The dawn broke hot and humid. Once again, we had the entire day to ‘splore, and because of the expected heat, we decided to head North — surely it had to be cooler, right? We left home a little late — 6:01 AM instead of the planned 6:00 AM. The temperature was about 137 degrees and the humidity was an astounding 117%,or at least that is what it felt like. Hard to believe, we know, but we’re ‘Splorers, we let nothing hold us back. Our destination today was Copper Falls State Park. We had done a lot of reading about this park so we were excited to tackle it!
Our breakfast stop was at the Lake Holcombe Cafe in, surprisingly enough, Lake Holcombe, WI. We found ourselves once again on Highway 27 and we passed right by the restaurant we stopped at on our ‘Splorin trip to Lake Brunet State Park (although it was now closed for remodeling — whew, we lucked out on that one). We have had very good luck at breakfast spots doing our low carb diet “thing” ordering eggs and a salad. But this day when Tammy asked if she could get a side salad instead of hashbrowns — the waitress looked at her kind of strange and said she would have to check first. Obviously we were “trail” breakers here — she had never had that request before. She came back to the table and said it would be no problem and asked if we were on a keto diet. We did our best to explain we weren’t really following a plan, just eating low carb because of Mike’s Type 2 diabetes, but she didn’t really get it (that’s OK, a year ago, Mike would not have understood or even considered ordering a salad with breakfast either). The restaurant was packed. After we sat down, there was only a 6 person table left. A group of 3 came in and took that table. When another group of 2 came in, the group of 3 invited them to sit with them. It was obvious they had no idea who the 2 people were, but were just being nice so these people would have a place to sit and enjoy their breakfast. It was nice listening to them learn about each other and Tammy wished we would have gotten there just a few minutes later and been able to join them as well. This was a cute little restaurant with pretty decent food — HUGE omelets, Mike had a hard time finishing his which doesn’t happen often.
We were back on the road by 7:45 with about 2 hours to get to the park. We headed up to Highway 70 — always a fun drive on Hwy 70. A left hand turn on Hwy G bought us to true northwoods Wisconsin. It was an effort in loneliness. We think we saw one or two cars that whole section of road. The forest came right up to the roadside and Mike kept worrying about deer, although for once we didn’t see any. Right before Clam Lake, Mike got excited as we saw the “Elk Crossing” signs. Deer be damned — Mike wanted to see an elk, but alas it was not to be. No four legged hooved animals of any kind were seen. As we traveled north, the loneliness of the road turned into an adventure. The twisting roads in the middle of nowhere were pretty wild and if you were looking to get lost, this would be an awesome place to do it!! There were some pretty amazing views along this stretch of road – this is was makes back roads Wisconsin one of the best places to be.
We finally arrived at the park. We knew it was going to be busy — lots of campers, etc. The Plan always calls for doing the most difficult portion first — but we deviated on this day. It was decided that we would do the portion of the park that would get the most traffic first instead. The Dough Boys Trail leaves from right behind the main parking lot and loops around the falls. You start by going over a little bridge over the Bad River. The river looks tiny as it meanders under the bridge; how can this river have falls worthy of a state park? Well, it didn’t take long to find out!!! About a quarter mile down the trail we came to our first overlook of the Copper Falls. Holy cow!!! The falls drop about 100 feet and are absolutely gorgeous.
Continuing on this trail we quickly came to Brownstone Falls — another amazing water fall. The really neat thing about these falls was that it was a completely different river (Tyler Forks River) that flows into the Bad River. The really cool part of this is that the two rivers come together and look like they go right under your feet. In reality they just flow very close to the cliff and you cannot see them (from this point) and they just kind of disappear into the bluff. This portion of the trail follows the very top of the bluff with a fence along the edge of the trail. Signs every 10 feet say to stay on the trail — it is very obvious that many ignore these signs. Mike comments the signs should just say “Every year 3 people on average plummet to their deaths over the edge of the bluff”…crotchety old man!!!
A quick descent along some stone steps on this trail gets you right down to river level very quickly. We know what that means!!! Woo Hoo — a hill to climb!!! Crossing the bridge over the Bad River we immediately begin the climb again. Not too bad (although Tammy did curse under her breath a couple of times). We made it to the top pretty quickly. Once at the top we were along the edge of the bluff again overlooking the rivers. There were a couple of areas that held some pretty amazing views! A little way up the trail from there was a bridge that spanned about 100 feet. It was probably 100 feet above the confluence of the two rivers. As we approached the river, we saw three guys with fishing poles. Mike joked “yeah, right, they’re fishing from there!!”. Well, as we got closer we saw that one of them was reeling his line in and the pole had a nice bend going. He was actually hauling in a fish. We sat and watch him reel this trout up from the river. It got caught in branches and trees a couple of times, but he finally was able to get it to the bridge!!! We didn’t take pictures of this, but here is an artist’s rendering of the scene:
Whew — after completing the trail, we noticed that the temperature has risen to approximately 142 degrees. Thankfully we will be able to shower before going to dinner later!!! The next trail was the Vahtera Trail. Comparatively speaking, this was a pretty boring trail!!! Luckily we are not just in it for the views, excitement of water falls, etc. We do just enjoy a nice walk in the woods. That’s what this trail was — a nice walk in the woods. The only small excitement was about 3/4 of the way through the trail Mike just stopped in the middle of the trail and pointed back behind us. There was a whitetail doe standing there staring at us about 15 yards away. We always wonder exactly how many deer we walk right past without seeing because they are smart enough just to stand still. They are always cool to see! The only other minor excitement on this trail was that before taking off we decided that we did not need additional bug spray (note: if you find yourself asking “Should I put on more bug spray?”, the answer is always: “YES!!!”). We did our Richard Simmons dance for the last part of the hike.
Upon arriving back at the car and dousing ourselves, once again, with bug spray, we head off for the next trail. Mike’s plan was to take the Takesson Trail next. Luckily Tammy saw a sign for that trail right behind where we parked. Even finding that sign, it was not easy to make it to that trail. We had to walk through the campground to get there. Mike actually pulled out his phone to make sure we were headed in the right direction (we were). This trail was kind of neat. It started off along the top of a bluff over the Bad River. Once again it was a trail where to the left was your typical “walk through the woods” and on your right was a almost straight dead drop to the river. Lots of places along this walk to see views of the river and beyond, but no dramatic views like at Wyalusing. Did we mention the heat? In the middle of this trail is a wide break in the trees where either pipeline or powerline runs through. Crossing this opening in the glaring sun was an adventure — it felt like crossing the Sahara (Mike’s impression anyway) — and we had to do it twice!!
It was time for a nice break — we sat in the air conditioned car and drank water and ate almonds for a while to try to cool off and get some energy back. One trail left….we could not pass it up (although we thought about it!!). The next trail was another waterfall trail — Red Granite Falls. This was a very good trail to end the day on. It was pretty level, the surface was crushed gravel (for the most part) and the walking was easy. Along the back side of the trail you were over the river again by the falls. The intrepid hiker could make it right down to the river itself. Many people were down there with dogs and such, so we decided to give it a pass. We passed right below huge rock overhangs and huge boulders littered the forest. It was obvious they had fallen from above, but how long ago is anyone’s guess (1,000 years, 1,000,000 years?). We ended this trail — soaking wet and ready to keel over. Did we mention how hot it was today? So many beautiful pictures from this park.
Showers at state parks are wonderful things!! However, there is one thing you do not necessarily think about when showering after a long, hot, sweaty day of Splorin’. Not only does showering wash the sweat and dirt off you — it also washes the bug spray off!! Mike got out of the shower and had to dry his legs and get his sandals and stuff on. He attempted to do this on the bench in front of the shower building. While he was only there about 1 minute and 21 seconds, he received no less than 47 mosquit0 bites. Thankfully the car was right there and he could just jump in before he donated even more blood to the mosquitoes. And we were finally able to get a picture at the sign again – we have missed a few.
Dinner is using pretty anti-climatic as far as the stories go for Splorin’ Saturday — not today! We left the park a little early to head to dinner directly. We were headed for the Northwoods Supper Club in Fifield, WI. But along the way we stopped at a wayside to play cribbage at a picnic table. Mike somehow forgot he had no bug spray on — so we think we lasted one hand of cribbage at the table. We decided to head to Fifield and see if there was anyhwere there to blow some time. Small town, touristy Wisconsin must surely off a shop or two to meander through. Wrong. The town was all but closed up. Luckily we found a little park right behind the supper club to sit by the way and watch the river flow by (and the mosquitoes were not that bad!). When it rolled around to 5PM, we headed for the restaurant. We noticed the big sign out front saying something about “Smokehouse Saturday”. After we were seated we looked at the menu and the typicaly supper club menu was replace with all smoked food (ribs, brisket, chicken, etc.). We LOVE smoked food, but all of this was drenched with sauce and certainly not low-carb friendly. We decided to get up and go find somewhere else. We apologized as we left, but hey, we were not going to waste a supper club Saturday.
Luckily Tammy had already scoped out another supper club — Sunset Bay Supper Club in Phillips, WI. Mike punched that baby into Google Maps and we were on our way…..until we got to the location and Google announces “You have arrived”. The only problem is that we were in the middle of nowhere and there were only houses around us. We decided to just keep heading up the road — Tammy had seen a sign (Mike didn’t). About 1.5 miles up the road we found the supper club — finally. Walking into the supper club we were immediately greeted by the owner from behind the bar. We felt like we were walking into Cheers and Sam was behind the bar welcoming us. We grabbed a table and ordered a couple of well deserved drinks. They have a salad bar here — small — but it is a salad bar. Tammy ordered her food and the waitress asked what kind of potato she wanted. Again, we’re used to ordering a vegetable instead of a potato. However, they do not have a vegetable here!!! We said, no worries we have the salad bar. The waitress made a point of saying “Well, it is a bar so you can go as many times as you’d like.” We still don’t understand that — but oh well. The food was pretty good and Tammy absolutely loved the little owner. It was obvious he loved his job and loved the customers. He treated everyone the same — like old friends (those who were and those, like us, who he didn’t know from Adam).
The drive home from Phillips was uneventful — just a nice long drive spotting dozens of deer along the way. We will explain our spotting methodology in a future post. For now, the Splorin’ was done and we enjoyed a relaxing drive home.
Splorin' Saturday 