In preparation for our trip to southwestern Wisconsin, we practiced our R&R routine with a boating trip on the Wisconsin River and a motorbike trip winding through the back roads of central Wisconsin.

After bragging about “pies-2-die-4” from the Crystal Cafe in Iola, Wisconsin, we had to go back to make sure we weren’t just waxing nostolgic. Nope, these pies were superior.

After a very short stay at home, where we did a little boating on the Wisconsin River and motorbiking the back roads, we dusted off V-Jer and headed to the most southwestern corner of Wisconsin in search of some more 80º sunshine. We were impressed with the campgrounds run by the Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) in Texas, so when I discovered an ACE Campground in Wisconsin, I quickly reserved three days.

The Grant River ACE Campground is located right on the Mississippi River. At $10 a day, including electricity, it was a steal. ($10 with my Senior Pass). There were a couple of caveats: 1) The campground was bordered by an active RR track. We weren’t there for 5 minutes before the first lonesome whistle broke through the relaxing quiet. Fortunately, I love trains and the BNSF railroad fed that love just about every 20 minutes. 2) The neighboring farmer had just spread a load of ripe manure on his adjacent field giving us a nice eye-watering waft of good old country air. The fragrance, thank goodness, quickly dissipated and was gone by the next morning. These caveats aside, the setting was nothing short of picturesque.

This put us in the heart of the driftless area, that is, the part of Wisconsin that the glaciers didn’t reach. It is called “driftless” because, without the glaciers, no “glacial drift” (gravel) was deposited. There’s a bit of geology for you.

The BNSF RR barrelling past the campground kept us on our toes.

An amazing sunset looking over the Mississippi River from the Grant River Army Corps of Engineers Campground.

However, I am getting ahead of myself. On the way down to the campground, we stopped off at Pewit’s Nest State Natural Area and Devil’s Lake State Park. (We have a Wisconsin State Parks sticker, damn it, and we were going to use it.) We had never been to Pewit’s Nest before. In fact, until just last week, I had never even heard of it. Located just a stone’s throw from Devil’s Lake, it is a river gorge formed by the Baraboo River on its way to the Wisconsin River.

The rock formations, puny by Utah’s standards, were still beautifully wrapped in green moss and lichen and camouflaged by a lush forest. The river itself is fairly shallow, and had it been a warmer and sunnier day and perhaps closer to July than winter, we would have gone for a swim. As it was I waded in up to the bottom of my shorts. I had forgotten to bring my water shoes on this hike. However, the nice firm sandy bottom felt comfortable. We will have to return next summer.

In my view, Peninsula State Park in Door County and Devil’s Lake State Park in south-central Wisconsin are the two Crown Jewels of the state’s park system. We spent some time at Penninsula State Park earlier in the summer. It was time to hike in Devil’s Lake State Park.

Unfortunately, the 10% probability of rain appeared to be increasing exponentially as we parked the van to hit the 5-mile looping trail along the gorgeously jade-green lake. However, Dark Skies was still calling for 10%. We took a chance and started the hike. After all, 10% is a lot closer to 0% than 100%. And, everything on the internet is accurate. Right?!?

Devil’s Lake has tons of great trails. We chose the trail that worms its way around and through giant boulders the size of small houses, haphazardly placed in a heap. The first half of the loop is along the lakeshore and is deceptively flat and easy. The backside of the loop is up a tall steep hillside that could almost qualify as a mountain.

Of course, it was just as we started the brutal backside that the 10% chance of rain morphed into the dreaded 100%. The only saving grace was that the back side loop was through a thick forest with an effective forest canopy. The crappy dull sky still couldn’t spoil the stunning overlooks as the trail occasionally opened up high above the lake.

This was our first time visiting Pewit’s Nest.

DEVIL’S LAKE: You can see that the weather was seriously deteriorating - but Dark Skies was still issuing a 10% chance of rain, so we set out for our 5-mile looping hike.

At this point, the rain was coming down in earnest.

By the time we returned to the van, we were only half-drenched thanks to the canopy. The van’s heater felt good as we drove on to our campground. As we followed scenic highway 60 along the lower Wisconsin River from Salk Prairie to Boscobel, the sky slowly cleared. When we reached our campground, the warm summer day had returned.

Since it was 5 o’clock somewhere, well, actually right where we were, it was time to sample the beer at the Potosi Brewery in little downtown Potosi. The sprawling Potosi Brewery is pretty much all there is to Potosi. The brewery’s sampling room has a nice little museum, a large expansive bar and restaurant featuring some terrific neon beer signs providing an atmosphere any kid would die to outfit their room with. I know, I had a bunch of old neon Schlitz signs in my bedroom when I was a teenager.

Potosi was one of those local beers that was established in the 1800s by German immigrants, was a major local employer, but never expanded much beyond Dubuque, Iowa, some 10 miles away. The museum had some incredible photos of a Mississippi steamboat that the brewery owned before the era of cars and roads to get their beer to market - as far as Dubuque. My pint of Potosi was quite good.

Potosi was pretty much a winery, a brewery, an ice cream parlor, and a small furniture store.

It was the brewery that dominated Potosi.

The Potosi brewery had a terrific tasting room including a restaurant.

The brewery also had a cute little museum celebrating its history.

Glossary of terms used for newcomers: 1) V-Jer. The name of our camper. 2) Saturn. The name of our Van. 3) Duende. Our mischievous gremlin that breaks things. 4) Tata. The good gremlin that helps us fix Duende’s dirty work. 5) The Black Hole. This is what we call Walmart because every time we go in for just a couple of items, we come out spending way more than we figured. 6) QT. Quaint Town. 7) Little Buddy. This is what we call our Dyson cordless stick vacuum.

Dave and Wanda

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