To the edge of the Northwoods

Last Saturday was another fairly nice day for this time of year, meaning partly sunny and low 50s, so we decided to take a drive in the northwesterly direction- an area that I have really not explored yet. Scott gets to travel all over Wisconsin for work, so he has experienced most of the different terrain plenty of times even though he can't usually partake in the touristy stuff.  The Northwoods (a.k.a., Up Nort, the 'h' is silent) is generally the term used to describe north central Wisconsin- few people, lots of pine trees and lakes, expansive National Forests (the Chequamegon-Nicolet NF, good luck saying that one! SHE wah meh gon-NICK o lay), and some different wildlife (including wolves!).  It supposedly looks a lot like the UP of Michigan just to the north.

We drove an hour to the Village of Crivitz, self-described as the "Gateway to the North."  All outdoor outings should be accompanied by a sample of adult beverages, so we made a stop in town for wine tasting at the Falling Waters Winery, so named because of the tour of 14 "waterfalls" in Marinette County.  The wines were very good and spanned the gamut from dry to sweet, so everyone was happy.  I place "waterfalls" in quotations because they are very small waterfalls by mountainous standards, but I am willing to give flatlanders their waterfalls.  We have not seen any of them, but will make a point to do so next time we are in the area.  The photos in the tourist information look nice (see some here), but I'm sure the waterfalls are quite busy in the summertime.

After wine tasting, we drove 20 minutes further northwest to visit Governor Thompson State Park. The park was just established around 15 years ago, so it is fairly new as far as parks go. The park office and restroom facilities were brand new buildings, and the campground also appeared to be fairly new. The park provides water access to Caldron Falls Reservoir (a dammed section of the Peshtigo River), several boat-in campsites, three loops of car campground, and a trail system of fire roads.  We hiked around 6.5 miles on both the Otter Trail overlooking Woods Lake and the Thunder Mountain Trail that lead to several rock outcroppings and Huber Lake, which is surrounded by private camps.  And there actually is a Thunder Mountain, which is kind of mountainous!  Everything was very dry since this is the middle of fire season right now, and all the pine needles make for crackly walking.  Basically, conditions are ripe for fire since there are no leaves on the trees yet, lots of dry vegetation around (although we had snowpack for the most of the winter, it was gone early), and moderate to high winds desiccating the leaf litter quickly.  Things should green up soon since we've had some decent rain of late.

Otter Trail 

Beach at Woods Lake 

See it out there beyond Huber Lake?

We did not see anyone else on the trails until we were leaving- pretty quiet!  The campground has come up in my searches for reservable campsites before, so perhaps we will check it out for camping sometime.  Now we are in the rush between the arrival of spring and the start of mosquito season when outdoor recreation gets a little more challenging.  No wolves or other wildlife to speak of, other than a curious red squirrel that was not very red.

“I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.” -John Muir