Peninsula & Whitefish

Last weekend was a fluke and I knew it as soon as I saw the weather report.  Beautiful, sunny, high of 80 degrees, low of 50...on the last weekend of September?  Plus, I had been down and out with a cold just about all week and needed to get out.  So we had to go camping and take advantage!

We were able to book a campsite online at the first state park in Wisconsin and the most popular camping destination- Peninsula State Park on the bayside of Door County peninsula. Despite our few trips up to Door, we had not had the opportunity to see any of the state parks.  WI state parks are fee sites managed by the Department of Natural Resources- you can pay a $7 daily fee upon arrival or purchase an annual vehicle sticker for $25 that allows access into most of the state parks.  The annual pass is on the calendar year, so we decided to buy one anyway despite only having 3 months to use it.  Can't afford not to, right?!

We headed up to Door after Scott finished with work on Friday.  We got there right at dusk to set up camp and start our campfire.  Saturday was spent on our bikes- we rode the Sunset Trail (one of those flatlander mountain bike trails) for about 10 miles, visited and toured the Eagle Point Lighthouse, rode up the most horrendous hill I have seen in Wisconsin to take in the view of Green Bay at Eagle Panorama and climb the Eagle Tower (a 76 ft. observation deck on top of Eagle Bluff), and after dinner we rode our bikes with headlamps at night to view the lighthouse in action.  The weather was great and it stayed pretty mild through the night.

 

Eagle Point Lighthouse

 

On the Sunset Bike Trail 

On Sunday, we had a nice morning hike on the 2-mi loop Eagle Trail to check out the huge bluffs and the crystal clear bayshore.  I am pretty sure we flushed an owl during the hike, although I didn't catch a clear enough view to identify it.  The trail was marked as "difficult," but you never know what that might mean in the flatlands.  The trail WAS pretty difficult with a descent to the bayshore and return up the bluff and then some, yet I was glad to have the opportunity to work my mountain legs before they turn to jelly.  After breaking down camp and loading up the truck, we walked around some of the shops in the village of Fish Creek for awhile and stopped at some farm stands on the return drive for unpasteurized apple cider (we did not find any).  Next was lunch at Shipwrecked Pub in Egg Harbor where I was promptly stung by a yellow jacket on the patio (and handled it like a champ, I might add).  The Packers game was on TV during lunch-  a big deal this weekend since they were playing the Chicago Bears and a lot of the tourists in Door are from the Chicago area (Packers won!).

 

Eagle Bluff

 

Bay view from Eagle Trail

  

View from Eagle Terrace

After lunch, we had one more stop on the return trip- Whitefish Dunes State Park.  I wanted to check out the dunes, since I have heard they are pretty awesome along the shores of Upper Peninsula and Lower Michigan.  Whitefish has the largest dunes on western shore of Lake Michigan, not to mention the site of a number of prehistoric Native American settlements.  We hiked the 3 mi loop to climb the (whopping) 100 feet to the top of Old Baldy, the largest dune in the park.  I was thinking of traditional sand dunes before we arrived (i.e., grasses and sedges), but it was really neat to walk through the now-forested dunes and still see all that sand.  The return trip was a walk along the beach, and the water wasn't even that cold.

 

View from the top of Old Baldy

So where does Door Peninsula get its name you ask?  From the treacherous strait connecting Green Bay to Lake Michigan that has been peppered with shipwrecks for centuries.  The Native Americans and early French explorers knew the danger of the passage between the mainland and Washington Island.  The French called it Porte des Morts Passage, meaning "Way to the Door of the Dead," or simply, "Death's Door."  So cheerful!

The leaves aren't quite at peak yet, so there is still a lot to come for fall color.  Regardless, it was a great adventure weekend out at Death's Door!

Fall festivals

Wisconsinites love their festivals. I learned that there are all kinds of festivals that go on just about every weekend all year long, celebrating cherries to apples to beer to wine to harvest to summer solstice, Oktoberfest....the list goes on.  Not to mention the ice sculpture festival and plenty of winter fests right through the dead of winter!  Last weekend we had a Saturday packed with fall festivals.


Oneida Big Apple Fest 2014

You may have read a little about the Oneida Nation in one of my previous posts.  The reservation is right in town, really, and it makes for a diverse and interesting experience.  The Oneida were not the Native Americans that historically inhabited this region, but settled here later due to the similar climate and soils to their native upstate New York.  When on the Oneida Nation, you often see street signs and signs for government buildings in both languages.  I have learned that there are 3 clans within the Oneida Nation- the bear, turtle, and wolf.

The Oneida Nation Apple Orchard is located right on the edge of town with over 20 varieties of apples for the picking as well as other produce and homemade canned goods.  On September 20, they had their annual festival with a farmers market, music, horsemanship demonstrations, apple pie baking contest, petting zoo, and tours of some restored Oneida log cabin homes.  The weather report was not great for the day, but the rain held off and we had fun picking 23 pounds of apples, mostly Cortland and Macintosh varieties!  Plans are in the making for a fresh batch of apple butter and Mom's apple crisp.

 

Rails & Ales Brewfest- National Railroad Museum

After researching some popular attractions in the area online, I found out about the National Railroad Museum.  As a transportation and travel enthusiast, I was definitely interested in checking it out.  Once we saw Rails & Ales Brewfest on the calendar, we knew we couldn't miss it.

Rails & Ales is the annual fundraising event for the Museum.  They invite local beer, wine, and food vendors to set up amongst the trains in the museum.  The admission fee afforded unlimited tastings and access to the raffle prizes and silent auction.  Scott got to try a number of new micobreweries in the surrounding area, so he was pretty happy with the set up (and the unlimited nature of the tastings!).  I primarily stayed with wines for the evening since there were plenty of new wineries to try, although I did sample a couple of the fruity beers.  There was a delicious bread vendor that I may or may not have visited several times, as well as some pizza, chicken kabobs, and jambalaya.

I was surprised to find that the trains are not kept behind railings and glass, but rather you can climb up inside most of them.  We saw several massive steam engines and some sleeper and dining cars, many of which were from the 1930s-50s.  Definitely a cool evening to be in the presence of some really awesome trains and some delicious adult beverages.

 

 

The Dwight D. Eisenhower steamer from Europe

 Union Pacific Big Boy Steam Locomotive #4017

Spoiler alert for next weekend's adventure: campsite reserved at Penninsula State Park in Door County!

"Life is like riding a bicycle...

...in order to keep your balance, you must keep moving. "  Albert Einstein

We enjoyed 2 nice bike rides over the last couple of weekends after a long hiatus from the bikes this year.  Both Sundays were gorgeous- sunny and not too warm.  We are definitely getting out and taking advantage of the nice weather while we can.  Both rides were great- the longest (and second longest) bike rides of my life!

Mountain-Bay State Recreational Trail

Date: Sunday, August 31
Route:  Our apartment in Howard to Pulaski Polka Days grounds and back
Distance: 28.3 mi

We have walked portions of the M-B Trail many times, but had been waiting for a nice day when we had a few hours to bike.  The Trail (in the rails-to-trails system) actually runs for 83 mi from Howard to Wausau, and there are a couple of towns along the way.  We decided to bike out to Pulaski (Wisco pronunciation: PULL aski, unlike the Virginian PEEWW laski), which is the next town to the northwest.  Rather than load the bikes up and drive the short distance to the trailhead, we left right from the garage, which added some extra mileage to the trip.

Most of our bike route went through farmland (lots of corn) and then forestland (lots of pine) and then back to agriculture again as we approached Pulaski and the first sign of civilization- McDonalds (go figure).  We proceeded on a little further into town and stopped for a break at the Pulaski Polka Days grounds, home of the ever-popular Pulaski Polka Days in July which Scott attended while I was out-of-town for a workshop earlier this summer.  Then it was time to turn around and backtrack.

We were both really worn out by the time we got back to Howard, but if I had known the distance we covered at the time, we might have tried for 30 miles in honor of Dirty Thirty.


Rawley Point Recreational Trail (and a portion of Mariners Trail)

Date: Sunday, September 7
Route: Lighthouse Inn, Two Rivers to Rawley Point Lighthouse, Point Beach State Park and back + Lighthouse Inn toward Manitowoc and back
Distance:  15 mi + 4 mi (approximate)

I tried mountain biking once in Virginia.  I really had not been on a bike since I was a kid, so I was a little (a lot) rusty on maneuvering and control.  Mountain biking lasted about 10 seconds!  Just last summer, I finally bought a hybrid bike to ride the Huckleberry Trail in Virginia with Scott.  Rails-to-trails biking was definitely more my style.

The Rawley Point Trail is pretty much a flatlander's mountain biking trail.  The surface was crushed limestone, but a very well maintained trail with decent sharp turns, little hills, and wooden bridges, mostly through the Point Beach State Forest.  We almost lost the connector trail through town if it wasn't for the nice local couple who found us lost newbies and showed us to the Rawley Point trailhead.  The ride from where we parked to the trailhead was marked well with signs until the very last turn.  So close!

We rode all the way into Point Beach State Park (~7 mi, no use fee for bikers!) and had a delicious ice cream cone at the concession stand.  The views were great- and the water was super clear.  After a little rest, we biked through the campground to the Lighthouse Picnic Area.  The Rawley Point Lighthouse was clearly visible, but not open to the public since it is US Coast Guard property and currently in operation.  A nice walk along the beach (water is getting colder!) and then we headed back down the Rawley Point trail into Two Rivers.  I really liked the being on the trail- great atmosphere and no scary jumps!

We refilled our water bottles and rode a few miles of the Mariners Trail.  This paved trail runs right along Lake Michigan between the towns of Two Rivers and Manitowoc.  Exceptional views!  We were tired after our "mountain" biking experience, so even though the trail was flat and easy, we didn't go too far.  Future plans include returning to ride the Mariners Trail all the way into Manitowoc to visit the microbrewery there (closed on Sundays).

Baileys Harbor Lights

Mom and Dad stopped by on their way out west to the Grand Canyon, so we had our first visitors this week!  We went back up to Door County on Labor Day to show them the area and check out some new points of interest.

The day started off pretty rainy, but cleared up nicely.  We revisited some of the same bayside shore towns that Scott and I explored a few weeks ago (Egg Harbor, Ephraim, Sister Bay), but then decided to head east and check out Baileys Harbor on the lakeside for some new territory.  In 1848, Captain Justice Bailey sought shelter in the harbor during a severe Lake Michigan storm.  Word of Baileys Harbor spread, and it became the first Anglo settlement in and county seat of Door County.  Not long after, several lighthouses were built in the area, one of which (Cana Island) is still in operation today.


Cana Island Lighthouse

As we arrived lakeside, we followed signs down narrow back roads to the Cana Island Lighthouse which was identified on the map as a county park.  Once we arrived, we were treated to fantastic views of Lake Michigan and walked across the causeway to Cana Island.  Cana Island Lighthouse was built in 1860 and has been in operation ever since.  Back in the day, the keeper would burn animal fat to keep the light going.  Now, a small halogen bulb about the size of your pinky (with a backup bulb system) provides more than adequate light through the original glass prism.  We toured the keeper's house to view exhibits about the lighthouse and then climbed the 97 stairs to the top of the tower for an awesome view.  This was the first time I saw decent waves on the lake- there were even quite a few surfers enjoying the nice afternoon and the favorable shoreline configuration creating surfable waves.

 

97 Steps!

View from the top of Cana Island Lighthouse tower

Baileys Harbor Range Lights

We drove right past this one without realizing it, but after a scenic drive, found it again later.  It had already closed for the day, but we were able to walk around for a few minutes and snap a couple of photos.  The unique tidbit about this light is that it requires 2 different lighthouses to function- the front range light (first photo below), located close to shore, and the rear range light, featuring a fixed white light 15 feet higher at the keeper's house 950 feet inland.  Mariners would line up these two lights upon approach to the harbor to safely navigate the shoals and to avoid missing the only harbor refuge on Lake Michigan north of Milwaukee.  In 1969, the lights were decommissioned and a reflective metal tower with a single directional light now does the job of the two range lights.

 

BH Lower Range Light

 

 

BH Upper Range Light and Keepers House