May 30- June 1, 2014, Whitewater Campground, Kettle Morraine Southern Unit, Whitewater, WI

I left work a couple hours early on Friday to get a head start on the weekend, loaded up the van, fed the cat, watered the garden, and we were off by about 4:30. After checking in and picking up four bundles of firewood for $22, we found site 775, which I reserved a week prior. The site was a little small and buggy, but it was heavily wooded and nicely secluded from most other sites except one right across the street and one next to it. We managed to setup, eat a dehydrated meal (Mountain House Chicken and Rice, which I found bland but the ladies liked it), and start a fire before dark. I’m getting better at setting up the tarp, and it helped to have so many treese available. I also started adding a slip not to the trucker’s hitch for easy take-down or adjustments. Lorraine seasoned the new pudgy pie iron, and Amber got a Cherry filled pudgy pie. It was still warm at bedtime, but I managed to fall asleep without too much trouble.

Amber and I slept in until just after 8am on Saturday, then we had an oatmeal and bacon breakfast. After cleanup, we hiked the orange Nordic trail, which would have been really nice if someone would have cooperated and not acted like a spoiled toddler at the early stages of the trail. Lorraine ended up getting ahead of us, and the kid’s behavior improved, possibly because she was getting all the attention. I must say she looks like a natural fit in her new nylon convertible hiking pants. It must be dragonfly mating season as we saw hundreds of dragonflies, many of which appeared to be mating, although I don’t know anything about dragonfly mating. We saw quite a few wildflowers and only four other people. It must have taken us two hours to walk 2.5 miles, and by then it was over 80 °F. We decided to drive up and check out the Ottawa Lake beach, and the air conditioned ride was nice after a hot walk. We were surprised how far it was from one end of the Kettle Morraine Southern Unit to the next, taking about half an hour to drive one way. Ottawa Lake seems like a nice, small lake, and the beach was crowded. We didn’t drive through the campground, but the grounds seem well maintained with updated buildings, so it’s understandable why it seemed the campground was popular when I was looking at where to make reservations. Amber fell asleep on the way back to the campsite, but my hope that the nap would improve her disposition was not fulfilled.

We had tortilla pizzas for lunch, and I must say they were a success. With non-refrigerated pizza sauce and a way to transport/cut the cheese, this definitely will make the cut for backcountry meals. After a short rest after lunch, we gave into demands for a swim at the beach. The beach was fairly nice, but it was incredibly crowded and was full of college-aged “kids” drinking beer and partying. They weren’t really rowdy and there were plenty of families, so we indulged the kid for awhile. Afterward, we looked for a place to launch the canoe. There’s a perfect little pier next to the beach, but it was occupied by a couple dozen of the partying kids, so we headed to the boat ramp. It was a little busy and not the best place to launch a canoe, but it wasn’t too bad. We paddled toward the no-wake (NW) section of the lake past the beach, and it was OK, but the lake had more of a party feel than a nature scene, although we had hopes because Lorraine spotted an eagle when we were playing at the beach. I wanted to tour more of the lake, but Amber begged to go back, and there was a fair amount of wake from the boats. I wasn’t going to get the relaxed, quiet paddle I wanted either way, so we ended the paddle after about an hour.

Dinner was hot ham and cheese on the skillet and pudgy pies for the ladies. As much as I love sweets and donuts, I don’t much care for pudgy pies, so no need to pack on the calories for something about which I’m so neutral. I did eat two ham and cheese sandwiches, though. We had another nice fire, and we all went to by about 10:30, which is much later than Lorraine usually stays up.

We were worried about rain on Sunday morning, so we packed up early (for us), ate breakfast and broke camp before playing. While Lorraine did the dishes, I watched for cars at the bottom of the hill while Amber practiced her new-found skill of braking on the scooter. She finally figured out how to control her speed going down the hill. We were finally ready to leave the campsite at the break of 11am. Holy cow, how are we going to trip in the Boundary Waters if it takes us until 11 to break camp. Granola bars for breakfast? Anyway, we finished off the trip with a few minutes at the playground, a few minutes of fishing, some nature art, and a 0.8 mile nature trail hike. We enjoyed the campground despite the absence of flush toilets and showers, but the beach and recreation areas were just too crowded. This would be a park for the spring and fall before the busy summer crowds.