South Kettle Moraine Camping

This was our BIG GROUP camping trip of the year. Tony and Susie gave us a ride up in their big red truck, and Jamie (Jason's coworker) and Joel and Cara (Kelly's sister) and Evan met us up there.

Susie and Tony had visited South Kettle Moraine before, so they knew exactly which site was the coolest one. If you want to know which number it was so you can reserve it too, too bad! We are keeping the secret. It was in a campground loop that was super quiet because campers were not allowed, and it was also a walk-in site. The con -- dragging all of our car camping equipment up a hill. The pro -- total privacy. The awesomeness of the site alone was worth the whole trip.

Hiking options were only so-so, but we did hike the Scuppernong Trail and a nice part of the Ice Age Trail. Most of the trails were for die-hard mountain bikers, and not wanting bike tire marks on our foreheads, we avoided those.

We saw some neat birds, the most vocal was definitely the Oven Bird. They were singing their little hearts out ... "Teacher Teacher Teacher Teacher!" until I wondered if my sister was going to go crazy. Jason and I hunted one down so that I could see it, since it was much easier to hear them than to find them. We also chased a really big bird through the trees in the campground. We think it may have been an eagle. But we never got to see more than it's shadow navigating the treetops as it flew out of sight.

We had a great campfire on Saturday night with the whole gang. Jason showed how manly men make fire with flint. And we ate like kings -- giant cheeseball, cheese fondue, cheese curds (do you sense a Wisconsin theme?) and brats. We had so much food that we took half of it home. Evan pulled out his pipe and looked seriously Sherlock.

Also a big hit -- the hammock. There was someone snoozing in it practically at all times.

And, Jason made a lovely funeral pyre for the goldfish bag, may it rest in peace.