Tag Archives: Lakes

A Lake Mendota weekend

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Last night I went with some of my family to watch Rhythm & Booms from the other side of Lake Mendota (along Observatory Drive). The fireworks display was pretty good, and it was fun being outside on a beautiful evening. While listening to the radio before the show (the display is choreographed with music over the radio), we heard the announcer say it was the “largest annual event in Wisconsin.” I beg to differ.

Picnic Point on Lake Mendota

It was another gorgeous summer day today, so I returned to Mendota, and went for a long bike ride along the lake. One of my favorite places to ride in Madison is where the bike path runs along the lake shore in the middle of the U.W. campus.

I ended up biking for most of the afternoon. I stuck to the shore as best I could, riding through where the rich people live, and made it up to the northern side of the city.

After I got home, I decided it had to be one of the best rides I’ve done this year.

Camping at Peninsula State Park

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Yesterday I returned from a camping trip to Peninsula State Park in Door County, Wisconsin. One of the reasons I like to go there is the park has 20 miles of the best biking trails in Wisconsin. When you bike along the lakeshore and through the woods on those trails you can understand why Peninsula is one of the most popular parks in the midwest. I was fortunate to have excellent weather while I was there and was able to hit the bike trails every day.

View from Eagle Terrace at Peninsula State Park

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North woods camping

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Last week I went to my favorite place to camp in Wisconsin, the Northern Highland American Legion State Forest. For me, there is nothing like getting away from it all and camping in the north woods. There you’ve got fresh air, beautiful scenery and wildlife (like bald eagles and loons). Below is my favorite picture from this camping trip. It was taken at a lagoon along one of the best nature trails in the forest, the Star Lake Nature trail. This spot is one of my favorite scenic places in the State of Wisconsin. Can’t you just smell the fresh, pine scented air?

Lagoon on the Star Lake Nature Trail

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First digital pictures

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I have finally entered the digital photography age and bought a digital camera — a Sony DSC-P73. I’ve been playing around with it for a few days, but today was the first time I hooked it up to my computer. I must say, it is the coolest thing I’ve experienced since burning my own CDs. About an hour ago I went hiking around the nature center near my house and took the camera along for its first “in-the-field” tests. I just got home 15 minutes ago and here I am uploading pictures for my blog.

Mallard Lake, Wehr Nature Center

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Camping with the Eagles

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I just got back from a week camping in Northern Wisconsin. One of my favorite things about that area are the bald eagles living there. While camping this year I saw the most bald eagles I ever saw in a week’s stay. On one occasion I saw a congregation of four eagles soaring over the same lake looking for food and twice I witnessed eagles diving down and snagging a fish out of a lake! I had never seen an eagle do that in person before so I felt quite fortunate to have it happen before my eyes twice in one week.

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