Jan. 27-29, 2012 Winter Camping & Ice-fishing, Lake Poygan, WI

 Lake Poygan, Wisconsin

16" thick ice

Saturday sunset

 Saturday twilight

Details and Weather:  Went ice-fishing and winter camping on Lake Poygan west of Winneconne, Wisconsin. Weather was - Friday: high 35, low 24, sunny clear early on, then .09 inch of snow, very windy. Saturday: high 34, low 15, very windy early on, 31 mph max gust sometime between midnight and 3:00 a.m., then grew calmer into the day and evening. Sunday: high 23, low 8, clear, some wind.

13"-16" of ice, caught 5 fish, one of them was a nice walleye. Inside the tent was warm with the wood stove going. Venison tenderloin hobo dinner Friday night, Saturday egg/cheese/bacon English muffins for breakfast then grazing the rest of the day. Sunday was leftovers. No one ever goes hungry! Slept well on cots both nights. Easy set-up, pack-up was harder with all of the exercise getting the tent stakes out of the ice.

Dangers:  Ice was thick, but Sunday morning the Suburban did see some action when it went over a crack in the ice and had some water splash up. The floor of the tent was very slick due to the melting ice from the wood stove, need to try and insulate it better next time, plus get more ice cleats to use. The wind Friday night/early Saturday morning was very bad, tent and center pole held up though.  The usual hazards with Coleman lantern-white gas combination, falling in ice-fishing holes, and potential dysentery from my fellow camper!

Ice Age Trail, Sat. Jan. 7, 2012, south of Slinger, Wisconsin

Trail in Pike Lake State Park, Wisconsin

Young and Old Goldens in Slinger

Strange snowman along the trail in the woods

Another Survey Marker right on the trail

Details and Weather:  Started at 6:38, finished at 12:15 pm - 5.8 hours, 8 miles total.  Temperature was 30 degrees when I started in the dark and upper 30's and partly sunny at noon.  Went from the Slinger Community Park to Highway 167 just north of Holy Hill.

Dropped the bike off in Slinger then parked the car at Pike Lake Unit.  Walked north on the snow/ice, started in the dark but quickly got light. Got back to the car and found my courtesy friendly reminder from the DNR to re-new my annual sticker, lovely.  Drove south and parked at the trailhead at Highway 167 just north of Holy Hill, then started walking north again.  This is a very nice section of trail especially around Holy Hill. Reminded me of hiking in Germany.  Survived on O.J. and eating my friend's gift of venison summer sausage, it was really good, a very good food item to have on a hike.

Wildlife:  Crows; Redtailed Hawk; lots of Doves; Birds; Geese; Cows; Horses; Squirrels; 2 Deer in the woods (might have been the same one twice); a Golden Retriever Puppy and an older one sitting at their house in Slinger; a barky German Shepherd and a Mix, then a barky Beagle and a Beagle Mix.

Dangers:  Slipped on ice a couple of times, went to the ground once - ouch! My Bike Helmet and 2 liter Mountain Dew bottle broke my fall, who says Mountain Dew is bad for you!?!  Red truck checking me out and probably giving me the stink-eye, maybe thought I was hunting since I had on my orange jacket. Got a warning ticket from the DNR for having an expired annual pass, for once I catch a break from them, they must not have realized who's van it was (I think I'm on the DNR's wanted list, we have a history, it's a long story).