It was the first time I’ve been camping since last August. Because of my home situation over the past 6 months (moving, fixing up the house I bought) most of my vacation time has been spent doing those things.

Finally camping after a year’s hiatus only reinforced how important is is for me to get to the outdoors on a regular basis.

There is nothing like laying in your sleeping bag and hearing loons call at night, or biking/hiking through beautiful woods and lake shores. The experience of those kind of things are definitely food for my soul.

I got lucky and caught some sparks making light trails in the shot below.

In lieu of a real fire, what’s better than thoughts of a warm summer campfire on a cold winter’s night?

Early Wednesday evening, it looked like I’d be in store for another nice sunset. Instead, right before the sun went down, some ominous-looking clouds blew in.

Sure enough, about a hour and a half later, a mild thunderstorm moved over the campground.

As I’ve probably mentioned before, the beauty of this area makes it one of my favorite places to visit.

There is virtually an endless supply of gorgeous scenery there.

The below two photos were taken along the Lumberjack Hiking Trail. You come upon these scenes of the Manitowish River after about a 15-20 minute hike through the woods.

When you emerge from the woods and see this, it’s one of those “oh wow” moments.

I spent a lot of time biking the very nice trails in the area, including the Plum Lake Bike Trail above.

The last two pictures (of Plum Lake) were taken along the trail as the sun was going down.

The park is located along the Mississippi River, about 15 miles northwest of La Crosse, Wisconsin.

Below is the view of Trempealeau Mountain I had right from my campsite.

I saw (and heard) all kinds of wildlife: song birds, water birds, deer, owls, foxes, eagles, turtles, and other amphibians.

Probably the most visible were all the egrets (above) who liked to hang around in the bay.

I liked to check out the scenery in the early evening, which is when I took my favorite picture of the park (above).

At the top of one of the bluffs, was a platform with a great view of the bay and Trempealeau Mountain (above).

I spend the most time riding the Crystal Lake trail, which runs from Boulder Junction to the Crystal Lake campground near Sayner.

What a great trail. It runs through the woods and along several lakes.

Riding on this gorgeous trail, it’s easy to miss beautiful scenes like the one below.

It is about 30 yards off the bike path, along a small hiking trail. I got into the habit of checking out any little offshoot from the bike trail.

My favorite time to bike the trail was just before sunset.

Getting Good Campsites
To get a good site it is most helpful to do your research. This is especially true of campgrounds you plan on visiting often. If I’m in a campground where I think I might be coming back, I’ll go through the park and make note of the best campsites. Then, the next time I go there I’ll know which sites to ask for. If you do this regularly, in a few years you’ll have a nice database of the best campsites from your favorite parks.

Be Prepared
Make a list of things you want to take along camping. After a few trips your list will be perfect and as long as you use your list, you won’t forget things in the future. To get you started, there’s a good camping checklist, from the Love The Outdoors web site.

I have several of those 10 gallon Rubbermaid containers that I store a lot of my camping gear in. One for general camping stuff, one for kitchen supplies, one for dishes, etc. Then, when I’m ready to camp, I just throw the containers in the car and I know I’ll have what I need. It also makes it handy at the campsite, because you know where everything is.

Watch It
Finally, a tip I learned on my last camping vacation. While hiking along nature trails, watch your step!

My campsite was right along Plum Creek, which feeds into the lake. There is a real nice secluded trail that runs along the creek, filled with beautiful scenes like the one below.

The first half of the week, the weather was very warm and muggy. I ended up spending a lot of time sitting in the shade, along lake shores such as this, reading.

The cooler, dryer weather finally arrived on Thursday and I decided it was time to hit one of my favorite hiking trails, the Star Lake Nature Trail.

Moments after I took the picture below, I tripped on something, and landed hard on my left hand.

When I picked myself up and took a look at my left arm, something obviously was not right. A trip to the Eagle River Hospital confirmed my suspicions. My wrist was broken, along with the rest of my camping trip.

Although obviously disappointed, I was glad for one thing — it wasn’t my right wrist (and dominant hand) that was fractured.

One of the nurses that helped treat me was familiar with where I was hiking. “That is a beautiful trail. You were probably watching the scenery instead of where you were going.”

I have no doubt.

The Wisconsin River runs across the middle of the above picture, and the Mississippi can be seen from the horizon, flowing down to the far left. My campsite was right along the bluff overlooking the Wisconsin River (below).

At the foot of the bluff in the next photo, is where Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet first entered the Mississippi River in 1673 on their exploration of North America.

About 20 miles south of Wyalusing, is Nelson Dewey State Park, which made a nice day trip for me. There are beautiful views of the Mississippi River there as well.

After my campfire was out that night I must have spent a half an hour gazing up at the astounding beauty above me. From every compass point there were stars too many to count. Across the Milky Way stars were so close together they were impossible to distinguish with the naked eye.

Contemplating all those stars in our galaxy alone can make you feel very insignificant in the grand scheme of the universe. With the recent discovery of new planets, I wonder if someone was looking up at their planet’s night sky contemplating the same thing.