Starrett Lake, Wisconsin

September 20, 2023

After saying goodbye to the kids, we headed for familiar territory in the Northern Highland-American Legion State Forest in northern Wisconsin. We had a beautiful day for driving.

Iconic Wisconsin farmland

Julie was slightly nervous about our campsite on Starrett Lake. She was sure it would be beautiful, but there was not a lot of detailed info about the particular site she booked, aside from the fact that it would fit a 45' trailer (ours is just over 30'). She has learned over time that just because a site is physically long enough to fit a certain length of trailer, it does not necessarily follow that said trailer can be successfully backed into that site. As we pulled up to the site along the narrow campground road, it was immediately obvious that we were in for a challenge. The combination of the narrow road and the strategic placement of certain immovable trees, as well as a somewhat obnoxiously placed (and very substantial) site post made for a harrowing experience. We grazed one tree (more than once), drove the truck into the forest (sorry little plants), and nearly lost the side mirror to the obnoxious substantial site post. After jockeying back and forth a few times, we finally situated ourselves into our gorgeous lakefront site. The site was indeed large, but a 45' trailer would not have been possible for our skill level.

All's well that ends well!

The other thing that made Julie slightly nervous about the campsite was the lack of solar potential because of all the trees. To top it off, generators are not allowed in this campground. That itself was one of the attractions to this campground (and it was blissfully quiet and peaceful due to the lack of generators). However, the pressure was on to see if we could make it through seven days on our batteries and what little sunshine the solar panels could absorb.

The next day (aside from a beautiful sunrise) was dark and rainy most of the day. This made for a cozy afternoon of tea on the deck while watching the gently falling rain on the lake, but it did not bode well for solar gain. Rick did a bunch of calculations, and determined that we *probably* would make it through the seven days, if it didn't rain every day. Or maybe we wouldn't. It was kind of a close call. We decided to forgo the toaster and coffee maker as well as all microwave use (used the stove instead).  Our "ace in the hole" was the dishwasher which, up until now, we refused to give up. We figured we would go a couple of days using the dishwasher, and if we ended up bleeding too much, we could hand-wash the rest of the days (the horror of it all 😉) and probably make up enough in lost electricity.

Sunrise over Starrett Lake

In between rain, we walked around the campground and were treated to some glimpses of fall.

Later in the evening, we happened upon a family of beavers in the lake.

We had camped in this area of Wisconsin for quite a few summers when the kids were growing up, and it was nice to visit again after so many years. One of the first places Julie wanted to revisit was the Fallison Lake Nature Trail (an easy 2.5 mile hike). We had gone there a few times in previous summer months, so it was nice to experience it with the little splashes of early fall color.

Fallison Lake

Saturday was another drizzly day, but it brought a nice sunset:

Every day there is more fall color 😊

The next day, while doing the exceedingly strenuous task of getting a cutting board out of the cabinet, Rick threw his back out. After spending some time flat on his back on the floor, he popped some ibuprofen, followed that with a wine chaser, and was good to go. Actually, he was not really good to go for several days, but he was a trooper and pretended to be sort of ok. 

The day after that, Julie dragged Rick and his sore back out for a walk to nearby Frank Lake (a nice easy 4.8 miles). After being cloudy and gloomy in the morning, the sun started to come out, and it turned into a pleasant afternoon (although a little on the cool side--low 60s).

The road to Frank Lake that we walked along from our campground

Frank Lake

We actually fished at this spot years ago when Alan had had an interest in it --don't think we caught anything that time

Cute little island

Because the Northern Highland-American Legion State Forest has so many lakes, Julie wanted to see as many of them as possible (at least within, say, a 5 or 6-mile radius). The normal way to see lakes is probably via canoe or kayak, but since we don't have either of those, we took to the roads and trails. 

Pretty back roads

We took a walk on the Star Lake Nature Trail (2.4 miles) along a peninsula jutting into (you guessed it) Star Lake.

Star Lake

Cute little beach--would be a fun place in the summer

More beautiful back roads

Blueberry Lake

Another day, we hiked the Escanaba Trail that passed near several lakes. We were a little disappointed that for the length of the trail (5.5 miles), we didn't get that many actual lake views.

Julie almost stepped on this guy

Lost Canoe Lake

Pallette Lake

Escanaba Lake

Speaking of lakes, we got to wondering if Wisconsin (America's Dairyland) has more lakes than its neighbor, Minnesota (10,000 Lakes). It turns out that this is not such an easy question. If you ask each state's Department of Natural Resources, you get the following answer:

• Wisconsin DNR: We have 15,074 lakes.

• Minnesota DNR: We have 11,842 lakes.

But it all depends on how "lake" is defined. It seems that Wisconsin has a much more *generous* definition. According to the U.S. Geological Survey: 

• Minnesota has 124,662 lake/pond features, while Wisconsin has 82,099.

• Minnesota has 8,784 lake/pond features with a name, while Wisconsin has 5,481.

• Minnesota has 14,444 lake/pond features of 10 acres or more, while Wisconsin has 6,176.

So, who has more lakes? You be the judge! 😉

The last evening brought nice weather, and we enjoyed watching the slowly fading colors surrounding Starrett Lake from our deck.

We'll miss this back yard!

|So what was the verdict on our solar? Despite a fair amount of cloudiness and tree cover, there was enough sun during our stay to not completely drain our batteries. And, we didn't have to give up the dishwasher! 😁

Rick's Tech Corner--a mini robot home improvement project:

Our water heater can run off either propane or electric.  What we have found is that the water heater is not really well insulated --so if we leave it on all day it will use a bunch of propane (or electric).  So, we have taken to just turning it on in the morning before our showers, and leave it on through breakfast (when we run the dishwasher).  Then the water heater gets turned off until the next morning. (If we have lots of solar or if we have an electric site, then we usually just leave the electric water heater on all the time.)

We (as in Julie) had previously been getting out of bed 20 minutes early, turning on the water heater, getting back into bed, and waiting for the water heater to heat the water up.  The purpose of the robot is to remotely turn on the water heater in the morning without us (Julie) needing to get out of bed.😁

The robot is Bluetooth controlled (SwitchBot) so it hooks up to Rick's phone to set schedules to turn on - and we also got a little remote control that we can keep by the bed (in case the schedule wasn't quite right).

What the robot does is actually just flip down a little lever (visible on the lower portion of the robot box) and press the switch just like we would.  In this picture, the robot is mounted above the propane water heater switch (the switch to the right of the lit one), since we do not have electric or good solar at this site.

To make the robot work on electric, Rick had to install a new wall paddle switch that turns on the electric water heater (we used to just turn the water heater breaker switch on and off), as well as make the mounting system for the robot moveable so it can be either up top (as it is now) or above the new switch.

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