Wisconsin with Grandboys 2015

Wisconsin with Grandboys 2015

Our son Troy and our daughter Tara with her husband John and their four boys came for a long weekend.  We had relatives over for a picnic and Levi loved meeting his new second cousins, Harper and Griff.

Maxim, Samuel, Basil, and Levi enjoyed our lake even though the water is still a bit cold in early June.  Max enjoyed driving the pontoon.

We visited the Ice Age Center at Dundee to learn about the Ice Age and how the glacier affceted the geology of Wisconsin.  Uncle Troy helped the boys paint their new hiking sticks.  Basil got as much paint on himself as on the stick.

Troy gave the boys a giant bubble kit.

Devil’s Lake is a glacial lake at the southern terminus of the Wisconsin lobe of the Ice Age glaciers in North America.  We set up camp for three nights after the parents flew back home. Our four grandsons are having a great time camping and playing together.  We cooked meals over a fire and ate outside.  Sam is using the new pudgie pie makers for his breakfast eggs and sausage muffin.

Ready to hike with hiking sticks and bandanas from Aunt Carol Petty.  Everyone carries his own water and snack.

Climbing tumbled boulders along the Tumbled Rocks Trail along the lake shore.  Sam and Max are way up, Levi and Basil working their way.

Success!

Going back down was harder, especially for Levi whose legs are much shorter.  Sam came back halfway and helped him down.

This next segment is part of the National Ice Age Trail which winds through Wisconsin at the terminal moraines of the Wisconsin lobe of the Ice Age glaciers.  We have been learning a lot of geology.  Gramps had enough with the Tumbled Rocks Trail, so he went back the low road while the boys and I headed up the bluff.

Lovely wooded ridge.

Up on the bluff were lots of great views.

Where there were real drop-offs, we were careful to crawl on our bellies to the edge to look over, not stand on the edge.  Basil did it finally too with me by his side.

After we got down to the picnic area, we found Gramps.  He bought us all a well-earned ice cream cone.  Then we swam in the lake.  Later we cooked hotdogs on forks over the fire.  Prayers tonight from all four boys referred to the hiking, swimming in the lake, cooking their own meals on a fork over the fire, and playing with the drinking fountain that spurts four feet high.

Devil’s Lake Day 2

Yesterday we hiked a long, difficult loop on the west bluff.  Today we decided that the longer east bluff trail together with the steep loops near the opposite end might be too much.  So we drove down to the south beach area from the north beach where we are camped.  There we did the really difficult, but short section. 

Lots of steep, uneven steps set into the rocky face of the cliff.  These trails and steps were built by the CCC in the 1930’s.

Basil was fascinated by the tree branch shaped like an R.

Potholes were scoured into the rock by smaller rocks being swirled around by rushing water eddies.

Amazing that these round holes were formed by water and stones.

Not quite as dangerous as it looks here.  I would not let them stand up.

How do those trees grow in solid rock?  Basil is checking out the roots stretching out seeking crevices with a bit of soil and water.

Devil’s Doorway is a natural formation of rocks that just landed this way.

Someone offered to take a pic with me in it.  This is Balanced Rock, high above the lake, just hanging there for many, many years.

I used to take a picture of my senior Girl Scouts, including Tara, on this rock every year when we came here to the Badger Hiking Club Girl Scout/Boy Scout camping weekend in late September yearly.  Our boys loved sliding down the smooth face of this erratic boulder—one brought many miles by the glacier and dropped.

The nature center had so many stuffed animals, birds and fish as well as this model of the park.  The green monster in the lake is an inchworm the boys brought in.

They played lots of games of bean bag toss.  Max lost this one to Sam.  Hamburgers on the grill tonight and then S’mores.  We have not eaten a meal inside the camper.

On the way home we stopped at my college friend Char's farm,  The boys got to pet alpacas, miniature donkeys including a month old baby, goats, miniature horses, and chickens.  What fun.

Baby goats

Gathering eggs

Baby chicks

To round out our week of learning about the Wisconsin Ice Age effects on the land. we hiked up Dundee Mountain at Long Lake, which is really a glacial kame.  Then the boys turned in their Wisconsin Explorer State Park report to the Ice Age Center and were awarded patches.  We also bought hard-earned hiking stick medallions for the Ice Age Trail and the Kettle Moraine State Forest.

On Saturday I flew the boys back home where Tara pampered me with sleeping late, fabulous breakfast, day at the country club, pedicure and manicure.  Ah, relaxed after a boy intensive week.