TRIP REPORT: Freezin' in Wisconsin! with pics!

“There's more info here, http://www.thebackpacker.com/trailtalk/thread/49604.php, but no one had done a specific trip report yet.

Soooooo... here is one!

There was snow, balmy winter weather and fog… and snowshoeing, cross-country skiing… and girl face-off sled races! A group of 11 from both here and “the Other Side” gathered at Black River State Forest near Black River Falls, WI the weekend of Jan. 4-6 for a whole lotta good times!

Attending organizer JimmySan’s trip were Prosecutor, Mataharihiker, Lorax, iSolo, honeybunches, mountainrunner, croft, Simer190, dryfoot and YOURS TRULY – lizsbaby, baby!


Wildcat Trailhead

Some arrived Friday night to camp at the Pigeon Creek Campground. They will just need to post about that experience themselves, cuz I wasn’t there.

Dryfoot and I arrived at the Wildcat Trails parking area around 11 a.m. Saturday (had to do some geeky geocaching thingee first, hehee). We met honeybunches and mountainrunner for the first time. Much fun ensued, ha! The guys pulled sleds back in the mile or so to the Red Oak Shelter, which we camped around – and heavily used for cooking and making merry around the campfire.


mountainrunner and honeybunches

The four of us snowshoed along the ski trail, up-up-up those short-but-steep hills, then back down. What was with honeybunches that each of the two times dryfoot’s sled tipped, she immediately fell down behind it? LOL, some weirdo, voodoo doll-ish thing???!? Finally, we all took it off trail to level-er ground and arrived to meet Mata, Pros, JimmySan, lorax, croft and simer already there.


Mata takes pictures. This was the most documented event of all time!

JimmySan wanted to learn cross-country skiing. Pros lured him into a loop on the trail. No, we didn’t laugh when JS whipped out on his butt – flat on his back – TWICE heading down the untracked hill from shelter to trail. Hahahhaha….


JimmySan and Pros put on a ski show!

BUT… those two missed the girl-on-girl sled races! C’mon, you always knew those sleds could do more than haul gear! Honeybunches and croft took two runs down the hill – choosing to demo-derby it and almost collide before a near miss of the Lorax’s tent (WHO would pitch his tent in the sled race course anyhoo??!?) Ahhh, honeybunches missed the tree; croft missed lorax’s tent and lizs got action photos!


croft and honeybunches race

Simer introduced us to Forest, the snow-filled-taco retrieving wonder dog. Simer almost garnered a perfect death race 2000… err, death ski 2008… score as he threw the disc ever so far for Forest to retrieve – and both flying disc and speeding dog nearly took out some poor innocent skier on the trail. LOL!


Wanna taco????

So much for working out for the rest of us. I dunno about everyone else, but snowshoeing in the wet snow – which built up on top of the snowshoes and made it heavy, my brother – left me happily enjoying action from shelterside (like a lot of others!) LOL! The sun even broke through that afternoon. Beautiful weather!


Lorax and iSolo yuck it up

The skiers returned and soon everyone broke out the cook stoves and grabbed spots at the picnic table in the shelter. Great smells… great food! Then a “don’t ask; don’t tell” campfire session left everyone laughing about wangs and Bob and more. Don’t ask! We won’t tell!


Looks like a cookoff!

I for one slept great. Temps were in the 30s; “warm” as noted by most and “great” as noted by me. Temps got warmer during the night. We awoke to a peaceful, fog-filled wonderland forest.


In this case, "The Fog" was delightful. The trail from our tent to the shelter.

People ate b’fast, started packing and headed out. We discovered the old logging road that others had used to come in. It made life much easier, if taking a bit longer. We met up in the parking lot and headed to the Sunrise (or Sunset? Why do I feel like singing?) restaurant in Black River Falls to meet up with JimmySan’s family (can’t believe he’d let his family meet us… the horror; the horror!) and eat.


dryfoot looks mountainman-ish on his hike back out

Great time seeing everyone again and making new acquaintances. Midwesterners keep your eyes open! Chili is coming to the Milwaukee area sometime soon. Will try to set up a trip – maybe to one of the Kettles (hmmmm, but can we PARK at the Kettles??!?!? LOL, private joke – come and you might find out… hehehe) whenever I hear some more.

VIVA LA MIDWEST CREW!”

“More photos from trip:

Mine-
http://good-times.webshots.com/album/562035515jFfSCz

Simer's-
http://travel.webshots.com/album/562034476TaGMZR

mountainrunner's-
http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/561963289ZThgyX

mata's-
http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/562041449DupZsB”

“Thanks for the report. It looks like a lot of fun.”

“Thanks for sharing!!!!!!!

...looks like a GREAT time was had!!!!!!”

“Cool stuff. :)”

“Forest always has a big smile on his doggie face.”

“looks like a great trip!”

“Nice report, lizs!”

“great TR lizs, esp the photos pasted into the text. this was such a fun trip.”

“Great trip report and pictures. It looks like a great weekend of playing in the snow.”

“Great report and pics!

Lizs, you should consider making a career out of writing reports!”

“Hey All!!!
Looks like it was fun and snowny!! I ain't too sure about that much snow for me, but it looks like you guys handled it fine!!
See ya later.
Randall”

“I see you have a picture of me and iSolo.

You have to take it off of this thread right away before my wife sees it. She thinks me iSolo and I were off in Vegas partying with hookers and blow all weekend instead of out in the woods camping.


Oh, wait. Never mind. I got that backwards. Carry on.
last edited: 1/09/08 1:27:15 PM”

“looks like fun!

What did Pros cook? I know it was good! Did he make a dessert too?”

“prosecutor made some sort of soup/stew with venison. dryfoot made beef stew from scratch. some great cooks on this trip.”

“Venison fajitas on Friday night.

Denver omelet burritos both mornings.

Prosecutor bar (homemade energy bar) for lunch.”

“Nice report...looks like a great time!”

“brings back memories of past glories.”

“Recently on the web I stumbled across you all's thread making plans for this trip. What a great find for me! I have been planning backpack camping in BRSF, will be there Feb 4 thru 9. So I downloaded a couple of the maps from you all's thread. It was real nice to read about other people going almost exactly where I'll be camping and moseying around in the woods! I'll be camping by myself alone, which I must do once or twice a year to retain sanity, or something close to sanity. BTW my name is Les. I just joined this Trail Talk today.
Also BTW that is KLING rd not King rd.
I know it like the back of my hand.”

“Have fun and enjoy!”

“cool. don't hike or snowshoe on the ski trails in the winter. they are groomed for xc skiing. have fun.”