After my trip to Lost Lake in July I couldn’t wait to return having so much fun the first time and much more to explore that just wouldn’t wait until next year. So a few days after getting home I booked Labor Day weekend for another extended weekend of exploring, fishing, and campfires. Even though it marked the end of summer I was eager with anticipation of what was in store for a second visit to the cabins for weeks beforehand. The summer goes so fast as it is that I try to never look forward to upcoming events, but enjoy the things that are happening in the moment so as to not rush the summer away. As hard as I tried I couldn’t keep my mind off camping in the north woods of Wisconsin and I was not disappointed. Why is this area so much fun? For me it has to do with a number of things. First off it is a beautiful area full of lakes, scenery, and wildlife and I can just take it all in without the responsibilities of every day routines. Secondly I get to just be me and basically relax. There’s no being a father, husband, or son for a few days which can be a nice break. I love being those things but a break is kind of nice once in a while. And lastly I like heading to this area of Wisconsin because I get to see an old college friend and hangout doing whatever we want to do whether that’s fishing all afternoon, playing with our cameras trying to capture the beauty of the area, or exploring a new lake or trail.
On this trip it almost felt like a completely different place. Yes the lake is still there with the resident loon and the roads are the same but so many things around us gave new adventures. First off shorter days made a huge impact which I wasn’t fully expecting. It felt as though a good part of the day had already disappeared by the time day light became bright enough to see which just had a domino effect the rest of the day with everything happening later. Yes I was aware of earlier sunsets and later sunrises but the days flew by even faster than I anticipated as often we would be preparing dinner by lantern and fire instead of eating under a setting sun. The fire would just get going nicely when the yawns could no long be ignored and it was time to retreat to bed for the night although one of the nights we did continue to fight the tiredness and photograph the night sky. Some of the other differences between the July and September visits where clouds and rain, mushrooms, waterfalls, and light painting.
Our second night in the Chequamegon National Forest we found an area on a nearby lake where we could take in the sunset as the forecast called for clouds skies and some rain over the next few days so that was possibly the only opportunity to watch a beautiful sunset and we were not disappointed. As it turned out that was the last visible sunset during the rest of our time there. During our last night a nice thunderstorm rolled through completing the camping experience. Because there was so much rain mushrooms were popping up all over. It seemed as though I would photograph one and only a short distance away there would be another different, interesting mushroom. We lost count how many different mushrooms we saw and photographed over our long weekend there. I’ll probably do another post on only the mushrooms of Lost Lake. There is a waterfall drive in the area we were in which shows off a number of different rapids and small waterfalls. Even though they are not very high they are still mesmerizing to watch and listen to and well worth some time to explore which is something we didn’t do on our first visit to the area.
During one of the nights sitting by the camp fire we looked up and notice a break in the clouds revealing the numerous stars shining across the sky so we quickly grabbed a camera and some lights and headed to lake side for a little nighttime fun. The clouds really seemed to add drama to the night sky making for interesting photographs. Also we decided to attempt light painting which turned out great and was fun to play with. That started as night fishing with lighted bobbers and turned into photography experiments since the fish weren’t really interested in eating anyway. While there were these different things to explore there were some things missing which made this a different experience. There were a lot less frogs, no red dragonflies, and few butterflies. Fortunately there were also less mosquitoes even though they really weren’t all that bad in July. All of these changes made for a unique experience that finally satisfied my urge to camp at Lost Lake again this year. It does seem to be only a temporary sense of completeness as there is talk of returning next summer for another opportunity to enjoy these surrounding again.
