We were out hiking on Stinke Basin which is now open again.  It’s about time too!  I love these trails since most of the time you seem to have them to yourself other than the few other hikers that make it a bit off the beaten path.  South shore road is now open as well which saves you all sorts of time when driving in from Baraboo.  Of course the downside is just when things start looking up the recent chilly evenings remind us that autumn is not far away.

Well, it depends where you look.  South shore road is still closed just past the boat landing parking lot, so you have to choose to drive in from one side or the other (east or west) but you cannot drive through.  If you want to go to the south shore group camp or beach area, you need to come in from the East side, off highway 113.  Come to the boat landing from the west.

Ok, this is not pretty but it’s honest.  This was what the water looked like yesterday on the north shore near the boat landing area.  Lots of people have been going out here since they are on pavement and they can take their dogs.  The downside is you will certainly need a bath afterward.

Well, the picture above is NOT Devil’s Lake. In fact it’s not even in Wisconsin.  In the distance there is the Sable Lighthouse near Grand Marais Michigan.  I spent about a week in Door County, then I made my first-ever excursion to the U.P.  So now I’m back and I suppose i should take a run back out to the lake and see if the water has gone down at all yet.

Hi All!  Just popping in for a moment.  I managed to clear all the messages and comments here and on the forum.  As I mentioned earlier I’m out seeing the world at the moment.  The last few days I’ve been up paddling on the southern side of the Door County Peninsula. The picture above is heading toward the Cana Lighthouse.  Now I’m heading to the "UP". (That’s the bit of Michigan that’s not attached to the rest of the state).  Here I will be spending a few days instructing and paddling around the famous Pictured Rocks area of Lake Superior.  If you’d like to follow along you are always welcome over at KayakQuixotica.com as well.  Otherwise we’ll see ya in a few days!. . . Yep and I did see the Baraboo River is flooding a bit again.  Not too bad though. . .

I have to admit it.  I go nowhere near Devil’s Lake State Park on holiday weekends.  It tends to get just a bit crazy.  I’m sure if holiday weekends were my only opportunity I would, but being local it’s just much nicer to go to the park when it’s not so busy.  The photo above is from the fireworks display in Baraboo just outside the park.  This is the view from my front yard actually.

Meanwhile. . .

Drain??  People always ask if the park has a drain.  Well, no.  However as part of a restoration project a siphon was put in some time back.  It is still used now to help control the volume of the lake. Currently about 2-3 inches of water are being taken off per week.  You can see of course that if it really rains it can far overwhelm the ability to bring the water down.

Back To Nature??  Devil’s Lake is a beautiful natural area.  However "wilderness" might be over doing it.  Devil’s Lake is a very "urban" sort of park in some ways with heavy use, large public areas, it’s own law enforcement and paved trails.  You really have to get out on the periphery of the park to have your hike feel more "wild".

Questions??  Please post your questions to the forum and only comments on the blog.  The reason for this is often people are posting questions to old blog posts which I may not see.  Using the forum for questions really helps me to see them.

Webguy goes missing. . . I’m leaving for Door County on Thursday and will be gone for just over a week.  That means I will not be here to approve questions from non-registered users or answer others.  So I didn’t forget you, I’ll just be gone for a bit.

Spam! - I’m getting a bunch of SPAM registrations to the site and I have to pretty much guess if registrations are legit or not.  Most of the time the emails are obvious spam addresses from Russian account or gmail.  However, if I do delete you by mistake just send an email or leave a note in the forum.  logical user names and email addresses makes it easier for me to tell if you are real!

This screen cap was taken from a shaky UFO Conspiracy quality video shot at Devil’s lake this afternoon. If you happened to be at Devil’s Lake today you may have expected to see Kirk Douglas & Martin Sheen at any moment.  Of course this time warp was more likely caused by the Air Show that began at the Baraboo-Dells airport today and goes thorough the weekend.  So while we were hanging out on the South Shore watching staff take down some of the caution tape,  we were buzzed by a variety of vintage aircraft.  I don’t know what it is about the approaching drone of multiple old fighters that puts my ears back.  Must have seen to many old war films as a kid.

A couple other little notes.  The Steinke Basin parking lot is closed. A bit more of the South Shore picnic area is open.  Oh, and be careful near the water as all the break walls are below the surface. . that last step can be a lulu!

North Shore Boat Landing (well, the parking lot anyway)

Well, this morning I posted some pictures from yesterday and captioned them.  Go here for those.  Disappointing as disaster pictures go, but great news for us.  It’s just not all that bad considering what it could have been like.

Paul asked about boat landings. . . Well as you can see from the top shot the road to the North Shore landing (which is gated by the way) ends here. I actually filmed a kayak rolling demonstration in the parking lot! The little island that used to be out there is now just a few bits of green sticking a foot out of the water.   On South Shore the road to the boat landing is closed from both sides.  The landing is also under water other than a bit of pier which makes an interesting island at the moment.  So all in all, the lake will have to come down quite a bit before the landings are open again. (one advantage of small boats is we can launch anywhere)

Cosmetically there are lots of brown areas where the water has receded, there are some smelly areas, and as I said yesterday some really heavily mosquito infested areas (mostly on south shore).  However, the campgrounds looked ok from a quick drive by, the stores are open, the bands are playing (if the weather holds out), and the water is safe to swim in. .

What’s surprising is how minimal the damage really seems on the surface.  Yeah, there are washouts now filled with new gravel along the roads, the lake is high but lower than it was before the park closed, and there are vaious closures here and there. .(south shore road is closed on the west side)  still it could have been worse.  The north shore picnic area is taped off, but the water is gone.  It will open soon.  The Chateau is open, and they plan to have the big band music on Saturday. 

I did’nt actually get to the park until late in the day as I had to be in Spring Green. The Chamber of Commerce there wants everyone to know that things back to normal. The poor office woman is being drowned in calls! Anyway, once we got to the park we spent a couple hours taking pictures and paddling around the lake. I’ll share some of those pics with you tomorrow, but all in all the park is in good shape.  One thing though, the mosquitos are insane on the south shore beach area.  The water trapped in the grass is perfect breeding ground and they are flying in big hungry clouds!!  Take your bug spray!

Food Damage - 1993 (North Shore near Quartzite Campground & Hwy DL) - Copyright © 2001 Louis J. Maher, Jr.

July 17-18 1993. 12 to 13 inches of rain in 4 hours turned the Baraboo River and Skillet Creek into raging torrents of water. A young boy was killed, when the car he was riding in was swept away by the flood waters. Damage to homes, businesses, roads, and Devils Lake State Park totaled around $8 million dollars. - NWS Milwaukee

Beginning in 1993, then 2000, then again in 2008. . .  One thing is sure, something has changed. Let’s hope things stay a bit drier for awhile.  You can see more photos from the historic 1993 flood here. 

The Park opens at 6am tomorrow Morning!