Sneaky Wisconsin River Camp

It’s been a sedate summer. Most of the camping trips we had planned have been postponed. While it’s nice to focus on staying close to home the vibrate neighborhood festivals that make Madison so fun in the summer have been cancelled. To add to it, K and I both got new jobs at the end of June. With lack of other things to do we’ve thrown ourselves into them and barely taken a day off. 

Realizing it had been over a month since we slept in a tent - a crime in the summer, right? - we decided we needed to do something about it. Even if it was just for a night. So we took a short drive to the Lower Wisconsin Riverway

The LWR is the longest free-flowing stretch of river in the Midwest, 92 miles long. Leave No Trace camping is allowed on the sandbars. Most people access it by boat, but there are a few spots that you can park and walk a couple hundred yards to some great camping spots. We chose a spot near Arena, WI about an hour from Madison.

In total we were probably at this spot only about 14 hours. But it was a great recharge with great swimming, beaching and a spectacular sunset. 

If you go:

https://dnr.wisconsin.gov/topic/lands/lowerwisconsin

Floating on the Wisconsin River

Back at it with my uncle. This time a quick one night trip canoe camping on the Wisconsin River (gotta play with that new canoe!)

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We put in early afternoon at the public launch off of Highway A on Indian Trails Parkway, about 5 miles south of the Wisconsin Dells. Our take out point was about 10 miles downriver off of Levee Rd. About half of the distance twists and turns through the Pine Island State Wildlife Area.

Fairly low key trip, saw a few eagles, hawks, herons and only a few people. As always, great to get out of the city for a day. Plus, I got to test out my new Vargo woodstove. It’s fairly fiddly but I think with some practice it’ll be a cool little stove.

 
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