Continuing on the outdoor theme, Joel came up from Chicago to do an overnight backpack trip with me in the Northern Kettle Moraine.
I picked him up from the train station Friday night and we went to REI to find him some decent shoes and see if we could fit him to a pack size. Spent about an hour there and then headed home.
On Saturday we packed our bags, and waited until afternoon to head out. We were only doing 8 miles each day and there was no reason to go too early. The weather looked pretty good. Only a slight chance of rain and only short bursts. Based on this we only brought pack covers and no rain gear like ponchos, jackets or extra socks.
We dropped my car where we would end at Butler Lake, then Tracy took us to the trail head on County Hwy P. The northern terminus of the Kettle Moraine here.
Twinning!
The day seemed nice, sunny and not too hot as we headed to our campsite for the night, shelter #5 just south of the Greenbush picnic and group camp area.
As we went the clouds became more ominous, but I felt pretty good that we would miss most of it. As we crossed Hwy 23, it looked worse, we were headed right to the dark stuff. It caught us unprepared, and we had to hustle to put the covers on our packs, get my camera in the bag without taking on too much water. It rained, it rained hard.A thunderstorm cell that followed us for at least 30 minutes. The trail turned to streams, mud everywhere and well we got soaked.
The sun did come back out later that afternoon and about 4:30 or so we got to the Greenbush camp area. We took over a picnic table, took off out nasty wet shoes and wrung out our socks. They have a nice water faucet here too so we filled up all of our containers here so we wouldn't have to deal with fetching water at camp.
We decided at this point, we should eat as well. We had the space, the sun and a good water source, why not? We had a happy hour Mexican fiesta. I had picked up this pack of Queso, Salsa and Chorizo bean dip. All dehydrated, should be interesting. We had a bag of tostitos as well.
Everything rehydrated really well. The salsa was tasty but had a bit too much lime flavor, the queso was also good but you got a bit too much of the cheese powder taste. The bean dip was the best, good flavor and texture. (of course they no longer carry the bean dip).
We ate, relaxed a bit and then the clouds started coming back. We packed up and finished the less than one mile to camp just in case it wanted to rain on us again. Cold damp socks and shoes suck, let me tell you.
We made it to the shelter and it occasionally sprinkled on us. But we set up our hammocks and changed into our dry sleeping clothes and hung up what we could. With so much tree cover and humidity nothing was going to dry out completely.
BigFoot!
The sun came out one last time just in time to get dark. We then took a little side hike to a kettle lake behind the shelter. According to the guidebook it is one of the deepest symmetrical kettles in the area. We went far but couldn't get much closer without a lot of bushwhacking. Since it was getting dark and the mosquitoes were coming out in force we headed back to camp.
We both retired to our hammocks and it was sooooo good to get the wet shoes and socks off. My feet were so happy. I tried reading but fell asleep within 15 minutes.
The next morning we got up and it was after 7. I don't sleep that long in bed. I will take 10 hours anytime. We both got up put our wet shoes on but with our dry sleep socks. That helped keep the feet happier and at the same time helped draw out moisture in the shoes. Since we would't need them again it was a solid plan. We had breakfast of this southwest corn pudding dish and a triple berry crunch that was supposed to be dessert last night. We were starting to pack up when a group of 6 came walking into our campsite. Said hello and proceeded to take a break in our shelter. Ummm hey yeah it's fine, whatever. I paid $27.00 for this site just make yourself at home. They were quiet and left after about 10 minutes. We lazily packed up and it started to sprinkle. This time we donned the pack covers right away so not to have to scramble like yesterday.
Just like yesterday it started out fine but by the time we got close to the next shelter, the rain started again. Any bit of drying out we did in our shoes was quickly wiped out. Squishy feet all over again. We took the side trail to the Parnell tower and proceed to ascend the lookout tower. Because why not. Pelted with rain we took it all in. We got back on the trail and when the rain slowed the bugs came out, not sure what was worse. Near the end we had to traverse a mud bog. It was no big deal, feet were soaked so just go for it. Joel tried to keep above it with no luck and went into a little tirade, I was laughing the whole time. Can't recall seeing him lose his cool like that in a long time. We both had a chuckle.
On the last mile I took my only fall, one knee down telemark style, full of mud. So graceful.
Between the rain and the tall grass, the mud was gone in 100 yards. As we came down the hill to the parking lot, the rain stopped.Because of course it did. We dumped our packs changed into dry clothes and grabbed a adult beverage of choice, left on purpose in the cooler in the car. I have done this before.....
We headed to the hamburger haus, a favorite place for burgers and ice cream for folks camping at Long and Mauthe lake. We ate some burgers and headed home.
A fun overnighter despite all the rain. Hell, if Joel had fun know just think how he may enjoy it when it doesn't rain all weekend. (Kind of like our last kayak trip).
Enjoy the video I cobbled together out of clips and occasional photos in between rain showers.
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