Governor Dodge is probably my favorite Wisconsin State Park. It is large; the campsites aren't directly adjacent to large roads; there are a couple of nice lakes and even some nice forests/prairies/mini-canyons. It's pretty spectacular by WI standards. (I might even say midwest standards if it wasn't for Michigan). This past weekend, as a prelim-writing-is-mostly-done reward, Ali and I headed up there with 4 other folks from our class. Campsite availability was pretty tricky to find, and we ended up in the "backpacker" loop (hooray!). We drove in to the less-visited side of the park and dragged all our car-camping supplies in the 1/2mile trail. We might not have needed the two coolers and three cords of wood, but I was feeling rather accomplished once we got them to the campsite. It was also awesome having a proper backpack that I could use to carry all of our personal/shareable gear (2 sleeping bags, 2 tents, 2 sleeping pads, 2 people's clothes, stove, pots, bowls, bug spray, sunscreen, etc). Thankfully, we put our 3L of water in the daypack. From there, we settled in for some good campfire cooking and gossiping. Though we hadn't planned the date based on the Perseids, several of us did realize it would be happening. After about 10 or so, we wandered into a nearby opening and caught some really fantastic meteors.
Saturday, we got up reasonably early and got breakfast going. My whisperlite was sputtering something awful and could barely hold a flame. Thus, everything took 2-3x as long to cook, and anyone trying to use the stove after our cheesy eggs were done was out of luck. I disassembled the stove, wiped off the carbon build-up, ran some water through, and needed a fair amount of help getting the thing back together. After that adventure, we split up into the fishing-folk and the hiking-folk. T-, Ali, and I headed for two hikes - one through the mini-canyon and one circumnavigating the smaller of the two lakes. Did I mention that the weather for the weekend was perfect? Because sunny with 70s/50s is pretty perfect. I've done both the Lost Canyon and Cox Hollow hikes before (in the fall/winter), and they're equally stunning in the summer. It took us a couple of hours to do both loops; we were headed back up to our campsite by 4. Encased meat and s'mores served for dinner, and Ali and I went for a second night without putting up the fly. You could hear coyotes in the gulch again the second night, but I didn't bother staying awake to track their progress.
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| Cox Hollow Lake |
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| Lunch Buddy |
Sunday, we woke a little later, had breakfast a bit slower (with a sputtering but high-flame stove), and eventually packed our stuff out. The day was getting cloudy, and there was a tiny bit of rain that hit our car on the way out of the park. I've since figured out how to properly unclog the stove (way easier than I was expecting), and I really wish that I could get some more camping instead of prepping for my second prelim.
