Tortilla Point

Tortilla Point likely exists on a map, but it isn't this Tortilla point.  The name is a remnant of a bright spot on an otherwise hike from hell that Amy and I took three years ago.  On that hike we found two great spots on two different and equally beautiful lakes in the Nicolet and knew that it would be a great place to backpack with the kids.  It took some years to get back there, but it did not disappoint. We headed out early on Friday morning and hit the trail before ten.  I dropped Amy and the kids off at the trail head and then took the canoe to the down the forest roads to a remote put in site. When I arrived at camp there was a small turtle there to meet me, it was apparently my totem animal for the pace I had set compared to theirs.   They hiked about three miles in record time and I wasn't even finished putting up the tent before I heard their voices coming down the trail.  They had wove through forest trails between three different lakes to arrive at our rendezvous point.  My pride and amazement wore off in time to hear the stories of their travels, how they only stopped once for a snack and had a "head scratcher" when the trail sign pointed in both directions, with experience and logical consideration the tribe had chosen the correct path for our meet up.  We didn't actually camp at Tortilla point, but rather a great little knob on a hemlock peninsula.  It has a nice breeze to keep the bugs away and the swimming hole was Rockwellian perfection.  The bass were jumping and spawning and two of them were hung out in the swimming hole the whole weekend.  The kids tried to swim to them, noodle them a and net them but in the end it was only Grace that caught one. It was here first fish ever and I had told her she I would give her a dollar if she didn't catch a fish by the end of the weekend.  Later in the day we did add to the mileage by taking about a 3 mile trip over to the actual Tortilla point.  The plan was to hike over, swim there for a while and then come back for dinner.  When we got to Tortilla point there was an empty tent set up, so we swam for just a few minutes and then the kids mostly ran back to our camp through the forest trails and barefooted to get back to 'their' swimming spot.  It was great to see them dripping with lake water and barefoot hiking through the National forest.  The dehydrated food meals that the kids started planning about eight months ago didn't pan out.  Fortunately the snacks and ramen noodles were a hit and after dinner we pretty much planned on just ramen for the kids from here on out.  The kids worked on making flint/steel fires as well as whittled away around the fire ring.   The collectively figured out that getting your eyes close to the water surface but not under it works as well as goggles in the oligiotrophic glaciate lakes of the north and spent some collective hours 'snorkeling' for bass.   The kids swam across the lake and later swam to a nearby island.  They took turns paddling around the lake in the canoe and ran the shoreline fishing.  After a campfire we fell asleep to the sounds of crying loons and lovesick bull frogs.  We slept well past sunrise and nobody was up until about 8 in the morning, a sure sign of the amount of activity we packed into the previous day.  The second day was much a repeat of the first, a recreation of perfection.  Hikers and a few bikers traveled through our little camp and we received news of the weather and pending storm.  The rain was supposed to start about dinner time and last into the next day so with that news we decided to pack up the canoe and paddle out while Amy lead the kids on the trail-less expedition through the woods to the canoe landing and head for home.  The drive out on the forest roads gave most of us the first glimpse of a bear in the woods, as it wander along the dirt road.  Two full days in the humid back country conditions didn't elevate our self awareness to a point that we couldn't hit a little tavern for a quality burger before heading south to prepare for our next adventure.

Evergreen and Ever Smilin'

 

Load up the truck and head for the camping resort!!  We headed west to resort style camping of Evergreen.  It had been almost four years since we were last there and obviously plenty had changed.  The pool didnt seem quite as far away as it did last time and the water at the beach wasn't as deep as we had recalled it however the laughs were certainly the same.  We did all the standard stuff such as mid day ice cream runs and the Chippy Express and popcorn but we added some new events this year like broken wrists and paddle boarding.  Eight kids total and one of the nieces fell at the playground and ended up in a splinted cast.  Fortunately her absence from the campground was minimal and she was able to judge the pool jumping contest of the other kids. Smores and old stories around the campfire and several rounds of 'treasure island' during the night time would replace the playground, beach, pool rotation of the day.  The weather was great, only raining at night.  Saturday night a young country band had the the arcade rockin' out and the kids ran around in bandannas shooting their cap guns.  We hung around late on our last day for one more trip to the beach to rent paddle boards and while everyone got a shot at them I was the first to fall off.  Our return found us back in the summer swing of things.  This morning was Swimming lessons and then 18 holes of frisbee golf before looking for a couple of geocaches before getting home.  The last geocache was at Uncle Mikes, so that was a pretty good morning!  Merrick and Grace headed off with friends for the afternoon  and we started to repack for our next backpacking adventure.  No reason to be home more than a few days in a row when adventure and exploring await!

Waterfalls and hiking in the North

We were fortunate enough to be invited to the land of Crivitz again!  We set out for an late morning hike with Scott and Sonya in the Peshtigo River State forest.  The adults were settling into to new boots and weighted backpacks and the girls were feeling good to have us carry their gear.  The hike was tiring but not that long, a little over four miles but the little ones legs gobbled up the trail easily and with very little complaining.  We took a wrong turn right away and headed down the wrong trail but as life goes we did find some wild strawberries so that is a good wrong turn.  We had lunch on the trail, heating water with our little recycled can stoves and munching on ramen noodles and nutty bars, cliff bars ...there was no shortage of treats on the little romp through the woods.  It was a beautiful woods and I am sure we will be back.  Back at the cabin for some fellowship and camaraderie, the girls worked on their fire starting skills Sunday came quickly and sneaked in between all the laughing and we weren't quite ready to head home or leave the woods, so we headed further north.  After our hike we had hit a great little ice cream stand and found a nice map with multiple waterfalls indicated.  It was a little more than an hour back home or an hour farther north to the waterfalls....we headed north and bagged three new waterfalls.  Great trails and twelve-foot falls didn't disappoint.  four foot and 8 foot were pretty too!  We had stopped at a little grocery store on the way to the falls and grabbed a stack of tortillas and with those in hand and a bag of chips we made ourselves a nice little waterfalls picnic lunch.  The girls could no longer resist the siren like calls of the water and soon enough were in over their heads and splashing and kicking up spray.  Just another great weekend outdoors.

Beating the Heat

Soccer is over for Merrick and Grace and it ended with medals and ice cream. Sophia is heading into the last week of her league.  She did take a ball to the face in the last game but came back to play. The weather has been hot,  reaching near ninety.  With soccer finishing up, Grace has switched gears to swimming lessons each morning and is easily progressing to the next level while she splashes around Merrick and I play a little frisbee golf and even found an old Geocache.  Other times Amy and I take a little coffee walk around the downtown area. Merrick and I had tried to find that geocache treasure about three years ago but couldn't do it so without the snow and ice we succeeded this time.  Turns out the snow and ice wasn't the real problem last time.  We are spending our afternoons trying to beat the heat and making good use of our pool membership.  A few days ago we did skip the sun and pool and opted for an afternoon of painting in the garage instead.

Making the fourth a perfect ten

Summer school finished up with all smiles.  Ella was able to perform the play she had been working on for the past several weeks.  She was the butterfly narrator to guide us through the twisted world of Alice in Wonderland.  Grace also had an exposition for her gymnastics class.  With the final day of classes wrapped up we headed home to prep for an Evenson invasion.  Eau Claire and Iowa were coming over for a few days and everyone was pretty stoked.  We headed out for a pretty long bike ride over to Green isle park and with all ten of us on the trail we looked large enough to be a pack.  The way home required a stop at the ice cream store for floats and a box of Beanboozled....the kids spent some time daring each other to eat dog food flavored jelly beans and other assorted flavors such as skunk spray, boogers and barf.  We tossed some Kuub while the grill churned out kabobs and the fire pit was slowly stoked.  After a solemn and wonderful balloon release we headed down the road to play some footgolf.  Muncle Arky had only flip-flops so his foot was pretty swollen by the time the nine holes were done.  Each hole was played a little differently, some times there were drop kicks, some times there were shotgun starts or all out sprints, one hole we deducted a stroke for the first person in.  Grandma was plenty competitive and was a hoot to watch running through the course and kicking her ball.  Ella did put a ball into the water hazard but Grandprize helped get it out.  Another night on the patio, looking at the fire and looking for satellites and then the next day we headed to the Wildlife Sanctuary.  The Iowa 'kids' were eventually deposited back at the airport and the Eau Claire care headed west too but our weekend kept on.  We headed downtown to watch the fireworks.  We spread our blanket on the ground and played catch the fly and hackysack with others in the area as we waited for the sky to exploded.  Grace worked on her serve and was all smiles.