Exploring

One of the first things we do when we start the camping season is go out on a journey of exploration to check out campgrounds.  We have our favorites but we try to add at least one new place a year.  

We started at Morgan Lake, one of my favorites because it is so isolated.  It is here I like to do solo camps, taking my tent and minimal equipment.  However, after a long drive in, we found out Morgan Lake was still closed, and we were not sure if it was to open this season.  We'll check that out when we stop at one of the ranger stations.  Across the lake is the only structure, a retreat house for priests. I also think about winning the lottery and offering the Catholic Church enough money to pay off all their abuse lawsuits and we would live there. But there probably would never be a lottery big enough.

We crossed many creeks along the way, this one Popple Creek.  Beside some, pickup trucks were parked because trout season has begun.  Not here though.

We went to the Lost Lake cabins, which have been renovated by the National Forest Service as a jobs initiative.  Originally, they were built by the Civilian Conservation Corps to give jobs to young men.  This past year, they served the same purpose.  Unfortunately, along the way, they got new caretakers.  We'll miss our old friends Mary and Marty.  Mary would swap me storytelling performances for our use of the showers.  Now it would require more paperwork than I care to do.  

As for the campground, Lost Lake's level is steadily going down.  Gary took a photo to send to his friend Brad who asked about the lake level at Laura Lake.  Gary told him the lake was level as far as he could tell and that he took a level (tool) out when he went on the canoe but the level sank. Never ask Gary a question, you don't get a level answer.  

We did take time to do a little birding and saw our old friend, the black-backed woodpecker.  It's the only place we see these rare birds.

And of course, there are trilliums up here, trillions and trillions of trilliums. 

Now we're in Iron River, soon to go to the Pamida closing (it's going to be a ShopKo) to look for bargains, to St. Vinnie's to see what they have on sale, to Schuette's re-sale to look for candles, and to Lake Ottawa to see our old friend Anita Joy.  Then it's on to more lakes, more campgrounds.