June 2016

Just walking near home

2016-06-29  Yesterday I decided at the last minute to go take a walk in the Seno Woodland Area just a couple miles down the road again. It was in May when we were last there and I wondered how much it had changed. My main observation is that southeastern Wisconsin is beautiful! Click the photo at right to see more.

What a privilege to be able to walk in and enjoy God's handiwork!

Faith Chapel Men's Campout

Men and boys gathered to discuss some Bible truths relevant for all of us before closing down this morning.

2016-06-25  Last night about twenty men and boys of Faith Chapel here in Burlington where we attend spent the evening and night camping at Bong State Recreational Area. We were each on our own for dinner Friday night and then had a group breakfast this morning. God blessed us with absolutely wonderful camping weather throughout. It was sunny and in the 80s as we began setting up late afternoon and got down to about 60 overnight. There was not a drop of rain and a fairly constant but mild breeze so the bugs were not even a really big problem. My son, Charles and his son Elijah and Elijah's friend Dominic slept in my 14' by 10' tent which we nestled into a small clearing near the back of the Group camp site. The Group camp site Site E) was an excellent site. Plenty room for tents but with trees throughout and surrounding it. So shade was abundant, yet it was open enough to let air through.

It had an amazing fire pit area. The fire ring with grate was surrounded by a roughly two foot wall made of railroad ties so you could sit around the fire, back far enough to avoid the fire and most smoke but near enough to talk across the pit easily. And there was an abundance of good solid picnic tables.

I wanted this to be a good experience for Charles and Elijah and his friend so "agonized" over the menu for Friday night. I settled on steak, and a pre-chopped mix (I chopped them at home) of zucchini, carrots, and potatoes seasoned with salt, pepper and garlic powder. I seasoned the steak with salt, pepper and garlic powder also prior to going out.

​My fairly old Coleman camp stove has one burner and a grill so I stir fried the vegetable mix in olive oil and grilled the steaks on the grill. It all turned out really well. A bit more salt would have been nice but it was all really good and quite easy to do, both before and at the site.

Steaks wrapped in foil waiting for vegetables to finish cooking.

Half way through the pizza!

But the real show stopper was pizza. Earlier in the week I watched a YouTube video by Yankee Prepper where he made pizza on his last night on the trail. I knew immediately that was the secret to the boys having a good time. In the video he used flat bread. I couldn't find any white flat bread in the size I wanted so chose six inch flour tortilla. They were a bit thicker than most but any would do. You put a bit of olive oil in a skillet, pop the tortilla in for just a minute or so on a side. Then pour on some Tomato Pasto sauce (I had Prago traditional Italian  sauce) and spread it around on the tortilla. then put some cheese on top. I had some shredded Italian cheese. Then put Pepperoni slices on. I forgot a lid for my skillet so when I was afraid the tortilla would burn on the bottom I flipped the whole thing over so the cheese and pepperoni would get hot. After about a minute I flipped it back and then served it. The boys loved it. Unfortunately I never got a taste but I'll take their word for it as they are pretty much pizza connoisseurs! I guess what amazed me most was how easy it was. And you could easily take it backpacking as the tortillas and sliced pepperoni I had did not require refrigeration. And I've read that mozzarella cheese will keep for days! I'll do that one again!

Yogi Bear's Jellystone 

2016-06-11  Thursday afternoon Sharon and I took our 7 year old granddaughter Millie, 10 year old grandson Elijah and their 11 year old friend Dominic for a planned three night camping trip to Yogi Bear's Jellystone campground nearby. What a fun, exhausting experience. We took the ​ALDI 5/14 Ad, 14' x 10' 8-Person 2-Room Dome Tent we got at Aldi's a year ago and a new Gazebo I found at our local Menards 8ft by 8ft gazebo tent I got on Thursday, the only one I could find in town. It is small but was "cheap" and quick. Well, not so quick to set up but not bad either.

We were concerned about the weather as they were predicting fairly significant thunder storms, especially in the evening and overnight. But it was almost clear when we arrived and set up for which we were very grateful.

But there was considerable lightening, thunder and rain for most of the night, ​sometimes hard rain. 

The excited campers at the beginning of the trip showing off the gazebo, tent and camp setup!

We had not experienced this in the tent before so I was pretty concerned how it would do. It held up well! We did not get wet. The floor and inside did get a bit damp but not really wet. I had a makeshift footprint for it, an inexpensive, light weight plastic/nylon tarp from Menards about 12 by 15 feet. The way I laid it out caused it to catch a lot of water off the tent and funnel it right under the tent floor. It was still very wet when I took the tent down today. But the tent floor held up even to that! Friday I cut the tarp down to make it just smaller than the floor of the tent. But that "improvement" is untested since it didn't rain after that. 

8 ft by 8 ft screened gazebo set up in our back yard.

The screened gazebo was another experience. After setting it up at home I carefully labeled each of the 32 1/2 inch thin-wall steel pipes that make up the structure. That saved me a lot of time and fuss when actually setting it up on site. So that went well. It did control the bugs giving us a reasonably bug-free environment for eating, etc. It is not rugged but didn't suffer any harm from this one use.

The one thing I had failed to note, and probably would have still gotten it due to the $59 price is that it is NOT rain proof. In fact from my observations the morning after all that rain is that it acts more as a filter than as a block to rain! Fortunately everything we left on the table and/or inside was capable of being wet without serious ramifications, but now I know! 

Turns out that we didn't really want to leave ANY food stuffs or trash from food stuffs on our campsite anyway as some night, once even late afternoon guest helped him/her self to it. So let the filter do its job, nothing perishable is in there anyway!

It was a great time. The place was very good, both the non-hookup tent site, the facilities and the activities. We may well go again sometime.

Richard Bong State Recreation Area with Grandson

2016-06-06 Backpack and Overnight trip to Bong
​State Recreational Area

2016-06-08  This past Monday I and my ten year old grandson, Elijah, put on our backpacks and went for a hike in the Richard Bong State Recreation Area and then spent the night in the Sunrise Campground. He wanted to do a backpacking trip with me where we actually packed to our site and set up rather than driving to the site and then hiking around. Hence the trip. It was a wonderful experience for both of us. I took my GoPro camera along and recorded the trip which I have shared here. I think it gives a pretty good look at what our hike was like. 

We struck out at 2:00pm, he carrying 15 lbs and I 35 lbs. What I intended to be a mile and a half or so turned into 3.5 miles due to changing trials in response to rain the day before. We also got to make our way through a large tree that had blown down across the trail. and we saw a turtle, large frogs, a Monarch butterfly, a deer and a rabbit. 

Thankfully there were almost no mosquitoes. A wind storm with minor rain hit us just after we turned in for the night which felt a bit threatening but we were grateful that it only lasted about half an hour total. 

Overall it was a great trip with just enough of the unexpected to make it authentic even though we were near home! And it was a success. When I asked him when he wanted to go again he said next year! He was paying attention too. When I asked what we should do differently next time he said, "bring less food!" Can't wait 'till next year!

Devil's Lake State Park

2016-06-06  This past Thursday my wife and I set off on our first "real" camping event of the year, spending one night at Devil's Lake State Park near Baraboo, Wisconsin. What a beautiful place. It has two nice lake front/beach/picnic areas, an interesting walking trail along the north shore of the lake that joins the two beach front areas and the Ice Age Scenic Trail passes right through the park, including right through one of the two Ice Age campgrounds. We chose a site in one of the Ice Age campgrounds about as far into the woods as possible.

View of Devil's Lake from the trail along the north shore that passes through this remarkable "debris" field of massive split rocks supposedly created by centuries of freezing and thawing of the near solid rock face of the hillside.

Site 415 in Devil's Lake State Park, Baraboo, WI.

​Our REI Passage 2 tent, Therm-a-rest Trail Scout sleeping mats and Ozark Trail 40F Climatech Mummy Sleeping Bags all served very well. Sharon doesn't like the mummy style bag very well so she actually unzipped hers but still stayed warm with the temperature dipping into the upper 40s.

​Food wise the Mountain House Chili with Mac and Beef was absolutely wonderful. Texture, thickness and taste were all excellent. It is clearly a must have if you like Chili. On the other hand the Mountain House Scrambled Eggs with Bacon, is simply disgusting in our opinion! Using the specified amount of water, it is way too "liquidy"! ​

The texture of the eggs is almost gritty. The bacon is bacon bits which is fine but the combination is just not pleasant, though the actual flavor is acceptable. But the Kellogg's Gone Nutty Pop-Tarts saved the day!

​We highly recommend visiting and camping at Devil's Lake and definitely plan to do it again when we have more days to invest.