2 posts tagged “camping”

On the Glacial Drumlin Trail

Saturday did not start out as smoothly as we had hoped. Richard had to run to work for a couple hours in the morning while I did some last minute shopping. Then we commenced the bike tune-ups that we put off all week. Richard opted to keep his mid-sized road tires rather than mess with changing to his mountain tires. I warned him this wasn’t a paved trail. And then there were the backpack problems (yes, plural.) Apparently people surrender things to Goodwill for good reason. One backpack had a broken zipper and the strap on the other one broke when we were attempting to put the tent in it. I have learned to be more attentive when selecting used merchandise. This meant that the drawstring bag I deemed not sturdy enough to hold the tent ended up, yep, holding the tent. We chopped off the padding from the broken-strap-bag and used that to pad the drawstring straps. Richard showed me the wise art of looking for why the zipper was broken…often a break in the tines which he found and placed the zipper pull back on. Then there was the actual fitting of everything in the bags. Ended up having to wrap one of the towels (that served as pillows) around the tent since there wasn’t enough room in the other bag. We shuffled things around to different pockets until it was all jammed in there and set off. 13 miles later we reached the trailhead of the Glacial Drumlin Trail in Cottage Grove. After that, save for 50 yards or so and road crossings, was a gravel trail. This is where the usually speedy Richard’s pace dropped off. The gear on our backs slowed us down considerably as well. Biking 13 miles around Lake Monona usually takes us about an hour but these 29 miles took us 4 hours. Some of that was because we biked into Lake Mills to get some food and beer. Then we stopped at the house with the “Firewood for Sale” sign. This Farmer/Trek-Employee was so helpful. I learned he worked for Trek (in nearby Waterloo) when he asked how I liked my older model Trek bicycle. It’s nice when something purchased the year I graduated from high school is described as an older model! Guess I’m an older model too. I keep (conveniently) forgetting that. He tied our firewood into three bundles so we could carry it on our bicycle handles. And for only $3 which seems like a really good deal. Maybe because he felt sorry for us (at this point we also had our groceries tied to our handles) or he was happy to see his handiwork on the road. We saw he’d had some bad luck lately. His shed and a good part of his field flooded in the previous night’s storm. He told us he’d taken his canoe out on his field earlier that day and waved at passers-by. Apparently the neighbors loved it. What a great attitude! And really what can you do when it’s Mother Nature. Can’t vote her out of office. We had to walk the remaining 10th of a mile to the campground. It was at this point while walking and struggling to keep our firewood from dropping that we realized the marauding mosquitoes. At the campground’s bike entrance we dropped our bags and dug around the stuffed backpack to find our Deep Woods Off with 25% deet. I used to prefer citronella and other essential oils but realized that this is one area where I need the hard-core chemicals. Especially this year: too much standing water = bumper crop o’mosquitoes. So after repacking our bags and walking the remaining 100 or so yards, we arrived at the Sandhill Station Campground. Richard started the fire while I began to put the tent together. Thank goodness we picked up the Lake Mills visitor’s guide (of surprising thickness) or he might never have got the fire started. It took some patience and a little praying on my part before the wood would hold a flame. At last we sat at the picnic table and enjoyed our smushed sandwiches and Tyranena Chief BlackHawk Porter brewed locally in Lake Mills. We stayed up until 2am enjoying the warmth of the fire. Our legs were baking and my shoulders were draped in my towel/pillow to keep warm in the night air. The stars were out in force as were the fireflies. It was magical and romantical. We slept all right though super-light sleeping bags are also light on comfort. The wind picked up around 4am. Richard was worried another storm was afoot (even after a friend reassured him by mobile at 1am that the radar was beautifully clear) and kept asking “Why is it so windy?” I tried to recall the science of wind from classes I once had but came up with nothing. I settled with telling him it was nothing to worry about. He wanted to leave but I’d rather be stuck in a tent in a storm than biking in one. He relaxed and we slept until 7am. This was when he left the tent to rekindle the fire all the while saying “Get up. It’s so beautiful. It's like missing the birth of your first child." He actually said that. Yeah, don't think missing that will be an option, much as I imagine one might want to during labor. Early mornings however are extremely missable in my opinion. I grumbled but managed to emerge from the tent by 7:30. We then roasted the remainder of our sandwiches on the fire, split a power bar and had some orange peel tea brewed very carefully in one of our empty beer bottles. We then voluntarily biked some more to Mud Lake. It was only on the other end of the campground. After this we packed up and hit the very windy Glacial Drumlin Trail again. This time on less then 5 hours of sleep and into the wind….yeah, took four hours. Once we reached paved roads again the road was an endless hill from Cottage Grove to I-94 at Madison’s edge. We kept reaching the crest of a hill only to see another rise down the road. Once home we didn’t even have the energy to order pizza choosing to dine on blue corn chips, queso fresco and avocado instead. We were asleep by 5pm. I couldn’t even finish the Isthmus article I was reading. 13 hours of sleep later I woke up to realize how burned my arms were. It’s not exactly a Farmer’s tan since the cute shirt I was wearing doesn’t quite have enough fabric to even be called cap sleeved. Perhaps this is what could be called the Outdoor Enthusiasts tan? How a fair-skinned person such as myself neglected to remember sunscreen is beyond me. I also realized that several mosquitoes managed to find me palatable in spite of the Off. Perhaps they took advantage of us once the Chief BlackHawk Porter began to take effect. Next time we will put the bikes on the car and bike once we arrive. Either that or buy more performance gear such as a smaller tent and shelves to perch over our back tires. Definitely memorable and does feel good to know we managed to bike 58 miles in less then 24 hours. I also learned more reasons why Wisconsin is a beautiful place.

Just went to Goodwill and purchased two backpacks for the weekend bike/camp trip Richard and I are planning. Surprisingly we don’t have any real backpacks at the moment. We have some drawstring bags but they’re not sturdy enough to hold a tent for a 25+ mile bike ride. My parents still have my old backpacks since using them for camping a couple years ago. One is a snowboarder pack (which helped my parents look like awesome older peeps on their trip) which would be great for something like this. Why did someone who has only been snowboarding five times in her life feel the need to buy a snowboarder’s pack, you ask? I am fond of performance gear. Never know when someone’s going to call you up for some backcountry boarding and you’re going to need that pack at the ready!
One of us will carry the tent and the other the foodstuffs in our respective packs. Yeah, I kind of wanted a low-key weekend but this didn’t sound too bad. It might be fun and I already practiced not showering last weekend in Rhinelander. It didn’t feel as icky as I feared. We won’t be too far from Rock Lake and Mud Lake so perhaps we can swim there…if the blue-green algae hasn’t made it that far. Now I have new glasses frames and no longer have to fear the super-glue holding the frame together giving out. That’s one less thing to worry about. Dinner will likely be sandwiches, fruit and perhaps sesame sticks (one of my fave indulgences, almost up there with French fries). Not sure about breakfast…maybe some power bars and/or granola? Maybe I will pick up some of the aseptically sealed, individual soy milk containers too. But then I’d need a bowl and a spoon. Well, we’ll see how much we can fit in our packs after the tent, sandwiches and water are in there. Hoping for a weekend of couple bonding and not couple bickering...think we'd on course for the former!