Lapham Peak - Fall Colors and a Great Hike

Time to get ready for the big climb.  Though still 6 months off - it's never too early to start training.  And what better time to start training than in the fall.

Day 1 of training was an unexpected hike with the dogs at Lapham Peak in the Southern Kettle Moraine State Forest.  Saturday turned out to be a beautiful fall day and after taking Jasmine to the vet in the morning and getting some housework done, I couldn't take it any longer.  I needed to get out.  I decided to take the dogs out and do the 7 mile advanced black loop at Lapham Peak.  I'm not quite sure why it's "advanced", but maybe it's just me and my non-stop hiking and visits to as many mountains as possible that makes the hills on this trail seem fairly easy.

What started off as being a typical walk with the dogs in the woods and their normal 20 minute or so miles (they always seem to need to pee, poop or sniff something) turned out to be a brisk walk through the woods.  With the cooler temps, the dogs decided to move quick - even Wailea with her hip dysplasia and repaired knee.  What typically would have taken us about 2 1/2 hours or so ended up taking us just 2 hours.  Wow - those girls moved.

With that there only a few occasional breaks to enjoy some of the fall colors that were left.  What a perfect day, the remainder of the colors were bright and strikingly orange and red colors.  And what a perfect way to start training for the climb up Mt Whitney.  Based upon this, I'm hoping the rest of my training days go just as well.

Fall colors at Lapham Peak, Southern Kettle Moraine State Forest

Climbing the Tower

After finishing the 7 mile hike in 2 hours, I let the dogs take a break while I took a quick run up the tower at the park to get an overhead view of the fall colors in the Delafield area.  Wow - it always amazes me, no matter what time of the year at how this area looks from above.

Fall colors from the tower at Lapham Peak, Southern Kettle Moraine State Forest

Fall colors from the tower at Lapham Peak, Southern Kettle Moraine State Forest

I think the best part of running to the top of the tower was the trip down.  As I was walking down the stairs of the tower I saw a group of kids running to get to the stairs to climb up.  And one of the kids exclaimed - "this is a high tower, but this isn't no Eiffel Tower".  No kid, you're right, it's not the Eiffel Tower, but it is a view into the heartland of Wisconsin in fall.  

Here's to hoping fall, winter and spring bring just as many beautiful days for training.  Because if so, training is going to be a blast.

To find out more about my bid to climb Mt Whitney with Summit for Someone and Backpacker Magazine - read some of the following:

• Climber Story
• Backpacker Magazine Makes Its Selections
• I Want to Climb Mt Whitney

30 Nights, Rain and Best Day of Summer

So if the title of this blog doesn't say a lot. 

30 Nights

• I have camped 30 nights in a tent (and it's only August 5th)
• 6 of those nights were in a tent hiking up Mt Kilimanjaro
• 1 of those nights was snowshoeing up in the Kettle Range in February and camping on a ridge overlooking the mountains and summiting Mt Wapaloosie the next morning. 
• As of today (Aug 5th) - the only month in 2012 I have not camped and slept in a tent was in January (need to work on that for next year).
• It has only rained during 3 of my camping excursions (sprinkles on Kili, Memorial Day weekend and this weekend - very unusual for me)
• I have visited 19 State Parks / Forests (that I can think of) and camped in the 10 of them (some 2 times).

Rain

Rain - with the droughts we're having, I've only seen rain really two times this entire summer so far while camping.  Memorial Day weekend and the storms that came through which caused me to spend over 8 hours in a 2 person tent with 2 dogs.  We all got good naps.  And then just this weekend we have a brief 2 hour storm that went through (again, good nap time).

For me - that's just really unusual.  I'm so prone to camping and hiking in rain that this has just been a weird summer.

Best Day of Summer

Since it's been dry with no rain - I think this horrible heat we've been having all summer goes along with the drought.  Hiking in heat with dogs makes for short hikes before we all start to get over heated.  Today (Sunday Aug 5th) was probably the best day for camping and hiking all summer.  Woke up this morning to 64 degrees and it didn't move much.  Went for hike in the woods with the dogs with the brisk wind and cool temps and just didn't want to leave. 

If this is what rain brings - bring on the rain and cool temps.

Continuing to Explore the Driftless Area

This year I continue to explore the Driftless Area's of Wisconsin and Iowa.  The more I explore this area of southwest Wisconsin and northeast Iowa, the more I like it.  Being someone who loves being outdoors and in the mountains, but is stuck living in the midwest, this is the closest I can get to feeling like I'm in the mountains.

So far every weekend since May 12th and one weekend in April has been spent in this area exploring different state parks and state forests.  This includes backpacking as well as car camping.  The Yellow River State Forest in Iowa was definitely a surprise.  I had no idea this was here and was quite surprised at how hilly this region of Iowa was.  Backpacking into and up the hills to find a perfect campsite was a great opportunity to explore the area.  In a full day of backpacking I saw 2 guys who were back camping in the designated backpack camping area I selected and a group of boy scouts.

Trail up to Schulz Camp - Yellow River State Forest, IA

Another surprise so far this year was the Black River State Forest in Wisconsin.  Day 1 of hiking here revealed a couple of things:  this state forest is also allows 4 wheelers (thankfully they have their own trails far away from the hiking trails) and has trails for them and the bad management of how to clear a forest (the eastern edge of the Wildcat Trail left plenty to be desired).  But Day 2 also showed an absolutely beautiful ridge line that runs on the east side of the forest hiking trail area.  And I learned that you can backpack in to this state forest as well.  This area is on my radar to visit again this fall for a backpacking trip with the dogs.

View from the Ridge Trail west - Black River State Forest,  WI

As I've been exploring I've been visiting new state parks in the southwest region of Wisconsin.  So far I have learned

• Mirror Lake State Park is a little too close to I-90/I-94.  When the park quiets down at night, all you can hear is cars / trucks traveling on the freeway.  And one of the trails there basically has you following the edge of the freeway.  Will not visit this park again.
• Wildcat Mountain - if reserving a campsite here, be leary when ReserveAmerica.com states it as a "fully" shaded site.  I learned this is not the case as I woke up with the sun turning my tent into a sauna and had to get out of it by 5 am.  

          But I did learn that you can backpack into the Kickapoo Valley Reserve just down a few miles from Wildcat Mountain State Park.  I also have this on my list of things to do this fall once the trees turn colors.  This area is beautiful and full of big hills and valleys that are all green.  

View out over the Kickapoo River Valley 

Beyond that I've also explored Roche-A-Cri State Park which is a nice, smaller park in the Driftless Area.  The center of this park has the Roche-A-Cri mound which has a stairway to get to the top (300 stairs).  The view from the top is pretty amazing as you can see for miles in every direction.  The morning I climbed the stairs I got to watch a storm in the distance with the sun trying to break through the clouds.  What a beautiful way to start the day.

View from atop Roche-A-Cri Mound - Roche-A-Cri State Park, WI

And lastly I've been to Governor Dodge State Park two times already this year camping and Devil's Lake for camping and hiking.

Governor Dodge twice because in April it's one of the few parks in that area that has the campground open year round.  And then again a couple of weeks ago to try out one of their backpacking sites.  The backpacking sites are actually quite nice, but are only a short 1/2 mile hike from the parking lot.  

So that's just the start of the year of exploring the Driftless Area's of Wisconsin and Iowa.  More to come and a lot more to explore yet.