eeboater
Commander
- Joined
- Jul 19, 2004
- Messages
- 2,644
I always like reading peoples summaries of their trips and weekends they had enjoying our favorite activity... boating. So, when I get a chance to share like this, I always enjoy doing writeups.
Last weekend, we had the opportunity to stay at Frontier Wilderness Campground just outside of Egg Harbor, WI. Egg Harbor is located in Door County, Wisconsin. This area is likened to the cities in the Northeast - Maine, Connecticut, New Hampshire - and the rest. There's lots of wineries and small shops for the girlfriends, moms and wives to wander through. If you imagine Wisconsin is shaped like your left hand, Door County is the Peninsula that is your thumb. The bay of Green Bay is to the left of your thumb and Egg Harbor is right about where your thumb bends.
My brother's girlfriends family has several seasonal campsites in the Frontier Wilderness campgroud. As for the campground, I don't know that I've ever been to a 5-star campground before. This place had an in-ground pool, huge game-room, great restrooms, very clean sites, and even a "over-21" room that has huge leather couches and a 52" widescreen TV to watch the Packers game (or whatever).
We brought the boat up with the hopes of spending all day Saturday out on the water. Unfortunately, storms blew through in the early morning on Saturday, churning up the bay. The chop was heavy enough that I wasn't comfortable taking my 20' Bayliner out. So instead, we visited about 5 wineries (lots of wine-tasting), walked through some shops and spent some money.
We ended up around the campfire that night just chewing our cud. When we were there, I experienced something I've never seen before --- a chimney log! They take a log which is about 1.5 feet in diameter in which the center has rotted out of it and set it vertically on some logs which have been laid out horizontally on the campfire. Then, you can fill the log with sticks and other goodies to get the fire to shoot out of the top. It was really neat to see!
Here is a photo of the log right after it was set on the fire. You can see the hole in the top. This goes straight through the log.
Next, here is the chimney "warming up" as I like to call it.
here are a few more photos... there is a hole in the side of the log as well, presumably where a branch extended. This created a neat effect whereby the flame shot out of the top and the side.
Here is the chimney at full-tilt. I guess the longer the log, the higher the flame on the chimney. They had a log sitting near their wood pile that was about 4.5 feet long. I'd love to see the size of the flame that would create.
Later that evening, we had some visitors. I thought they were a couple chipmunks, but much to our surprise there were two Raccoons bouncing around. We had some leftover popcorn so we poured that out for them to enjoy. (yeah, I know, bad idea - but it got us some good photos nonetheless.)
This is them drinking some water out of the tarp. I guess the popcorn was a little too salty
The next day turned out to have BEAUTIFUL WEATHER!!! Which is just what I wanted, because I was itching to get out on the water. I've lived in Wisconsin for almost 20 years, 15 of them in Green Bay, yet I had never been to Door County via boat. This is primarily because we didn't have a boat big enough - so I was excited to finally see some of the places I've visited so many times..... from the water.
We launched at the Peninsula State Park boat launch. I must say, this is the NICEST ramp I've launched at yet. The water was crystal clear and the ramp itself was clean and well groomed. Beware to anyone taking a trip there -- the overflow parking lot is a half-mile hike away... uphill!!
We first went to Ephraim to see what that looked like from the water. Its a very small town that closes in the winter. But, they have some good places to stop for ice cream and the sort. We just did a drive by, my intended destination was a couple miles in the opposite direction... Fish Creek.
Photo of Ephraim:
On our way to Fish Creek we passed Peninsula Light House. I've been to this place so many times on land, it was neat to see if from the mariners point of view.
Finally there -- we're pulling up on Fish Creek. Initially, I was shocked at the size ---- SMALL!! I was so used to seeing the large marina from the land that when I pulled up to it from the bay side, I couldn't believe how it was just a teeny speck in massive shore of overgrown trees.
Finally!!! Something I've wanted to do for over 13 years... park my OWN BOAT on the courtesy "dock" in Fish Creek. They allow you to tie up for 2 hours at "no charge." I'm not sure what happens after 2 hours... I didn't ask. Visitors beware though -- thats a tall wall!! They have ladders sporatically placed for people to climb out of their boat with. As you can see on the photo -- my boat sits really low in the water. So everyone had to use their High-school gym-class skills to climb out. In hindsight, there was a smaller dock I could use to let them get out on -- eh, you live and learn.
Yum - after a good helping of breakfast at The Cookery in Fish Creek, its back to the boat ramp so we can load up and head back to Milwaukee. I found a different courtesy dock I could pull up to so this is us approaching the courtesy dock to pick up the girls. It was much easier than having them try to scale that wall again.
All-in-all it was a great trip!! I highly reccomend visiting that area if you are ever inclined to do so.
Sean
Last weekend, we had the opportunity to stay at Frontier Wilderness Campground just outside of Egg Harbor, WI. Egg Harbor is located in Door County, Wisconsin. This area is likened to the cities in the Northeast - Maine, Connecticut, New Hampshire - and the rest. There's lots of wineries and small shops for the girlfriends, moms and wives to wander through. If you imagine Wisconsin is shaped like your left hand, Door County is the Peninsula that is your thumb. The bay of Green Bay is to the left of your thumb and Egg Harbor is right about where your thumb bends.
My brother's girlfriends family has several seasonal campsites in the Frontier Wilderness campgroud. As for the campground, I don't know that I've ever been to a 5-star campground before. This place had an in-ground pool, huge game-room, great restrooms, very clean sites, and even a "over-21" room that has huge leather couches and a 52" widescreen TV to watch the Packers game (or whatever).
We brought the boat up with the hopes of spending all day Saturday out on the water. Unfortunately, storms blew through in the early morning on Saturday, churning up the bay. The chop was heavy enough that I wasn't comfortable taking my 20' Bayliner out. So instead, we visited about 5 wineries (lots of wine-tasting), walked through some shops and spent some money.
We ended up around the campfire that night just chewing our cud. When we were there, I experienced something I've never seen before --- a chimney log! They take a log which is about 1.5 feet in diameter in which the center has rotted out of it and set it vertically on some logs which have been laid out horizontally on the campfire. Then, you can fill the log with sticks and other goodies to get the fire to shoot out of the top. It was really neat to see!
Here is a photo of the log right after it was set on the fire. You can see the hole in the top. This goes straight through the log.
Next, here is the chimney "warming up" as I like to call it.
here are a few more photos... there is a hole in the side of the log as well, presumably where a branch extended. This created a neat effect whereby the flame shot out of the top and the side.
Here is the chimney at full-tilt. I guess the longer the log, the higher the flame on the chimney. They had a log sitting near their wood pile that was about 4.5 feet long. I'd love to see the size of the flame that would create.
Later that evening, we had some visitors. I thought they were a couple chipmunks, but much to our surprise there were two Raccoons bouncing around. We had some leftover popcorn so we poured that out for them to enjoy. (yeah, I know, bad idea - but it got us some good photos nonetheless.)
This is them drinking some water out of the tarp. I guess the popcorn was a little too salty
The next day turned out to have BEAUTIFUL WEATHER!!! Which is just what I wanted, because I was itching to get out on the water. I've lived in Wisconsin for almost 20 years, 15 of them in Green Bay, yet I had never been to Door County via boat. This is primarily because we didn't have a boat big enough - so I was excited to finally see some of the places I've visited so many times..... from the water.
We launched at the Peninsula State Park boat launch. I must say, this is the NICEST ramp I've launched at yet. The water was crystal clear and the ramp itself was clean and well groomed. Beware to anyone taking a trip there -- the overflow parking lot is a half-mile hike away... uphill!!
We first went to Ephraim to see what that looked like from the water. Its a very small town that closes in the winter. But, they have some good places to stop for ice cream and the sort. We just did a drive by, my intended destination was a couple miles in the opposite direction... Fish Creek.
Photo of Ephraim:
On our way to Fish Creek we passed Peninsula Light House. I've been to this place so many times on land, it was neat to see if from the mariners point of view.
Finally there -- we're pulling up on Fish Creek. Initially, I was shocked at the size ---- SMALL!! I was so used to seeing the large marina from the land that when I pulled up to it from the bay side, I couldn't believe how it was just a teeny speck in massive shore of overgrown trees.
Finally!!! Something I've wanted to do for over 13 years... park my OWN BOAT on the courtesy "dock" in Fish Creek. They allow you to tie up for 2 hours at "no charge." I'm not sure what happens after 2 hours... I didn't ask. Visitors beware though -- thats a tall wall!! They have ladders sporatically placed for people to climb out of their boat with. As you can see on the photo -- my boat sits really low in the water. So everyone had to use their High-school gym-class skills to climb out. In hindsight, there was a smaller dock I could use to let them get out on -- eh, you live and learn.
Yum - after a good helping of breakfast at The Cookery in Fish Creek, its back to the boat ramp so we can load up and head back to Milwaukee. I found a different courtesy dock I could pull up to so this is us approaching the courtesy dock to pick up the girls. It was much easier than having them try to scale that wall again.
All-in-all it was a great trip!! I highly reccomend visiting that area if you are ever inclined to do so.
Sean
