Chippewa Recreation Area

Last week, I ran away from home to the forest--specifically, the Chippewa Recreation Area located within the Nicolet-Chequamegon National Forest.

Close to Perfect

My first night was not perfect.  Allie was having a slumber party on our property with two of her closest friends, so I got the heck out of town on a Saturday night without any reservations.  I called the Walmart in Medford, Wisconsin and was told that I could overnight park.

However, once I arrived, I was told that I couldn't park in the customers' lot.  Instead, I should park in the back where the trucks unload.  There was a sign with good news and bad news.  It said that trucks were not permitted to unload from 10 pm to 7 am.    It also said there was no overnight parking by order of the Medford Police Department.  I went to the front desk again and was told that no one pays any attention to that sign.  

That advice was on the money.  I slept undisturbed until 4 a.m. when the first truck blasted through right next to my window while making a 180 turn before backing loudly into the loading dock.  After the first truck, more trucks rapidly arrived and carried out the same tight turn.  

I was out of there at first light and on my way further north. About 30 minutes before I arrived at my destination, deer started crossing the road just in front of me.  After that happened, I was on high-alert for what took place next.  A large black bear crossed the road just ahead of me.  There was no danger of a collision, but I got a very close look at the bear and a chance to observe how fast a bear's burst is.  No one is going to outrun a black bear with that kind of burst.  Fortunately, they are almost always running away from humans, not towards them. 

On my way into the campground, I passed a large pop-up camper, and I wondered if they had vacated a good campsite.  No worries.  Even early on Sunday morning, there were ample campsites, and I chose the best, least expensive one.  Premium sites on the lake are $18; standards sites are $15.  Visually, my site was also on the lake, but there was a small common day use area directly behind my site, so it was classified at the lower rate (site S18).  

No electricity or sun for solar, but they do have hot showers for a buck, flush toilets,  water, garbage and a dump station.

Site S18

 

Day Use Area behind my campsite

At sunset, the loons and sandhill cranes bragged in song about how wonderful it is to be in nature.

I spent 6 nights here.  I'll break down the trip into another post or two to include a couple of the side trips that I made using this campsite as a base. The only thing I didn't have was decent internet service. 

New Glarus Woods State Park

Faced with involuntary servitude this fall, Julia and I escaped to a nearby state park last week for a few days.

New Glarus Woods is about 30 minutes south of Madison, Wisconsin. It’s a small park with a rustic campground ($15 per night).

The park has several assets: a great 5 mile nature trail, a beautiful restored prairie, and a bike/footpath into the nearby town of New Glarus (a tourist destination with Swiss themes).

Good thing it’s plastic

Someone tell Callie that it isn’t real

On the negative side, the park was poorly maintained during our visit. There was lots of trash in the parking lots and some at our campsite. A broken water spigot was left running all night. State park staff drive through without picking up or making repairs. Not their job I guess.

There are no electrical hookups. Sites are very wooded, making solar a game of catching a few rays by moving ones solar panels frequently. Generators are not allowed in Wisconsin State Parks.

Nevertheless, we made the best of things. We did lots of hiking. Julia kayaked the Sugar River. We picked up Amish baked goods and vegetables at a local farmer’s market, and we took in a wine tasting and appetizers at the local brewery/winery/distillery in nearby Monroe.

We had campfires every night, and it was a welcome respite, ahead of a possibly challenging fall for our family.

I’m going to squeeze in one more late summer trip while I still can.

Uncertain Times

It's been about a year since I took the Scamp on a multi-week trip.  To most people, that doesn't seem like that long.  To me, it seems like forever.  Worse, despite my earlier optimism, this year's extended fall trip is slipping through my fingers.  

Why?  My adult son Justin is in a power wheelchair full time and totally dependent upon care giving.  He is able to move his fingers and head/neck, but that's about it at this point.  While he has been supplied with caregivers under Medicaid for the past two years, the agency terminated services when Justin's college closed the dorms in the middle of the spring semester, sending him home.

We were led to believe by Justin's care manager that finding another agency was not a problem, but that's not been the case.  He has received twelve rejections.  We don't know exactly why because we aren't privy to the negotiations that take place between the care manager (operating with Medicaid dollars) and the care agencies.  She blames Covid, but we just met with an agency that denied that Covid was the issue.  Rather, the issue is finding enough staff to cover the needed hours and obtaining the authorization from Medicaid for the needed hours.

As an example, because Justin has an advanced form of Duchenne's muscular dystrophy, transfers between bed and chair or toilet/shower and chair are very difficult and must be completed by mechanical means (a Hoyer lift).  I used to just pick him up and move him (150 lbs), but that can now cause dislocated shoulders or broken ribs for Justin, so his doctor told me to stop doing that.

One agency told us last week that two people are now required to move Justin safely with a Hoyer lift.  We've always done it alone. The new requirement would create a whole different set of staffing needs and hours not yet approved by the state.  We were also told that we could continue doing it with one person because we are Justin's family.  So it's not safe for a professional caregiver to do it, but his untrained father, mother or sister can do it.   I can only shake my head.

Early Morning Fog

Meanwhile, daughter Allie is moving to northern California at the end of August.  She will be staying with one of Julia's college friends until she can find her own place and a job.  We are nervous and excited for her.  After graduating from college last December, it's time to follow her dreams. Such a weird year.  So much uncertainty. 

Anniversary Camping

I have a very good wife. However, if it were not for the pandemic, we would probably celebrating our 32nd anniversary at a fine restaurant. A small silver lining, I guess. We are camped in southwestern Wisconsin at Gov. Dodge State Park for another mid-week adventure.

About a month has passed since our last state park campground, and I have to say that occupancy has significantly increased, even though it’s the middle of the week. Fortunately, the sites are large and well-spaced. We aren’t using any of the public shared spaces, although many people are using the bathrooms and showers.  

The weather is amazing in the kind of way that almost makes up for Wisconsin’s long winters: mid 70s during the day and 50s at night.

After a beautiful night by the campfire, we got up this morning for fresh-roasted Peruvian coffee made with a manual drip cone, followed by a big egg scramble and Julia-baked zucchini bread. Then we walked out of our campground and hit some beautiful uncrowded trails.

I haven’t been to this park in over thirty years, and I’m not sure why. I had the mistaken view that it was mostly flat and open. There are some beautiful restored prairies.

However, a lot of the park is heavily wooded and hilly. Our favorite trail is the Lost Canyon Trail, which leads to another side trail and to waterfalls.

We have a bunch of issues to work through with our adult children after this week’s escape. Getting caregivers for Justin to return to college is always a challenge, but we’ve hit a major roadblock at the moment. Allie has been pitching in as Justin’s primary caregiver, but she wants and needs to start her own life after graduating from college last December. 

For a few days, we will hike, have some good food/drink and enjoy each other’s company in the great outdoors.

Not Much, How About You?

I wish that I had something exciting to blog about. 

I've been puttering about the house mostly.  This week's big project was replacing a garbage disposal leaking from the bottom.  From my research, a disposal is pretty much burnt toast when that happens.  I watched some YouTube videos to see if it was a do-it-yourself and pretty much concluded that I would be calling a plumber on this one. 

Then I watched a video by this young woman named Sarah that convinced me that I could do it myself.  Honestly, she had the best video on this installation, although her language and enthusiasm might be a bit much for some.  Lots of people must agree on the video's value because she has almost 700,000 views, despite only a couple of thousand subscribers.

Anyway, with Sarah's help, it was a very quick job and easy swap out.  The broken disposal came out easily.  The new one went into place with more difficulty, but no leaks so far.  I'm not very handy, but YouTube is an amazing resource and a confidence builder. 

I also swapped out my shower pump in the Scamp, which stopped working after 19 years. 

Old Shurflow Pump

I couldn't find an exact replacement, but I found something that worked for about $40 on Amazon. 

I rarely use the shower, but I do take sponge baths with a bucket of water.  It's quite handy to pour the bucket of water over my head when done and have the pump take away the water to the gray tank.  Gravity would be preferable, but my Scamp wasn't designed that way, so it has a pump.

Yesterday, I took my usual walk out into the country during which I pass by some bees.

The first thing you might notice is how high the bee boxes are stacked. During the winter, they are stacked about four high. The beekeeper keeps adding boxes throughout the summer to give the bees room for expansion and honey production. 

We had a storm last night that rocked the bees' world. 

Dominoes

The bees in the toppled tower were understandably upset.

Other than that, we are just muddling around here in the fly-over state of Wisconsin, hoping that our tower doesn't topple.  If things don't get too bad, there will be a fall trip with the Scamp either north or west

Goose Island County Park

Overall, we had a really good time camping at Goose Island County park.  Mid-week is the way to go in Wisconsin this summer.  Early in the week, the campground was perhaps half full. 

Callie was a big fan of the park.

Julia joined me on Wednesday for the rest of the week. She brought her kayak. She put in at the park's boat landing on the north end of the island and followed the current to the federal wildlife reserve's boat landing on the south side of the island.

We got in our steps each day, but we were also glad to slow down and just take in the views.

By Thursday, we felt like we had experienced all of the park, so we drove up to La Crosse for some hiking at Hixon Forest.  Many of these trails are for both hikers and mountain bikers. We did a short loop here.

The trails in the Upper Forest felt crowded with mountain bikers, so we headed to the Lower Forest, starting at the Bicentennial Trailhead.

The maps gave no clue about elevation change.  The Bicentennial Trail is a wide dirt trail that pretty much went straight down the bluffs.  On the way back up, we took the very scenic Rotary View Trail, which was twice as long with many switchbacks (5.4 miles round trip).

From the top, we had expansive views of La Crosse all of the way to the river.

By Friday, the campground was getting busy, and it was time to come home.