Just finished a month long trip including Madison, WI, Menomonee, and Munising, MI. We spent some time visiting family in Madison. Stayed at the Lake Farm Park Dane County Campground. If you like bicycling this is a great series of trails in and around Madison. Walking is permitted on the trails and if you have canine critters there are two large Parks. The Campground features electricity at most sites and there is potable water spigots throughout the Facility. There are showers and restrooms. The Place was busy on the weekends but not so much during the week. We spent one night at a City Park in Menomonie, MI across the River from Marinette. Nice Park with full hookups at some sites, a boat ramp and walking distance to Jacks Supermarket and Taco Bell. At Jacks you can load up on pasties and pot pies....we did!. In Marinette there is a Fincantieri Shipyard. There were three, MCM Cruisers? under construction. Looking for a job. They are hiring. 25-50$$ per hour. From there we stayed at Townsite City Campground in Munising, MI. Really nice Park on Lake Superior. We had great weather (cold) and no buggy critters yet. There are at least 25 falls in the area. We drove into or hiked to a dozen of them. We took a couple of boat trips to Grande Island and Pictured Rocks. There was still some ice floating in Superior and the water levels are high. I took a refreshing dip!!! 37 degrees. Major brain freeze and I am now singing countertenor in a choir. We went over to Grand Marias one day, friends rock hounded the beach, buddy and I hit the Superior Brewing Company. Great trip. Think we are going back next year. A few pics from the Pictured Rocks.
Agates are the prize to find. Perch fillets from Grand Traverse Bay. We absolutely gorged ourselves on these tasty morsels.
No one goes hungry or thirsty on these trips! Candiru has found a home on the shoulder strap of the Osprey.
really cool photos! love the old truck and the watchtower building. Lookingforward to your thoughts on the Bio-Lite Campfire stove
I wasn't overly impressed with the Biolite. It belonged to a buddy who brought it along. The fire was nice to look at. The heat output from a "campfire" standpoint was slim. It would be adequate to good to cook on. He had an app on his phone that would control the fan speed which on low would run for about 8 hours. Set on high there was a definite fan noise, I suspect that would only be used to get wood rolling and burning to the coal and cooking stage. Optimum wood size was about 18 X 3 inches. It would hold three full pieces at that size with a good bed of coals. The fan must be charged by an included solar panel. The panel is integral to the carrying case so when you put it in the case you plug in to recharge. There was a nice draw out pan at the bottom to remove ash and coals. Positives. portable, fan induced draft gets fire going quickly, decent battery life. fire can be seen from three sides and top. Fan provided nice induced draft, which with dry wood provided for a relative smoke free fire. If you must cook over wood it's probably a good option. Probably a good option for a suburban fireplace where it can be stored away. Negatives, not a huge roaring fire for an alcohol induced party. Construction not stainless steel. We only used it once, I would want to spend more time with it around the house. For my travels, it's too space consuming. Many places we go now adays wood fires aren't allowed. Who knows how long the battery will last.
Having recently watched a series of videos on the Solo product line I think if I were going to purchase a product for transportable fire I would go that route....although I haven't see anyone cooking on the larger units. That mega unit the Yukon is burning man worthy!
I neglected to mention earlier, one of the highlights of this trip was the birds of prey activity. There are both Bald, Golden Eagles, Falcons and Osprey habitats in the Grand Island Area. We saw the Balds, Falcons and Osprey. It was the first time I recollect seeing Falcons in the wild. They are indeed FAST. We saw two Falcons take on an Eagle in an aerial battle. The eagle actually did a roll, talons up in defensive move against a dive bombing Falcon. One of the Eagle pair wanted nothing to do with this skirmish and left the scene immediately leaving its mate to fend for itself. Spectacular.