May 8-10, 2015, Buckhorn State Park, Necedah, WI

Our family backpacking

We asked my wife what she wanted for Mother’s Day, and she said, “Good behavior.” Well, since we weren’t sure we could oblige her, we promised to fulfill her second wish of hiking and camping. Since she and I are planning to spend a few nights backpacking in the Smokies next month, I figured it would be a good time to get a trial run of some new gear and to help us solidify our packing list. There are not a lot of good backpacking options in southern Wisconsin, but Buckhorn State Park offers some walk-in sites that are far enough away from the car to make it feel like a backpacking trip. Unfortunately, none of those sites are reservable. Nonetheless, we decided to hope for the best and arrive as early as possible on Friday evening.

Campsite 4 at Buckhorn State Park

To our surprise, we found that all the sites we had previously marked as desirable were open, and we would virtually be alone as none of the sites were taken in the cluster including the one we chose, Campsite #4. Many of the sites, including #4, are right on Castle Rock Lake, which is somewhat unique for southern Wisconsin state park campsites. The site was listed as a 0.7 mile walk, which I never verified because I kept forgetting to stop the GPS upon arrival at the site, but it seemed about right. We quickly organized our gear, strapped our packs on and made our way to the site. Amber did surprisingly well and was happy with her pack weight of about 11-12 lbs. My pack weighed in at 29 lbs including a gallon of water and most of the food, and Lorraine’s weighed 25 lbs before she snuck a couple last minute items, including a two water bottles. Hopefully, we can figure a way to cut some weight off of her pack before our June trip.

Small beach at our campsite

 Anyway, we quickly arrived at camp, and I set up our new Zpacks triplex, rigged a tarp around the picnic table (and I do mean rigged), and hung the food bag to try to keep the little critters away. Fortunately, there are virtually no bears to worry about here, so we just needed a deterrent from raccoons. After I set up the tent, Lorraine and Amber made up the “beds” and got everything ready for sleeping. Darkness fell before I had a chance to collect firewood, so I opted not to have a fire as I really didn’t want to rummage around for wood in the dark. Our site was on the west side of the peninsula with a pond on the east side. The pond was full of active carp jumping around all throughout the day and night, and after nightfall, the frogs around the pond became very vocal making for a loud chorus of critter calls and splashing. The lack of fire coupled with the lack of comfortable seating led me to bed before ten o’clock where I was able to soak up the sounds from our small island of isolation.

Zpacks triplex

Overall the Zpacks triplex worked out fine, but I left camp that weekend without the warm and fuzzy feeling I had about it prior to the trip. I think most of my disappointment has to do with how tight it was for the three of us. Also, limited site selection left us on a slightly uneven spot with me on the low end, which seemed to lead to my pad getting squeezed against the door. I don’t really fit that well on a 20” pad, but it is doable. I had practiced setting up the triplex, which is essentially a trekking pole-supported tarp tent, at home, but I probably should have practiced setting it up on uneven ground. Although the site was fairly nice, there were not a lot of ideal tent pads partly because of some precarious looking branches and partly because of a large section of land being marked off limits to allow for restoration. I also had not counted on sandy soil, but fortunately I brought extra stakes including some MSR groundhogs, which proved sufficient. However, I don’t know how well they would have withstood a rainstorm in the loose soil. I think I might add a couple snow stakes to my pack in the future. Despite some disappointment about being cramped, the tent held up fine and I feel a little better about its durability and hope we’ll like it better as a two person tent on our upcoming trip.

Saturday morning I woke up before 7 with some soreness, so I decided to go ahead and get up. I had heard Lorraine shortly before that, but I guess I missed her before she went off for a hike. There aren’t a lot of trails at Buckhorn, but she did get a chance to take a quiet walk, which included seeing various critters, including a porcupine. Maybe there is something to be had from getting up early! After Lorraine’s walk, we had a backpacker’s breakfast of instant oatmeal with dehydrated fruit and nuts. I also nibbled on a little bit of beef jerky.

We brought the canoe, which we left on the car in the parking lot, and decided we would get in a paddle before eating lunch. Of course, Amber objected, but we didn’t pay any attention. We had originally considered paddling to our site, but I was worried that we might have trouble convincing Amber to get back in the boat after being comfortable, and strong winds and storms were predicted for Sunday morning. I didn’t really want to get stuck portaging the canoe back to the car, so we decided to launch from boat ramp E, which is north of Hwy G.

GPS track of our paddle

The paddle was somewhat uneventful, but we did see a number of birds and some jumping fish. Amber even said she loved canoeing while she was paddling in the seat next to her mom. She claims it’s because she could touch bottom with her paddle, so maybe her insistence that she doesn’t like canoeing is related to anxiety. The area is a bit confusing with numerous small islands and twists and turns, but I brought my phone with the Backcountry Navigator GPS app and a compass, although I didn’t have much of a paper map for the area. Even if one were to get lost there, the area is not that big, so I wasn’t worried. Once we navigated out of the islands, we made a loop under the Hwy G bridge to Amber’s amusement. We were surprised by dozens of active swallows under the bridge, so I admit it was somewhat entertaining.

After our 3.5 mile paddle, we packed up and headed back to the site for lunch. Amber had picked out $8 Mountain House mac ‘n’ cheese on our Cabela’s opening-weekend shopping trip, so we had that, along with rehydrated taco meat, shredded cheese and tortillas. It wasn’t bad, but the mac ‘n’ cheese had an excessive amount of sauce that we had to pack out. I must say that I like our homemade dehydrated food much better than the store bought stuff. 

Sunset over Castle Rock Lake

We promised a trip to the playground after lunch, so we hiked back out to the trailhead, where Amber begged to drive the two blocks to the playground. I had planned to walk but figured I would take advantage of some air conditioning, although it wasn’t really that hot. She played for probably about an hour, and after she couldn’t get the adults to join in anymore decided she had enough. So we made our way back to camp. Too full to eat supper, Lorraine and I abstained and Amber had some more oatmeal. I collected enough wood for a decent fire, so we were able to enjoy that, but it’s honestly not nearly as enjoyable without camp chairs. I think I might have to work the Helinox back into my pack. We also were able to end the evening with a nice sunset across the lake.

On Sunday, we were back on the road before 8:30 in an attempt to beat the predicted rain. We decided to stop and have a Mother’s Day breakfast at Buckhorn Cafe. It wasn’t bad, but it seemed to take forever. 

Overall, it was a nice trip, and we couldn't complain about the weather. I definitely think we will come back but probably not during the peak season as not having neighbors was one of the highlights of the weekend. Although we did hear music late Sunday night, we mostly had the feel of  a backcountry campsite with most of the convenience of front country camping.