Mancation 5.0

No drinking, no fighting, no hangovers.  Man, all we did was read. I got through two New Yorkers.

 

What is wrong with us?  Where did we lose our way?

Maybe it was the weather.  It rained Saturday and Sunday, we got a slow start. But we did eventually get out in it.  And after a long day on the lake, we did manage to survive, barely, what with three bedrooms, two baths, living room (with tv and cable, and our kick-butt traveling stereo), family room ( tv/cable) with a good pool table, pinball.  We did just get by.  (The two tv’s came in handy on Sunday with the St. Louis Cards  in the same time slot as Green Bay.  Five Packer fans, and Jeremy.  It would have been ugly.)

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But let’s back up. The Friday trip up was smooth, warm, and sunny.  Stopped for a pedal at the Wausau Nordic Club area, called Nine Mile.  Huge place, lots of single track, much of it rocky.  One crash (it goes without saying who . . .).

Made it up to our cabin on Pickerel Lake, 8 miles due east of Minocqua on County J, before dark. Here’s the scene around the cabin:

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Drove to Sister’s Saloon in St. Germaine for Fish Fry. Long wait, but worth it.  Pan fried Lake Perch – awesome. Some guy shouted at Jeremy at the bar for an hour straight while we waited.  All we could hear was his voice, and Jeremy laughing.

Paddled Pickerel on Saturday.  A river of sorts came out of it on the opposite side, which lead to some nice close-in paddling. Here’s a few shots of that paddle.

 

 

 

 

 

On Sunday, we paddled a northern section of the Wisconsin

 

 

 

 

 

 

And that was  it. Monday dawned bright and warm, and we had to pack up and go.  Thank you, Mother Nature!  Guy, Mike, and Doug, rode Raven again.  Tim and Jeremy cleaned the place and hauled everyone’s crap out, like two bitches.  Few pictures of this memorable day exist.

Hartman Creek is located about 10 miles SW of Waupaca, WI, has about 88 campsites, some electric.  It’s salient features are:  Very tall pine trees.  Parts of the campground feature these, parts are densely wooded with deciduous trees.  It’s a very quiet campground, heavily monitored by the local rangers.

It has it’s own lake and beach, but we quickly sniffed out Marl Lake, part of the Chain ‘O Lakes belonging to Waupaca.  Marl was a short drive away, and is named after a general description of a lake that sports a green hue because of a suffusion of a certain type of mineral.  (Marl or marlstone is a calcium carbonate or lime-rich mud or mudstone which contains variable amounts of clays and silt.)

Marl Lake is perhaps the best swimming hole we’ve ever experienced.  The water is completely unspoiled, the color is fantastic. There are a few cabins around, but they are tasteful and mostly out of sight.  No motorboats from the rest of the Chain can gain access.  Access is gained by a quarter mile walk, then down some steep stone cut stairs.  There’s one dock.

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Our second Spring Vacation trip to Ft. Desoto, with the Cadillac MI crew.  This time was different.  Madeline brought along her best friend Elise. I drove my new Tundra down alone with the pop-up, so that Eileen, Madeline, and Elise could fly and get some more days out of this vacation.

Other than that, the whole deal went down much like our first trip.  Hot weather, clear skies (with one major exception), great beaches.  Lots of bike riding, and lots of loafing.

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Here’s some pics of our camp:

 

There was an antique car show up in Tierra Verde, the nearest “civilization” coming out of the park.  I couldn’t resist snapping a few:

 

Eileen and I rode the original western section of the Pinellas Bike Trail.   It starts in the general south central part of the Pinellas penninsula and heads north, through a bunch of small town, on the way to Clearwater and beyond.  You have to drive to the starting point from Ft. DeSoto, there is no clean way to pedal to it.  We made it to Clearwater this day.  Had breakfast for lunch at a great greasy spoon, a locally owned joint whose name I won’t recall.  Big portions , cheap prices, strong A/C.

 

We took Madeline and Elise to downtown St. Petes to check it out, on a very hot afternoon that wasn’t worth much else. St. Petersburg has a nice vibe, a bit of an edge. There’s  counterculture, a welcome change in ultraconservative gun-totting Florida.

 

North Beach was where we hung out.  Bob and the other fishermen went up as far north as they could go to get into the channel where they’d previously caught fish.  It’s so cute how fishermen are superstitious.  Nonetheless, its didn’t work.  They caught no fish.

 

Bob brought two yaks down, a feature which contributed nicely to his “Grapes of Wrath” traveling style. Eileen and I borrowed them one day for a very pleasant circumnavigation of the island. Bob’s poor coefficient of drag was our gain.

Back to Bob’s rig.  Was it the two boats?  The four bikes?  The three large adults, with a big guitar?  Whatever.  His Toyota blew a seal on the way home and leaked more oil onto the highway than the Exxon Valdez.  They bought oil by the tankerful.  I heard they just kept the hood open, tied Debi to the front bumper, and had her pour oil continuously into the crankcase while they desperately strove for the next town with a Toyota mechanic.  It all worked out, especially since they got to spend a  lovely, unscheduled evening in Dothen, AL.

Mancation hit the road for it’s fourth installment.  This year featured a never before seen 7th member, Tim’s nephew and bad-assed rock rider Jeremy. Another change for this year was the addition of a 4th day.  Everyone could get away on Thursday.

The regular crew:  Tim, Mike, Wes, Doug, Scott, Guy.

We hit the road later in the year than usual, an Oct 13 Thursday getaway.  The weather was terrible, it rained hard all the way up north. And yet, when we floated a five mile section of the Flambeau, just north of Park Falls, the rain relented and while it was a tad gloomy, everything went fine. There are no photos of this event.  From there we rolled to our cabin via Hwy 77.

We once again stayed at our small cabin on Lost Land Lake. It’s hard to pass up the Hayward area, with its proximity to CAMBA (Chequamegon Area Mountain Bike Association) and it’s 300 miles of trails.  Being so late in the year, the scene was much different than the warm glow of autumn, resplendent with trees in full color.  Every leaf was down on the ground this year.  The temps were colder.  The wind howled.

First night’s repast was Mexican by Chef Hankard, who also mixed up some high quality, natural ingredient, completely deadly margs for the group.   The margs were concentrated enough for one senior member of the group to take the next day off, nurse his sore ribs, and go shopping.

Friday breakfast featured Jeremy’s Outstanding omelettes.  Rave reviews by all.

Friday’s ride was reportedly tough, with the wet, downed leaves causing visibility problems and slippage.

Friday dinner was out. We kayaked over to the Lost Land Lake Lodge, had a boatload of fish, watched St. Louis take it to the Brewers in what was becoming a familiar beatdown. Paddled home in the dark, heavy winds, threat of rain, no incidents.

Saturday’s weather improved.  Sunny, very cool, very windy. Saturday breakfast was by Tim, who dished up his version of huevos.  Spicing options were “mildly hot”, “smoking hot”, or as one person put it, “Asian hot”.  A few weenies went with “mild”.  Tim was very, very disappointed in them.  No one went Asian.  Otherwise it went down well with the crowd.

Saturday’s ride was not as hard as Friday’s, and the weather was much better.  Sunny, cool, windy but no problem with that in the trees. The best part was that the leaves had dried out. The crowd breathed a sigh of relief when a “certain delicate person” finished without crashing, bleeding, or requiring a stretcher. Kudos to Jeremy for flashing Wallstreet without a second thought.

Here’s pictures of the cabin and some from the ride.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday dinner was some awesome wheat free pasta and killer sauce.  Who did that?  Wes?  Great salad.  Our own organic farmer Scott made every meal better with the addition of fresh and varied produce.  Saturday night was the only calm night, perfect for late lake kayaking and sitting around the fire.  Or sleeping around the fire in an ice encrusted sleeping bag, as Scott would have it.

We all noticed that Scott doesn’t seem to need a coat.  What’s with that?

Sunday breakfast by Scott, an explosion of vegetables in a potato dish, eggs, bacon.  Delicious.

We broke camp and headed home, stopping for a five mile float on the Namekagon.  Clear weather, again very windy.  This section of the Nam is very scenic, and there was plenty of water.  Pictures from the float:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rejected pics here:

 

 

 

 

Post trip assessment:

1) We need to get our butts up there a week or two earlier

2) It is hard to ride on wet leaves

3) We need a bigger cabin

 

The Goode Family hooked up for this Very Special Occasion of Dave and Nancy’s 65th Anniversary in Minocqua, WI.  Specifically, a very nice house on Squirrel Lake, five miles west of town. In attendance – Dave, Nancy, Paula, Roger, Jeremy, Eileen, Madeline, and Tim.  Here’s a look at our digs.

(Click pictures below to see slide shows.  Note – slide shows use Picasa Web.  Mouse down to the bottom to see controls that can change the speed of the slide show.  Hit “pause” to manually control the speed. Hit <esc> to see a thumbnail view.)

 

 

 

 

We paddled Squirrel Lake on the first morning.  It’s a big lake.  Conditions were close to glassy.

 

 

 

 

 

A few of us hiked around the neighborhood.  An old, not functioning resort named Squirrel Lake Resort was at the end of the road.  A few cabins were being used by the family of the original owners, the rest were more or less “returning to nature”.  Beyond this resort, the last thing on the road was woods, and the dam at the end of Squirrel Lake.  Squirrel Lake became Squirrel Stream at that point.

 

 

 

 

 

As is the Goode habit, we ate ourselves sick morning, noon, and night. It was a dark day in family history when somebody signed up for Costco.  A special cake was just the ticket on the night we celebrated the “65th”.

 

 

 

 

 

A typical fishing day at the Dam

 

 

 

 

 

The Hankard family was up at their yearly YMCA Camp Nawawka camp out this same week, and as it turned out, they were not very far away. We rolled over for a look.  It is sweet.  Nice cabins (esp the Island cabin), interesting lake with super clean water, and an undeveloped shoreline.