On a cold weekend in the Upper Midwest a forecast filled with thunderstorms, we packed up and headed north. Despite the stormy weather forecast, most of the reservable campsites in the Sylvania Wilderness were booked. We felt lucky to get Racoon but found it only available for one night.
Trip Video
Working around the school schedule, we arrived just before dark to spend our first night in a campground. Paddle camping would have to wait until morning. A thunderstorm rolled in after we got camp setup and started our fire, so off to sleep in the tent we went.
Wet, gray, misty weather greeted us in the morning. I didn't mind, today we would paddle! I cooked a breakfast of eggs, pancakes and bacon. We took our time packing up and headed to the put-in. Camping is by permit, with campers required to be off their sites by noon, we didn't want to be early. But we wanted to have camp set up early. With thunderstorms in the forecast we timed our entry such that we would arrive just a little bit after noon in hopes of setting camp before any substantial rain or storms would move in.
The put-in was busy. A younger guy with Nebraska plates took off and left his paddles behind. Sylavania Outfitters has the paddles, if their yours! We put Ams on the water to get her paddle wet, so to speak, while we loaded the canoe. To our delight she seemed confident. We met some nice people who had watched a few of our YouTube videos and talked a bit while she paddled around. Step one with Ams felt like a success. We loaded the canoe and pushed off.
We paddled through Crooked Lake admiring the fall colors against the backdrop of gray skies. Ams named the kayak "Becky". This was going better than I could have imagined. Did she like paddling the kayak? Yes! Did she like being independent from Mom and Dad? Double yes! Did she like it when we paddled too far away from her? No! Not on the larger Crooked Lake, but yes on smaller High Lake.
We portaged into High Lake and found the fall colors more remarkable on High Lake. When we arrived a Racoon campsite the previous nights campers had not evacuated the site on time as required. They said they needed 20 more minutes. After 20 minutes it started sprinkling. It took them over an hour while we sat in our boats in the rain wishing to be in camp throwing up the tent and tarp. We paddled around High Lake for quite a while waiting for them to go. The sprinkles turned to rain.
High Lake
My husband was not happy to have to set camp in the rain, but that's the way it goes sometimes. We had dehydrated Mexican Rice, with dehydrated taco mean and Fritos for lunch, which I would like to think cheered everyone up a bit. Mexican rice is a tasty dish with wonderful seasonings and I love it because it actually contains vegetables: black beans, onions, tomatoes, corn. My family likes it because it tastes pretty good.
We had a fun afternoon relaxing, my husband cutting wood and me paddling around High Lake. It began to grow dark and the anxious feeling of a storm brewing filled the air. We decided to try to hurry and make our dehydrated chili with toasted Italian bread for dinner in order to finish the dishes before the storm hit. We made it just in time. The lightning and thunder pulled rapidly closer until upon us, and then the rain came in buckets. Soon the rain had doused our fire and standing water filled our campsite and ran in rivers around our gear.
Chili and toasted Italian bread for dinner
After dark the rain took a break and we watched an amazing electrical storm across the lake before the next round of thunderstorms and heavy rain rolled in. We slept through the storm and woke to a cold, wet morning. I decided to take a paddle to watch the sunrise. While putting the kayak in I fell into the cold lake. Well, I could be cold and bored, or cold and enjoying myself, so I decided to paddle around and let the air dry me as well as possible.
The view from my sunrise paddle
When my family woke I ended my paddle and changed into dry clothes trying to warm up. I served cheesy hashbrowns and bacon for breakfast which is beloved enough to draw a sleepy teen out of the tent. Since the start of the Covid19 outbreak, I have not been able to find a few of our family camping favorites in the store. One of these is the dehydrated Hungry Jack Cheesy hashbrowns. I have found that if I add one tablespoon of the Jolly Time Big Cheez cheesy popcorn seasoning to a box of plain Hungry Jack dehydrated hashbrowns, it tastes exactly the same.
The minute Ams finished eating breakfast she begged to take the kayak out for a paddle alone. Amazing! Enjoying the sweet taste of success with the teen kayaking situationn, my husband and I packed up camp while Ams paddled around High Lake. We headed out with another wonderful family outing on the books.
That's all for now. Let's get outdoors and keep our wild places wild!
High Lake September 2020
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