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)

CAMPING - Part 3 - Old Veterans Campground - Peshtigo State Forest

(this post made by a solar powered laptop) 

Good morning from the woods .....

We are still at Old Veterans campground in the northwoods of Wisconsin... check my blog post from two days ago for maps and website about this place.

Picking up where I left off on Saturday's blog:

After our cinnamon rolls and coffee, I popped in a pan of brownies too on Saturday.  Frosted them later after they cooled.  Just love that little Easy Bake Oven!  (Coleman Instastart propane oven)

After a cereal breakfast we decided to hop on the scooter to head out over to my dad's place on Crooked Lake.   Here is our Honda Helix that we put on a rack behind the motorhome.  It rides us both up comfortably and goes 70mph.  It is a nice alternative to having to tow a car.  Our Saturn is towable, and we have the tow bar setup, but we choose to just bring the scooter.  It's much easier and more fun!!!

It was about 18 miles one way, and let me tell you, even on tiny backroads and a country trunk road, the traffic was horrible!   A lot of holiday people out and about.  We drove past Twin Bridge campground where we first thought we might like to camp and it was jammed up so tight.  I don't think there was a square yard of open space on the beach as we drove past, it was wall to wall people, both in and out of the water.   Going past the boat landing, the entire parking lot was filled solid up and trucks/trailers lined the road up and down both sides for near a mile!

We pulled up in front of my dad's place, and he was not in the garage as usual, so I called him on my cell phone, he answered his phone from inside of the house. I asked him "Where in the H*LL are ya????"  (just like he hollars to me on the phone each time he calls me) .... LOL   and told him we were out in the driveway!

Here is his little log cabin we helped him build in 1984.  It started as a weekend cottage, but now it is his permanent home.   We got him a new metal roof now, so he doesn't have to get up there to shovel off the snow and ice each winter.  A couple years ago, Erin and I restained it for him, and it's looking like it could use another coat again.

When anyone goes to my dad's house to visit, you don't sit in the house... oh no!   You all sit in the garage!

He has patio furniture set up in the open garage door.  You sit there, grab a cold one from the fridge he has in the garage, and watch cars and people drive by on the loop through the woods around his house. It's like being in a small tavern.  He has beer signs up all over.   I noticed he had last years father's days cards still stuck up on the wall too.  LOL  He has fans blowing to keep the garage cool, and folks stop by to visit as they drive around the lake and see him sitting out there.    Everyone there knows him as *Yooper*   because he was born and raised in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan... U.P.er... Yooper.... you get it?  They even made up a job for him, and a name.  He is the Mayor of Yooperville,  I kid you not!

While we were there visiting, four guys stopped by all at different times... first was Paul (in the pic on the left)  he stopped to bring back some parts he borrowed and dropped off some other parts that he thought dad could use on a project.   Then the other neighbor from across the way, came over asking for advice on how to repair his screen door.   Then 2 guys stopped in a pickup truck with a broken lawnmower in back, asking my dad to fix for them.   This was all in one hour's time!   

He sure is busy busy busy and it keeps him outta trouble... well, kinda sorta!     Dad is always fixing things and not charging enough $$$ to even make a profit, because he usually fills the oil and gas on each machine he fixes!   Sometimes he finds junked mowers or weedeaters or chainsaws at the dump, takes em home, fixes em up and gets em running.... and lines them up in a row along the side of the road to sell them to the other cottage folks who drive by!   

One time I was talking in my blog about ice fishing and how popular a sport that is in the north.... Here is a shot of my dad's ice shanty!   It has windows, curtains, a wood stove, hooks for lanterns, 12 volt lights and tv on shelf, two flip down bunks and trap doors built right into the floor....  you just drag it down to the lake onto the ice and place it over your drilled holes in the ice.   Sitting inside, nice and warm, and fishing in comfort on sub zero days!  Sometimes the fish bite better at night, so you can even sleep inside when you get tired, or too drunk to go home.....

We decided to get on back to our campground, so left him with more guys all yapping in the garage.   Heading back I snapped a few shots while on the back of the scooter. Pretty good, eh?

(that round dome on the bottom on the photo is Steve's helmet!) 

Here is one I took by holding the camera ahead of me, and trying to get the motorcycle with side car that was travelling behind us.  Although in Wisconsin you don't need a helmet to ride motorcycles, we do.

I snapped a shot of the tiny general store we stopped at on Friday.   How cute is this?  You can not imagine how much stuff is crammed inside, plus propane filling out back and the single little gas pump in the front.

This guy has a sign out front saying he is an "Antique Dealer"    .. you betcha! 

As we pulled into the campground again, I snapped two more pics, one is the Wood Shed... it's an honor system of buying firewood from what is stacked inside.  There is a *rack* that you load up your wood into, put your five bucks into an envelope and stick it into the box.   Done.

Speaking of on your honor, most the parks we frequent are self pay posts and on your honor.  Sometimes rangers come through and double check, sometimes they don't.   We ALWAYS pay, though we do see some folks that sneak in and sneak out the next morning and never put anything in the post or hang a tag.

There is ONE time that our guys all went the day before with the camper trailers and fourwheeler ATV's to a place way up in the U.P. of Michigan, and we woman came the next day.  Of course we thought the guys had paid, but they were so excited to get out on the ATVs and start mud running, they didn't!    By the time we women got there the next day, it was the furthest thing from their minds to pay.   Well, we got back from a long ATV ride, and there were two rangers setting in our little group of trailers.  OOPS!   They were very nice, but said they had to give us all fines as they had to call in our license plate numbers per policy.   Actually it was a park in Michigan and they said they had the authority to impound any out of state vehicles if  they wished!!! We were the only out of staters in our group!! ACK!    But we chatted nicely with them, explained how stupid our men were, and invited them to sit down and eat supper with us.  LOL   They still had to write the tickets, but we realized they were only doing their jobs.  It cost us $212 for a fine.  And we are sure to never ever ever do that again!


After we got back to our site, let the doggers out.

Oh side note here--- we kept them inside with a 12 volt fan blowing on them, and our battery operated MP3 player with speakers playing loud enough inside to drown out any outside noises that might make them bark.  Although we are many many sites away from any other campers, we just don't ever want them to bark and be annoying whether we are here or gone.   They are good campground doggers, and we have set up the video camera from time to time to film them for 2 hours and see just what they do when are gone.   Nothing.  They sleep, get a drink from their dish, and sleep again.

I took out the sock machine for some cranking, got two more orders to work on, plus I sold a handwoven rug on my etsy site last night.  I will ship it out on Tuesday when the post office opens.  In case you don't know, I am a weaver  and knitter and sell my wares on this site:

http://kareninthewoods.etsy.com/

Just a shameless plug in case you would like to help support my RVing addiction?

Steveio decided it was time to cook supper, so he did boneless skinless chicken breasts on the grill, and I whipped up the noodles and green beans.  Ahhhh another feast fit for a king!

Gosh we sure eat good when we are out camping! 

Now-- question here: 

Why is it the guys say *They Cooked*???

When all they did was flip the meat over on the grill a few times and season it a bit?   While we women:

plan the menu

shop for the food

pack the food 

defrost the right foods on the right days

hand them the raw meat and grilling tools

make up all the extras like the noodles and beans

(timing them right to go along with the grilling times so all is done together)

taking out the utensils, plates, glasses, wine etc. 

but the guys say *They Cooked*  

????????

We took the path around the lake (see yesterdays blog post for a map with the blue path)   It was so nice and cooling down fro the high of 91 today.  We slathered on some tick spray and took the doggers along.  This path is nicely mowed and doubles as snowmobile trail in the winter months.  

Along our path we saw another box turtle laying eggs, just like the one at home.  Plus we saw a trail of ants by the thousands, actually making a path like a rut through the ground back and forth to the lake from their huge sandpile.   You can almost see it in this pic on the right:

We wandered back into the campground just about sunset...

Steveio made a nice campfire in the brand new fire ring in our site.  I brought out the computer for a while and chatted with the RVDreamers in the chat room while sitting at our own campfire. That was kinda interesting! 

 http://www.rv-dreams.com/chatroom.html  

We sat out till we could not keep the eyelids open anymore....  time to crawl into the shower and go to bed.  Steveio had sprayed both dogs good for any stray ticks that might be falling off after our walk, and we didn't have any crawling around in the motorhome either.  Thank goodness. 

Sunday morning dawned bright and sunny (again)  but the weatherman is promising high temps, humidity, and rain storms tonight.  Steveio cooked us a nice breakfast of this sliced american fried potatoes, slab of fried ham, and a few scrambled eggs which he hasn't had but once or twice a month now.  We ate them so fast, didn't have time for a photo.  

Wonder if the kids are gonna come up or not?  If too hot, it is not a lot of fun for babies....   and we would have to fire up the generator to turn on AC for them.

  We will see what today will bring!

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Campground Review – Boulder Lake National Forest Campground – June 2008 (and woven lawn chairs)

(this is one of series of posts of various campgrounds we have been to over the years... I am going through my files in alphabetical order and posting past camping trips in my blog.... something to do over this long long upcoming winter---- sigh)

This campground is a larger one in the Nicolet National Forest.  It’s usually packed full, and is known for recreation with lots of families, power toys on the lake and busy busy busy.   Some sites also have electric hookups, which is rare for the National Forest campgrounds.  $15 for non-electric sites and $20 for electric.  There are three bathroom buildings and showers too.  Dump station and recycling station at the entrance. 

We were far back in the last loop, outta the way of the traffic, the noise and the crowds.  I think we were on site 74.  It was quite a hike down to the lake from our campsite, but you could still hear the incessant whine of the jet skis on the lake all day long.   The boats line up in rows down between the beach and the boat landing. It’s like a busy parking lot on the water!  There are large group sites located further away and we could hear some loud live music coming from over that way too.  Bet they were having fun, but it wasn’t too peaceful for the rest of us.

We went here to meet up with some friends, otherwise we try to steer ourselves to more quiet sedate parks.  At the last minute they couldn’t come, so we were on our own.


We love these backroads… and winding along in our motorhome with the huge windshield exposing all the scenery is one of the best shows we could ever see.  Ya never know what is around the next bend?  This was taken right out of the windshield while in motion, so it’s a bit blurry.

 
Parked in the back loop, we just barely fit on this site. (see the big rock under our back bumper?)   It was a very nice weekend and the temps were great.  Not too hot, not too cold… juuussttt right!   We were in a non-electric site, but that was fine with us. 

 
I really like campsites situated like this… where we can look out each window and see green  green green….  don’t see any other campers nearby, and our picnic table and fire ring are far back away from the edge of the road.   Most national forest camgrounds are gravel, both the roads and the sites.  This one being blacktopped is really a *step up* for us Rustic Folks!  LOL


 
We do a lot of outdoor cooking… Steveio is the Fire-Tender and Super Chef…..  
He brings along a few select chunks of cherry wood from our own trees to use for the cooking itself.  Once the food is done, then he puts on regular campfire wood.

 
Yummmmmm  looks good enough to eat?   The Hobo Potater Packets are just doubled layers of  tin foil with peeled chopped up potato and onion, then a dollop of vegetable oil, a dab of real butter, then spices like Lawrys , pepper and dried parsley.  Carefully rolled up so the oil don’t leak out.   Set on the grill and carefully turn over without poking the tinfoil.  When you hear them sizzling, it’s time to turn it over.   Once you can squish a lump through the tin foil, then you know they are done!
The chicken breasts are always slathered with Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ sauce… hmmmmm

 
To escape some of the noisy folks in the park, we took down the scooter from the back rack and went for a ride.  There is a lot of pretty scenery around this area, between the national forest lands and the Menominee Indian Reservation…. they have some of the prettiest land in Wisconsin for their own, and the roads going through the rez are some of the most scenic and inviting. 

 
We found some back roads and decided to explore.  Although our scooter is NOT a dirtbike, don’t tell Steveio.  He thinks he is a daring motorcross rider at times, so I let him enjoy his fantasy.  (If I don’t, he will be tempted to buy a big motorcross bike and we don’t need that after the age of 50…. old bones break too easily)

 
Sometimes I like to bring along my spinning wheel and spend the morning with a cup of  coffee, soft fibers, and the tranquil feeling of the wools slipping through my fingers as I create lovely yarns to knit with.   By Sunday morning the campground quieted down, and the mass exodus of folks leaving early was only marked by the clanging of tent poles being taken down, the slamming of camper and truck doors and engines starting up to leave.  How nice is that?

Our sitting up style lawn chairs are handmade by me… its a technique that uses macrame cord (the braided is better than the twisted)  and two big crochet hooks.  Using graph paper,  one can make just about any design.   Here are some that myself and my sister have made over the years. 
This is a link to the website that has instructions:
http://kingskountry.com/free-macrame-patterns.htm

 
  


 
Soooo that is another day in the Camping LIfe of KarenInTheWoods and Steveio…….


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