Greetings from Kettle Moraine State Forest

It’s been a good 2 weeks at Kettle Moraine State Forest in south central Wisconsin. There are 2 campgrounds here, Ottawa Lake and Pinewoods, and I choose Pinewoods for this trip because there are no electrical hook-ups and I wanted to see just how well my rooftop solar panels would support my power needs.

Without going into the technical details, I have to say I’m very pleased with the solar system while living “off the grid”. While I started out being very conservative with my electrical use, I gradually increased my consumption each day for 4-5 days until I was living as if I were “plugged in”. The 12 volt system on the camper won’t support the air conditioning or the use of the microwave, which require 120 volts. But I had pretty much unlimited use of everything else, including the hot water heater, refrigerator, stove, water pump (taking showers and washing dishes), ventilation fans, interior lights, TV, radio, DVD player, furnace and recharging the computer and cell phone as needed. I kept a log each day of my power usage and noted that the solar panels brought the batteries back to 100% capacity for 12 of my 14 days stay. On 2 days that were overcast with rain the batteries ended the daylight hours at 80% and 82% charged.

Speaking of computer and cell phone usage, the signal reception here is very poor. If it wasn’t for the cellular signal booster I installed while camping in Michigan in May I wouldn’t have been able to receive calls or call out, although text messages did come through without the use of the booster and TV reception was good as well.

While I was able to get onto the internet using my cell phone as a hotspot, uploading and downloading was so slow that it was just not feasible to use it. So on most days I took the short 3 mile drive to Genesee Depot WI where I could get a 4G signal and zip through my emails in a matter of minutes.

Pinewoods campground consists of 3 loops, one of which is a quite zone which is the one I chose. This means no outside music unless one wears earphones, no use of generators and no pets allowed; mostly tent campers here with a sprinkling of pop-up trailers. The campsites are quite deep and mostly level. Some, like mine are thickly wooded on 3 sides but some are more open and nicely shaded, set among tall White and Red pines with pine needle carpeted ground. These sites are very pretty but I needed open space overhead for sun exposure to the solar panels.

 Here at Kettle Moraine one can hike part of the Ice Age National Scenic Trail:

 http://www.nps.gov/iatr/index.htm

 

Ronna came to visit during my first few days and we visited Old World Wisconsin, a collection of ethnic farms from the late 1800’s that were dismantled from various locations throughout the state and relocated here. We had perfect weather and enjoyed a fine day. You can read more about Old World Wisconsin here:

 http://oldworldwisconsin.wisconsinhistory.org/

 

Bonnee, my friend from South Milwaukee also came to visit. We spent the day walking in the campgrounds, sitting under the rear awning and chatting and grilling pork chips for dinner.

We had been relaxing under the awning, talking and enjoying some juicy green grapes that she brought and decided to move to the picnic table to start the grill, forgetting to bring along a few grapes that were left on the small table behind the camper.  As we sat at the picnic table I noticed a small form moving through the underbrush toward the camper. Getting up to see what it was, we watched a fat raccoon get up on his hind legs, pull the plastic bag containing the few grapes to the ground and tear into it. We figured he wanted the grapes more than we did so we let him have his little feast and watched as he sauntered away toward the front of the truck. I have also seen many deer in the area along with many wild turkeys during my stay. Problem is I always see them when I’m driving the truck and never get any pictures.

I managed 2 trips to South Milwaukee. On the first, Bonnee and I went and saw the new Star Trek movie and on the second we took in a 2 hours sail on Lake Michigan at the Milwaukee Community Sailing Center where she is a member. Bonnee was confident enough in my sailing skills to let me cast off and dock the boat under sail (a 24 foot Ensign), something I have almost no experience in doing since my 30 foot sailboat had a small diesel engine for that purpose. But all went well and we had a very pleasant sail with light to moderate winds, sunshine and comfortable temps. I’m happy to report I haven’t gotten too rusty at the tiller.

My leg is at about 100% now and I have been walking about 2 miles most days without any ill effects. I’m looking forward to getting back on the hiking trials when I return to Shabbona State Park this Saturday.

 

 

Camp Lowden

Just for your information: If any of you haven’t already discovered, you can enlarge the pictures posted on this blog by clicking on them.

My home, Camp Lowden as I call it, for the last 2 weeks lies on the eastern bluffs of the Rock River across from the city of Oregon which is the county seat of Ogle County in north central Illinois. With a population of about 5 thousand, it was founded in 1833 and probably named Oregon by one of the founders, John Phelps, who had visited the area on his way west and returned 4 years later. The name was changed to Florence (after Florence Italy) from 1839 to 1843 and then changed back to Oregon ( a change that I would have voted for). There doesn’t seem to be any large scale industry here and I would imagine that many of the locals are employed in larger cities like Dixon or Rockford, which aren’t too far away.

 

The campground here is nicely shaded by very large White Oaks, Basswood and Chinese Elm trees (among many other types) with 80 electrically serviced, mostly level sites, 2 dump stations and a shower house. Memorial Day weekend saw just about every site full but, as usual, the weekdays are quiet with only a handful of campers. The weather finally cleared late on the afternoon of June 1st after raining almost every day for several days in a row. A cold front came through, cleared the skies and lowered the temps. One day last week the tornado warning sirens sounded across the river in Oregon and we all headed up to the shower house for safety. It gave us a chance to exchange niceties and converse a bit while waiting out the storm which passed without incident. That evening the thunder rolled and set the coyotes howling somewhere in the bush just north of me.

Lowden Memorial State Park is named for Frank Lowden who served as Illinois governor during WW I. The place started out as artist colony named Eagles Nest which was founded around 1898 by Chicago attorney and assistant manager of the University of Chicago, Wallace Heckman. That closed in 1942, about 6 years after Hackman’s death when the last residents left the colony. Then in 1945 273 acres were added to Eagles Nest by the Illinois legislature and the park got its present name. The original 66 acres of the Eagles Nest site was transferred to Northern Illinois University at DeKalb. It was renovated by the Industrial Arts classes and renamed the Lorado Taft Field Campus. Year round natural science classes are taught there and the area is closed to the public, hence no picturesL.

 

“The Eternal Indian”, a 50 foot tall, concrete statue placed high on a bluff which overlooks the Rock River (inside the park) was designed and built by sculptor Lorado Taft between 1908 and 1911. It’s said to be the second largest concrete monolithic statue in the world. Although the artist stated the statue represented the spirit of the American Indian and not a specific person, the flyers handed out at the dedication ceremony had the word “Black Hawk” printed on them and it has become known as the “Black Hawk Statue” ever since.  Black Hawk, who was a leader (not actually a chief by birth) and warrior of the Sauk American Indian Tribe, is the namesake of the Chicago Blackhawks.

 

 

I can’t seem to find any information on these 3 foot tall “tree stump” carvings which lie in the park but outside of the original Eagles Nest boundaries.  I could only locate 2, both carved into mushrooms, and they appear along the road that leads to the old Eagles Nest area. Perhaps they are the work of the artists that left here long ago?

I had the most wonderful couple camp across from me over last weekend. Nick and Lillian de Clereq are from South Africa. They had their custom built truck camper and truck shipped over to Baltimore 2 weeks ago by ocean freighter and they followed by air. Nick is a retired engineer who designed the camper himself and then had it custom built. After exploring many areas of Africa they decided to come to the US to see the National Parks and monuments. They will spend the next 6 months touring the western US, Canada and perhaps Alaska before leaving the US via Mexico.

 

When they arrived last Friday I thought they might have had a long days drive and took over a few just baked cinnamon rolls. They invited me to have breakfast with them on Saturday morning and a friendship was struck.  As we shared meals and marshmallows over the campfire we swapped stories and laughed a lot, they are a happy, good natured pair. I attempted to explain the origins of the Thanksgiving holiday and gifted them my copy of the National Geographic Guide to the National Parks for which they were very grateful. I won’t need it for a few months when Ronna and I head west and can easily replace it before that.  They departed early Sunday morning for the Dakotas and I was happy to be up and around to say goodbye. They are a bit behind in updating their blog:
 http://www.oucruiser.com 


Just today a solo tent camper named Ron set up on the same site that the de Clereqs left on Sunday. He departed California on April 29 and drove to the east coast. Stopping here for the night, he’s headed for Wisconsin to visit family and will work his way back home from there. Ron’s retired from the camping industry, having worked for a company that manages private campgrounds across the US as well as a few government owned parks. 

 

The courthouse in Oregon, completed in 1891 in the Romanesque Revival style, was restored in 1981 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It’s no longer used for legal proceedings. The eastern entrance is graced by 2 Civil War cannons (just visible toward the lower right in the photo).  “The Solders Monument” in the foreground was designed by Lorado Taft and dedicated in 1916. It honors Ogle County's war dead from the American Civil War, Mexican War, War of 1812 and World War I, the last of which was added later.

 

 

One of Illinois’ last stands of native White Pines and one of the southernmost stands of White Pines in the United States can be found at White Pines Forest State Park, only 10 miles away. The lodge, restaurant and cabins there were built by the CCC around 1927. Its restaurant serves breakfast, lunch and dinner and is well known for its chicken pot pie. There is a small theater in the lodge that hosts entertainment and plays by local talent. The one room log cabins, which Ronna and I have had the pleasure to stay in during years past, are available to rent. The park has beautiful hiking trails and the campground, while very nice, has no hookups and finding a level site is all but impossible due to the hilly terrain.

 

Ronna came for a visit during my stay and we ate lunch at the White Pines restaurant (chicken pot pie of course and peach cobbler) and then stopped at the John Deere Historical Site, about a 20 minute drive, but found it closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. We did locate an old cemetery with graves dating back to the mid 1800’s. You can read more the John Deere Historical site here:

http://www.deere.com/wps/dcom/en_US/corporate/our_company/fans_visitors/tours_attractions/historicalsite.page

 

My next move is tomorrow, I’m headed off to Kettle Moraine State Forest in Wisconsin for about 2 weeks of “dry camping”. For those of you unfamiliar with that term there will no electrical or water hookups so will have to rely on the camper’s large fresh water tank and the solar panels to recharge the camper’s batteries. I’m staying in a “quiet” loop, meaning no music (except for earphones), no generators and no pets allowed.
Tomorrow will be spent doing laundry, getting the rig ready and plotting my navigation for the trip.

I hope you enjoy Red Headed Woodpeckers as the park here is loaded with them and I couldn’t resist snapping a few pictures.