Hiking Hungry

After a much needed night in a hotel (mainly for the shower) we started the drive from Superior to Ashland. Along the way, we passed through the Brule River State Forest.

This area is huge. It encompasses all 44 miles of the Bois Brule River. It’s a forest full of activities which include hiking, biking, fishing, paddling, and camping. This area would take a long time to thoroughly explore, much longer than we had. We decided to make our stop quick and do a short hike.

Holy macaroni! I feel like I always start my posts like this, but I can’t believe I haven’t posted in 2 months. Actually, that’s a lie. I can believe it. Since my last post, in addition to all the craziness that was the winter holidays, we (myself and 3 other awesome people) bought and moved into a house! Buying and splitting a duplex with your husband and friends (another couple) is really the way to go. Not only do we have amazing friends right next door, we were able to break into the market and tackle the daunting project of home-ownership together!

Somewhere in there with the thousands of other pros to owning a home, never having to haul 5 trips of camping supplies up and down apartment stairs is high on the list.

Let’s continue this honeymoon hike.

From Pattison State Park and the state’s tallest waterfall we drove 17.5 miles to another park full of waterfalls, Amnicon Falls State Park.

Next up in the mini-moon adventure tale is a day filled with waterfalls. If you like waterfalls, this region of Northern Wisconsin is for you.

Waking up at Brunet Island State Park we packed up the campsite, loaded the car, and said farewell to the campsite friends we made the night before. We were off on our 2 hour and 15 minute drive north to Pattison State Park. We did a pretty good job of trying to explore the state parks in sections to limit travel time but there was no avoiding having to lump this much driving together at once.

Driving up highway 53, we passed by a number of towns. One of these was the small town of Minong, WI. I’m sure they’re known for more but this town is home to beef jerky royalty, Jack Link’s. There’s an outlet store in town you can stop at. We didn’t stop there but did buy some jerky from the obscenely large selection at the gas station off the the highway. Highly recommend it.

Continuing the slow recap of the mini-honeymoon adventure…

This post is a little out of order but that’s okay. Back to day two! After leaving Lake Wissota State Park to drive to Brunet Island State Park, we stopped at the Chippewa Moraine State Recreation Area on the way.

This is near an area where I camped a lot with my family as a child and it brought back some extra special memories.

Links to follow along:
Park Website
Park Map
Trail Descriptions

This area isn’t like your typical contained state park. Since this is a “recreation area” it contains multiple trails, roads, and private property. With 23 miles of trail, including a segment of the Ice Age Trail, it can be hard to plan your hike. If you aren’t sure where to start, parking by the nature center is a great option.

Day 3 of the weeklong hiking and camping mini honeymoon (mini-moon) adventure brought us further north to Brunet Island State Park. If you missed the beginning of the trip, catchup on DAY 1 and DAY 2 if you want to see what brought us here.

Located outside the small town of Cornell, the island sits between the Chippewa River and Fisher River. Most of the park’s activities are found on the island, but the adventure continues on the mainland too with trails extending east of the island. The park has opportunities for hiking, biking, watersports, swimming, camping, and other activities.