayed at the campground?

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.