I often consider myself to be an outdoorsy person, but then I meet a real outdoorsy person, likely clad head to toe in REI gear, and remember I'm not of that caliber. I'm outdoorsy in the same way I am a foodie, I like both, very much. For me, camping falls in the same category as going to the beach, it sounds fun in theory, but then once I've arrived I spend more time anticipating when I can go home than enjoying the experience. I think this says more about the level of comfort I seek than my dislike of either activity, but something continually tricks me into wanting to experience it all again. Growing up hearing stories of camping, summer's on the lake and friends heading 'up north' for the weekend, I think I've always been envious and curious, wanting to experience it all for myself. Now that I have someone to drag along on my adventures I was sure not to miss the chance to subject myself to a night of terrible sleep on the hard ground of Wisconsin forest. A few months before we had even left for the US I booked an overnight at Wyalusing State Park and was rather proud of myself for securing one of the last camp sites overlooking the ridge two the two rivers below. I knew that we would be traveling to La Crosse at some point during our month in the States, so I wanted to explore a different region of Wisconsin. I've never been to the Southwest so this felt like a fun destination for the both of us, and let us kill two birds with one stone by allowing for a pit stop at New Glarus brewery, another destination I've been wanting to visit for years. Aside from our quick stop at New Glarus the drive was almost entirely one road which Seohui loved, wide open road! There was the one patch where I was driving and ignored a road closed sing as there was literally no construction and I unsure of what detour I could take...only to drive nearly a mile where we were met with a nice officer telling us, "we'll let you go this time, but the road is closed, don't ignore the signs." Honestly, I'm still confused why the road was closed, but thankful I avoided a ticket. New Glarus offered us more than a 6-pack of beer, it also afforded Seohui with his first visit to Culvers, it's safe to say we can really say he's been to the Midwest now. Back on the road we enjoyed the sprawling landscape of flatland, and vast acreage of farmland. Actually, no joke but this was kind of entertaining to see Seohui's reaction to just how big farms are in Wisconsin. His parents own land in Korea, but it's nothing comparable to the size of what we have back in Wisconsin. Just about the time we were both getting tired of the car we arrived at the park and found our campsite. Knowing nothing about the layout of the grounds I was rather pleased with the site I had secured, but we quickly took note of which were the VIP spots, complete with great views and wind cover. Before setting up our campsite we decided to go for an afternoon hike, I was desperate to move after sitting in a car all day, and I was eager to explore the park. We began on the bluff trail which had a spectacular lookout point above the Wisconsin river before connecting to the Old Immigrant Trail which took us down to the marshy area below. The difference in scenery and vegetation was amazing, and I loved the eerie quiet of the marshland. There was virtually no one else on the trail so it was us, nature and the occasional sound of the freight train passing in the distance. We missed a turnoff at some point and walked much further than planned, but we really had no schedule to maintain so it was a non-issue. Once back at our site we set to work setting up the tent, which was thankfully an easy process, despite our dual novice ability. Second was the fire, which I left to the chef to deal with. Thankfully that was also a non-issue and before long we were well on our way to dinner. Rather than the traditional grill fare we decided to take a more adventurous stab at the dinner menu and came equiped with a cast iron skillet and ingredients for shashuka. Find me another couple in Wisconsin who chose to make this while camping and I'd be impressed, but not as impressed as I was with how damn delicious our dinner turned out. Okay fine, dating a chef may have something to do with it, but I'd like to argue that my beer drinking, observation skills also played a part in the success. Oh and we can't forget the multi tasking of playing a few rounds of bocce ball in between cooking. After dinner we took another walk through the campsite to explore, eventually winding back to the lookout we had been to earlier in the afternoon. The early stages of sunset was upon us and it was a spectacular evening. As darkness set in though we entertained ourselves with a few sparklers that were left unused the prior weekend on the 4th of July and then settled in for an early evening in the tent. This is the point where the novelty of camping usually wears off for me, I would much prefer a comfy bed to the ground, but with the aid of melatonin and ear plugs I was able to manage a decent amount of sleep. When we woke in the morning and emerged from the tent we were met with the most spectacular view as fog blanketed our view over the river, seemingly hovering in mid-air. After our home-run dinner the breakfast menu wasn't quite as fancy, instant noodles and left-over roasted sweet potatoes, but before we could eat we had to solve the small issue of our lighter which was nearly out of gas. I knew asking a neighboring camper was going to be the answer, but didn't have to go far as a woman approached to chat about the sky. Her phone had ran out of power so she asked me to email her a picture, and then upon noticing Seohui struggling, offered to bring back her lighter for us to borrow in return. Crisis averted, and faith in humanity restored, we enjoyed breakfast with a view, before venturing off on another morning hike. We followed a similar route to the day before but in reverse, and instead of branching off to the wagon trail we stayed on the bluff trail the entire way, Arguably the views were not as good as the day before, and I much more enjoyed the marsh lined hike, to the deceivingly named bluff trail, maybe it's my having gone to school in La Crosse, but bluff is synonymous with views in my mind, but there were weren't much on this trail, everything was blocked by the forest. Nevertheless we enjoyed the early morning and were able to stretch our legs before another day in the car.
We went back to the campsite to pack everything up, but we still weren't quite ready to leave. Having only explored the northeast end of the park, we decided to stop on the way out of the park for more more short hike, and chose the Turkey Hollow trail as our destination. There was really nothing notable about the trail, and it was clearly more of a snowshoeing or cross-country ski trail than hiking, but we were rewarded with bushes upon bushes of fresh blackberries which was a much welcomed addition to our msg filled breakfast. Although our trip was quite short, only one night at the campsite and back in the car for our 3 hour drive home, it did the job of scratching my camping itch. We both agreed once we have a fancy pop-up camper like some of our neighbors we'll be ready for an extended camping adventure.
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