Starved Rock State Park

Top row, left to right:
Matt (my sisters son) Chris (my sister's daughter) Ronna (my girlfriend), Andy and Angie (Angie is Chris's daughter, Andy is her boyfriend)
Bottom row, left to right:
My sister Nancy, Kim (Matts wife) and their son Colin, myself.

Right now Ronna and I are in the middle of getting ready to attend our first truck camper rally in Amana IA this weekend. But it’s been awhile since I last posted an update  soI thought I would take a moment and write a bit before we leave in the morning.

My 2 weeks at Starved Rock State Park near Ottawa IL were wonderful, although the weather for the first several days was extremely hot. On some days the heat index hit 104 and kept me off the trails.  On other days the heavy rains kept me around the campsite.

During my second weekend my sister and her clan spent 4 days and 3 nights camped next to me. It was great to see them all and the weather for these tent campers was just perfect; cool nights, comfortable days and no rain to speak of (photo above). I can tell you that these tent campers sure now how to put on the feed bag!

Starved Rock is a hikers and photographers paradise. There are many miles of well-marked trails and 18 canyons to explore. The park boasts a beautiful, log lodge built by the CCC as well as a restaurant that serves breakfast lunch and dinner. The original lodge has been added to over the years and now has hotel rooms, an indoor pool, hot tub and steam baths. There are log cabins for rent as well.

The lodge hosts many weddings and has events year around. This includes Eagle Watch in January. Many Bald Eagles migrate down from the northern states as the lakes freeze over and stay near the park, were the dams on the Illinois River provide them with open water and good fishing.

One could write volumes about this place and its history but I’ll supply a link here and you can do your own reading.

http://www.starvedrockstatepark.org/

The campground is divided into 2 loops and all sites are reservable. There is a variety of wooded, open and partially wooded sites. All have electric and there are shower houses as well as portable toilets in various locations. A camp store has all the necessities and fire wood. The campground is not in the park proper but just south of it. You will need your vehicle to get to the park (about 1.5 miles away) and to get to any of the remote parking lots which serve the canyon hikes that are a further distance from the lodge.

Every summer weekend sees the campground full and the park itself crowded.  But come on a week day and hit he trail early and you may just have a canyon or two all to yourself.

I left Starved Rock on Monday and have spent the last 2 nights back at Paul Wolff campground in Elgin IL. Dropped off the camper and took the truck to Ronna’s house for a good cleaning. Loaded back up this morning and spent all day today washing and cleaning the camper. After 3 months in the woods it really needed a bath.

Well, its getting late and there are still things to do before Ronna and I head for Iowa in the morning. It’s our first truck camper rally and I’m looking forward to it. I believe there are 21 or 22 rigs that will be attending. The Amana Colonies and a tour of a Frank Lloyd Wright house will fill our 4 days stay. I’ll tell you all about it on my next post.

Here are some photos from Starved Rock:

 

 

Camp Paul Wolff

Thought I would write a bit about Paul Wolff Campground where I spent the last week. This is for the benefit of anyone considering a trip to northern Illinois.

The campground is owned and operated by Kane County and, not being a state or federal park, a bit obscure. While it seems very popular with the locals and some out-of-towners, I think it tends to be overlooked by most visitors to the region.

There are 89 sites all with water and 50 amp electrical service. Also 10 walk-in tent only sites but tents are welcome to stay on most any site. The sites are divided into an older section and a newer section. All have asphalt pads and most are fairly level.

The older section has mature trees and picnic tables / fire rings set in the grassy area of the site. There is a set of railroad tracks just east of the older section (where I was camped) but I didn’t find this disturbing at all. Only 1 or 2 trains a day pass through and I was never awoken during the night.

The newer section has slightly wider pads and the fire rings are set in an area of crushed stone. The trees in the newer area are quite immature and offer little, if any shade.

There are both vault toilets and flush toilets available, but no shower or laundry facilities. The facilities are very well maintained and the park workers friendly and helpful. Fire wood is available on site and there are 2 dump stations (free when staying in the park, otherwise $15).

No reservations are accepted but I arrived the Wednesday before the 4^th of July and had no problem finding a suitable site. When I left the following Wednesday the place was quite empty. However it was about 2/3 full over the holiday weekend. You can take a site for 7 days at a time with a maximum stay of 14 days in any 21 day period. Non-residents pay $25 per night.

There are miles of hiking trails and a small fishing pond but what really makes this campground is its location to many area attractions and easy transportation into Chicago. It’s also very close to many restaurants and shopping on Randall Road.

Here are just a few of the attractions that are less than an hour away. The Metra will take you into downtown Chicago but the Big Timber Station only operates on the weekdays. On weekends you would have to drive to the Elgin Station

 

Big Timber Metra station 2.6 miles / Elgin Metra station 4.2 miles
http://metrarail.com/content/metra/en/home/maps_schedules/metra_system_map.html

 

Chicago Botanic Gardens 38 miles
http://www.chicagobotanic.org/

 

The Morton Arboretum 38 miles
http://www.mortonarb.org/

 

Cantigny First Division Museum / McCormick Estate Museum 28 miles
http://www.firstdivisionmuseum.org/
http://www.cantigny.org/museums/mccormick/default.aspx

 

Naper Settlement 31 miles
http://www.napersettlement.org/

 

Volo Auto Museum 28 miles
http://volocars.com/#sthash.DSzjmIV1.dpbs

 

Here is a link to the campground:

http://kaneforest.com/ForestPreserveView.aspx?ID=11

 

And a few photos. As you can see, the pond was our favorite subject.

 

 

 

 

Lake Shabbona X2

 

It’s now Tuesday, July 2^nd, about 4:15 in the afternoon and I thought I would get this post done before grilling up a steak for dinner. I will be leaving tomorrow morning and heading for Paul Wolff campgrounds in Elgin, IL where I will spend 9 days or so

 It rained almost every day for the first 8 days of my 11 day stay here at Shabbona Lake. It got so humid in the evening hours I had to put on the AC, even though it was in the low 70’s. But Sunday, Monday and today were just beautiful, cool temps, nice breeze and no humidity.

 Last Friday I dumped the tanks and filled the fresh water (have to do that about every 7 or 8 days.). Either someone had an accident or it was deliberate but a black tank had been emptied out along the curb gutter next to the dump cap. On my way back I stopped and told the camp host that unless it was raining toilet paper and feces, someone had left him a present at the dump station. He said he would take care of it (another reason not to be a camp host).

 Had some interesting neighbors during my stay. There were 2 old Polish guys who arrived early one evening at the spot to my right. They never set up camp, just slept in their car and it looked like the beers were popping at 0700 the following morning (hair of the dog?). I saw a bunch of fishing stuff around their car, along with a lot of paper shopping bags. Who knows what was up with them? They were gone by 1000 hours the next day.

 On my left side was a couple from Georgia. Early one morning I saw the male getting out of his vehicle with a pillow and blankets. I thought perhaps there was trouble in paradise, but wrong, wrong, wrong. Seems they were out fishing till 0100 and when they returned they found the camp raided by the raccoons. All the eggs in the cooler were eaten and a full tub of butter was licked clean (animals after my own heart). One of the critters had ripped a hole in the side of the tent and made off with a loaf of bread. They decided to sleep in their car rather than in the tent which had been ventilated nicely by the bandits. First time I heard of raccoons tearing into a tent, but keeping any kind of food inside a tent isn't the best habit.

Ronna came out for a visit on Saturday and Sunday. It rained heavily most of the day Saturday so we sat in the camper and discussed photography. Sunday was much nicer and we managed to get out and practice with the cameras a bit.

Now that the rain has subsided and my leg is at 100% I’m able to get out and about, hunting for some good pictures; spent most of Monday and all of Tuesday morning doing that. On one of the trails I came across a bridge that almost got wiped out by the swollen Indian Creek. Huge trees had been washed down and slammed into the footbridge (picture below).

Other than that it’s been a quiet week here, just as I like it. The campground is about empty but I’m sure that’s due to change with the upcoming holiday.

 Oh, by the way, the restaurant (picture below) is named after Shabbona’s wife.

 

 

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.