When my wife and I woke up on our second to last day in Wisconsin, we didn't really know what we had planned for that day. With two of our major points of interest already ticked off, it was just a matter of finding something to do.
Of course any day needs to be started off with a good hearty breakfast. I fired up the Blackstone griddle and cooked us some sausage, hashbrowns and eggs. @mrsbozz decided to have egg whites which she cooked up herself inside the trailer. The problem with eggs on the griddle is they tend to run all over the place and it can be hard to manage them. It's much easier when you have a small pan with fixed sides.
After looking at the map, we decided to do a bit of hiking, so we headed to a local trail in the town of Bayfield.
The views from the parking lot were a little intimidating, but the hike along the old iron bridge trail actually wasn't that bad. Once you get past the bridge and you continue into the woods, it was a fairly moderate trail taking you to the top of the gorge. We basically did a big loop walking under the bridge, up the side, and then across the bridge to bring ourselves back to the parking area. Compared to most of our walks, it was actually a pretty easy stroll. Here are some more photos from the walk.
Like I said, it was a pretty easy walk for most of the hike. There were some steps they had built into the side of the ravine and there were some wooden walkways like you see in the photos above. We also got to see a little bit of water running down the slope as you will see in the next photos.
It was actually a really beautiful if not short hike. I think it could have been longer as there were other trails, but they didn't look as well kept as the main trail and injured ankles are always a bit of a concern for us as @mrsbozz has a chronic sports injury from when she was back in high school. About once every five years she aggravates it and we didn't want this trip to be one of those times.
As I said, eventually we made our way back to the top of the bridge and then back to the parking lot down one of the side streets. You can see the view of the parking lot and then Lake Superior beyond in the last photo above.
Since it was such an easy hike, we decided to head up to the Frog Bay Tribal National Park on the Red Cliff Indian Reservation. It's pretty funny, because even though I took a photo of the map above, I didn't really pay attention to it like I should have and where we had planned on taking the "easy route", we ended up taking the "ravine trail". That's what I get for not paying attention. Needless to say, I have since downloaded and installed a hiking app that has detailed maps of many trails across the country. It doesn't help you so much if you don't have signal though.
We were on the upper part of the blue loop on the map where I started to worry that we were walking far into the woods and I wasn't sure where we would come out. I had thought about having us turn around and go back, but we had already traveled so far that I was afraid it would just be a worse outcome for us. I kept pressing on and eventually we ran into some more people on the trail. That gave me a bit of hope that we weren't just wandering around aimlessly!
A short distance past the family that we ran into, we found ourselves at the beach and having remembered that all the trails led to the beach, I was finally a bit relieved to know that we weren't far away from our truck.
Needless to say this was a much more strenuous hike than the first one we took that morning. We were both hot and tired by the time we made it back to the parking lot.
After heading back to our trailer to take showers and get freshened up from our morning activities, we found ourselves at a local tap room and outdoor equipment outfitter just outside the campgroup. We could have walked there if we had been really ambitious, but we were kind of spent from our morning of hiking.
It was a cool area though quite hot at this time of day. We sat right on the edge of the patio still shaded by the building, but able to get at least a little breeze from outside. This was just about the time the temperatures started to rise in the area, and it was a good thing that we only had one full day left there. As I said in some of my earlier posts, we really lucked out with the weather we got while we were in Wisconsin. A few days after these photos were taken, the wildfire smoke from Canada moved into the area and it wasn't anywhere near as nice.
They had some quick serve sandwiches that my wife and I shared at Howl, but they also had some interesting brews too. Since it was Saturday, I am going to include this as a #beersaturday post sponsored by @detlev. My favorite was the Madeline (named after the largest local island). It was a blonde ale that had rose hips in it. It was refreshing and delicious. According to the Internet Howl used to have live music pretty much every night, but we didn't see any indication of that while we were there. It would probably be a pretty cool place to hang out if that were the case though.
After our morning excitement and almost getting lost in the woods of Northern Wisconsin, we took it easy the rest of the day and just relaxed at our campground.
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This sounds like a great outing! I need to explore more of Wisconsin. They're supposed to have some phenomenal historic supper clubs too. I've often thought how much fun it would be to take a road trip and visit a few of those along the way.
That does sound like it would be a really good time. I have never been disappointed by any of my few trips to Wisconsin. I'd definitely like to visit more of the state. Even the Green Bay Area even though I hate the Packers!
I misread this as "Healthy breakfast" and was thinking how is it that sausage and hasbrowns are healthy 😳
A hearty breakfast must also include bacon, beans, fried tomato and fried bread. Commonly known as a "Full English". But tbh, after scoffing a mahoosive plateful the hike would be exchanged for a comfy lounger
Sorry, but beans are for BBQ, not breakfast! :)
How did I know that hike would end with a cold beer. :) I know it would for me for sure. Then again, I wouldn't be able to finsih a hike like that these days.
Overall you guys had a fine trip.
Thank you! Just one more days worth of stuff to cover and then I close the book on Wisconsin.
It looks like you earned a beer or two. I like a good hike even if it's not that long.
This ended up being far longer than we had anticipated!
I've had a few like that. Always best to check if you can.
I love a good hike, especially when there's some history on the way, and of course a good drink afterwards