April 10-12, 2015, Devil’s Lake State Park, Baraboo, WI

Spring is finally here, and we are eager to get out camping again. Although this winter wasn’t particularly harsh, it was difficult to go so long without camping. Maybe we’ll have to take up winter camping one of these years…

Anyway, with the weather forecast for 60s and sunny in Southern Wisconsin, we searched for some place that we could car camp to shake off the cobwebs of what to pack and to try out some new gear. With the state park system still in winter mode, we found the options fairly limited, but we decided to give Devil’s Lake another a try, especially since it’s usually too crowded for us in the summer months. That park gets well over a million visitors a year!

Our two-night trip was not very eventful, so I’ll try to keep this post short. Since I haven’t written in awhile, though, I thought I should update the blog.

I took Friday off to volunteer at my daughter’s school, so I had some time to pack and load the car in the afternoon before Lorraine got home from work. I even squeezed in a 20 minute nap by accident! After a quick stop at Culver’s, we made it to Devil’s Lake in plenty of time to set up camp before dark. Amber was dying to play with us, but we were in camp chore mode and had to keep reminding her that there was work to be done. We got a good fire going just after dark, and Amber got to roast a marshmallow but didn’t manage to talk anyone into playing.

It was a nice but chilly night Friday. I stayed up a little staring at the fire, but I was tired and made it to bed before 10 pm. I was eager to try out my new 10℉ Zpacks sleeping bag, which I found to be pretty nice, especially for the weight. Here is my review of it. It was definitely sufficient for the low of 27 degrees, although it took me a while to warm up after getting chilled sitting out without warm clothes.

Saturday morning Lorraine got up crazy early as usual, but Amber and I slept in until nearly 8 o’clock. Within minutes of me getting up, she called from the tent asking for her mom. Since Lorraine was still out hiking around the lake, she asked if I would play with her. We agreed on chess and cards, so she was ready to get up even without Mom to snuggle. After about an hour, we decided we would go to the park but half-way there, she complained of a stomach ache and we returned to find Mom back. Mom was hungry from her hike and offered to cook us bacon, eggs and toast!

I hung the hammock I got for Christmas, and I’m worried it might no longer be mine since Amber loved it so much. She probably spent a few hours climbing in and out and even agreed to trade Christmas presents, but since I don’t have a lot of need for Magna Tiles, I wasn’t ready to seal the deal. I did get a chance to take a short nap in it when they were at the park, and I can see the appeal of hammock camping, but I’m not sure I’m quite ready to take the leap.

Amber stole my hammock!

Later in the afternoon, we took a paddle around Devil’s Lake. It’s not exactly an exciting lake to paddle, but it was neat to check out some of the rock formations. We were also able to see some of the climbers doing their thing. Interestingly, there was a loon fishing on the lake. Lorraine said it was vocal when she was hiking but I never heard it while we paddled.

Nice beach for launching

Can you find the climber?

GPS track of our paddle

Later, we managed to drag Amber up to the East bluff to watch the sun set, then we headed back to start a fire and make her a pudgie pie. Even though it was a slow day for the park, there were numerous people coming and going, so I’m glad we got a chance to camp here before the busy season.

Sunset over Devil's Lake

We ended up leaving fairly early on Sunday morning because Amber had stomach problems through the night. It was a good first camping trip of the season.