Sep 4, 2012 - On Golden Pond

We just spent one of our more perfect days here in the northwoods. John and Tracy Cahak are visiting their trailer out on Flannery Lakes near Rhinelander. We went out to visit them late in the afternoon. The plans were for a little fishing by the boys and brats on the barbie by us all. My secret formula was indicating that the fish would be biting like crazy from approximately 4PM until 6PM. John rowed us out to an area on the lake that he has never fished before and that looked promising to me from a Google Earth flyover I had done several...

Sep 2, 2012 - On the High Seas

We were invited to cousin Julie’s to meet her son, daughter- in-law and grandkids. The plan was to load up on the pontoon boat and go yachting and of course, bar hopping. Paul Jr, wife Jenny, and kids William and Emily make a perfect Wisconsin family unit; in other words, they fish, hunt, root for the Packers and eat brats. When we first arrived at the cottage the kids, Paul Jr. and Grandpa Paul were upriver somewhere fishing. So we sat out on the deck with Julie and Jenny and let the family dog, Thomas, entertain us with his relentless...

Aug 26, 2012 - Southern Comfort

We took off on Thursday for a four hour drive south to Madison, the capitol of Wisconsin. We did the same getaway last year and were eager to return. We stayed at Dave and Lynn McKenzie’s house in Cottage Grove. They are located about 8 miles as the crow flies from the capitol building and the UW campus. Nancy and I had stopped off in Lake Tomahawk at the meat market of the same name and picked up a dozen of their very tasty brats on our way down to their house. So we had brats on the barbie for our first night’s dinner. We consumed several...

Aug 20, 2012 - African Queen

We have been really enjoying our stay in the northwoods. The weather for the last week has been ‘fallish’ according to the local weather dudes. We like the variable weather. Most of our outdoor activities are determined by forecast temps and precipitation. The color change has already started here. At first we would see an individual branch on one tree in a section of forest turning brilliant red. That was back on August 8. Now whole trees are covered in red and scattered throughout the forests. This week the temperatures were heating up...

Aug 9, 2012 - Black and Blue Division

We had some cool and rainy weather forecast for the next few days so we decided this might be a good time to drive up to the shores of Lake Superior and pick berries. Nancy did a quick internet search to make sure the farm we picked at last year was open for business and off we went. As we were driving north on a small Wisconsin highway, we noticed some bright splashes of red amongst the lush green forests. There were only a few branches that had begun their fall change, but nonetheless, the colorful process has begun. We came over a...

Aug 5, 2012 - First Contact

We met up with my cousin Julie and her husband Paul at their ‘cottage’ on Grills Landing. The landing is a peninsula that stretches out into the Rhinelander Flowage. As a kid I spent many hours out at her mom’s cottages on the landing fishing out of the old rowboat Julie’s mom and dad used to leave in the water for all family members to use. My brother Larry and I fished just about every inch of that chain of connected lakes formed by the Wisconsin River thanks to that old rowboat. Paul and Julie have kept some of the land in the family....

Aug 3, 2012 - Late Summer Port

We have safely arrived at Patricia Lake Campground in Minocqua, Wisconsin. Our journey from Kalispell, Montana covered about 1600 miles. We went from the mountain ringed Flathead Valley and an altitude of 4400 feet to Northern Wisconsin with its heavy forests and millions of lakes with an altitude of about 1200 feet. ‘The Neighborhood’ is now in her slip hacked out of the northwoods. We are taking before and after pictures of the flora around us. For soon the leaves will be turning color. We even have a few Tamarack pines around us that...

Oct 1, 2011 - Summer Sun Brings Fall Colors; Northwoods Recap

We have some great shots of the fall foliage as it evolved from start to almost finish. We spent two months in the northwoods and were able to see the first few leaves change, then a few trees, and then the whole forest broke out in resplendent color. Just before we left the area, the weather changed. We had three days of rain and cold followed by a wild, blustery day. The color change was arrested, trees lost half their leaves. You realize how lucky you are to catch fall colors in their prime. It can end very quickly. Northern Wisconsin is...

Sep 20, 2011 - The Pack is Back

Sunday the Pack was on TV against the Panthers. Nancy and I joined up with my cousins Julie and her husband Paul and her much older brother Skippy, or Dave, as he is known professionally. He still runs a very successful insurance business and keeps an office in Rhinelander as well as down south. It was in his office that we all met for the game. He has a great large screen TV in his plush conference room. Sitting there watching the game with Nancy and my cousins was a great experience. The reconnecting with family and friends here in the...

Sep 20, 2011 - Fishing

We have done only a little fishing since I hooked ‘the big one.’ Nancy and I have gone out a few times in the ‘Nancy Gail’. We went on Two Sisters Lake to a sand bar where I had had extraordinary luck back in 77. She read her book while I drowned a few crawlers. I caught and released several small blue gills and a tiny largemouth bass. We also went out on Mid Lake, where our friends, David and Lynne had their summer cottage for twenty some years. It was an interesting day. The lake is off of a channel that runs through forest and swampland...

Sep 19, 2011 - Biking

We have had several great rides on the trails in our vicinity, in addition to the end of canoe float rides we have done. Each time we go out, a few more trees are displaying their fall splendor. The Bearskin Trail was our first outing. It is a 20 mile long trail through different variations of northwoods forests. It started in a nice park alongside Lake Minocqua and then into the forest after a short ride along the lake. We rode out 8 miles, passing under the forest canopy and along several lakes and streams. We turned back at Rocky Spring...

Sep 17, 2011 - Canoeing

We have done three paddle trips on two different rivers. The first Wisconsin River trip we have already written about. The second was a nice float on a section below the area where I caught ‘ole Mo’. The weather was great, sun was out, and the sky was a deep blue. By this trip we were starting to see a few leaves starting to make their fall color change. We had a couple nice encounters with some bald eagles. What a magnificent sight it is to behold those birds in flight. The broad white tails and distinctive white heads reflect brightly in...