The Black River Forest is 68,000 acres of public land in Jackson
County, which is about 2 hours northwest of Madison, WI and two hours
southeast of Minne-apolis, MN. The area is home to wolves, bear, elk,
wild turkey and other critters.
I headed up there last
Thursday night in the Frontier, pulling the Brew Hut. It’s likely my last trip of the season.
The days are getting much shorter. I arrived at Castle Mound
campground a few minutes after 7 p.m., and it was pitch black. I was
nervous about towing the trailer for the first time in the dark and
setting up in the dark also for the first time. Aside from four
whitetail deer straddling the entrance road to the campground, I didn’t
have any problems. In fact, thanks to pull-through sites, I didn’t even
have to back up the Brew Hut in the dark.
After self-registering and paying my fees through the envelope slot
at the closed office, I hiked around in the dark through the campground
loops. There were only a couple of other campers. Back at the Brew
Hut, I unwound with a couple of Spaten Octoberfest lagers, ate some
pepper jack cheese & crackers, and read a few chapters of Game of
Thrones. The campground is fairly close to Hwy 12 and I-94 so there was
some truck/road noise, but I slept well, waking up
Friday to the sun starting to rise and temps in the 40’s
I
decided to warm up with a hike instead of breakfast. The Castle Mound
Nature Trail is about a two-mile hike that includes some ups, some
downs, and some very nice views of rock formations and forest.
A steep set of stairs leads to the observation deck, where, unfortunately, a wasp nest awaited.
An
instant after I stepped from the last stair to the deck, several wasps
landed on me. A single sting to my left hand cut short my visit to the
top. I rarely get stung and was a bit ticked off at my luck. I prefer a
good cup of coffee for my morning wakeup. Still, I managed the header
photo and one more before hiking back down.
Some bacon,, eggs, hash browns (from scratch), and fresh brewed Dominican Republic coffee soothed my pain.
After
breakfast, I hiked the Perry Creek mountain bike/hiking trail, which
was an in/out trail of about 5 miles round trip. The trail had been
recently mowed and was in good shape. I didn’t see a mountain bike the
whole weekend or more than a handful of hikers for that matter. On
this hike, my only company was a hen turkey who was too lazy to get off
the trail to escape from me. She did seem to be annoyed that we were
going the same way.
Dinner was tostadas with seasoned pork, cilantro and raw onions,
washed down with an inexpensive red wine from Portugal. I found some
firewood left by the previous occupant of my campsite for a nice bonfire
to end the evening.
Comments