In search of Wisconsin Loons

It's no secret that Denisa loves loons. She's a fan of many different birds, but loons are one of her favorites. We've had some fun loon enounters on lakes in the far north. We remember with such fondness in New Hampshire watching a pair of parent loons feeding their youngster the minnows they caught.

We remember the curious loons that would dive down to fish, and then pop up close to our boat to check us out in Minnesota. We've taken some great loon photos over our years of full-timing.

So  

Since we were staying in northern Wisconsin in a county with 1,100 lakes, we were searching for loons.  We've heard their unique calls from our campground, but our search on our lake came up loon-less yesterday. We read that loons can be found at two clear lakes far away from any town, so that's where we headed. It's only twelve miles from our campground, but the winding forest service roads seem perilous if you're driving faster than 25 miles per hour. It's a lovely drive, but we were getting tired of the green tree tunnels and wanted to see some loons!

The two twin lakes are Luna and White Deer Lakes. Because of the name, we obviously checked out Luna first, but didn't see any loons.

So we drove the short distance to White Deer Lake and spotted three loons in the distance. It's time to launch the kayak in search of loons!

Because the kayak was already aired up, it only took us a few minutes to get on the water. But the three birds we had seen in the distance had disappeared. Bummer! But this is a pleasant lake in the middle of the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest, so we had a good paddle here anyway. We were half-way around the lake when we saw it--a single loon flew in and landed in the middle of the lake. It looks like we're going on a loon hunt after all!

While we have had some great encounters with curious loons, this guy was obviously not interested in us. He seemed to be on a mission to fish, and we didn't see that he was ever successful. We would just get him spotted and have time to zoom in for a picture--and he would dive again. Many of our pictures were of the splash as he went under. But we managed to catch him in the distance on top of the water a few times.

We got to know his cadence. He would be on top of the water for 10-15 seconds, then dive down under the water to fish. He would stay down until Denisa counted to 50, then pop up ten yards away from where we expected. When we paddled to the far end of the lake, it was protected from the wind and the water was glassy. That's the easiest time to spot a loon.

However, if that predominately black bird shows up in the middle of that calm water mirroring the dark trees, the camera has a hard time taking a picture of black-on-black.

By the time we could get him in the picture frame, he would dive again. We never could tell that he was catching any fish, because that might take him a few more seconds above water to eat it.

This continued all the way around the lake. Mark paddled us into position over and over, trying to guess where he might pop up again. Compared to our great pictures of the past, today's search didn't feel very successful. But at least we weren't skunked in our search for loons.

After paddling the entire perimeter of White Deer Lake, we opted for our hiking shoes. There's a nice 4-mile trail that encircles both lakes. We started around White Deer Lake first.

We thought that hiking near the water would give us more opportunities to keep our eyes open for any loon sightings.

The trail does a figure eight around both lakes, so the middle section is a pleasant walk in the woods. We saw the same number of loons in the forest as we did on the lake--zero.

We hiked all the way around Luna lake. Can you believe we walked four mile and never saw another loon? But we did see beautiful green forests . . . and lovely blue skies. After the smoky weather from the Canadian wild fires last week, we were so excited about the blue skies.

We can also report that the bugs weren't nearly as bad as we thought they might be. We sprayed on bug repellant a time or two, but we were able to sit outside and go for hikes without being bombarded by mosquitoes and biting flies. This day we were wearing the clothing that we pre-treated with permethrin. That's an insect deterrent that actually binds with the cloth fibers. The instructions said that it was effective for up to six washings. While we couldn't spray every garment, Denisa took a picture of her bug-repellent wardrobe so she would remember what was treated.

After staying on the water until dark last night, we got in earlier this day. We needed to fix a good meal, put up the kayak, and clean out the pick-up.  We also spent a little time working on blog posts. The "office" this day was from our view of the lake at our camp site.

We were trying to get some work done because we were going to have company tomorrow. We've been in search of loons today, but tomorrow we're in search of some of our favorite people.

Blue Skies in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest

On this trip we have survived the sultry days of summer with humidity that the local weatherman described as "air you can wear." We have survived days of smoke in the red and purple ranges that were "unhealthy for humans." So maybe we deserve high temperatures in the 70s with blue skies?!? Well that's what we got for our stay in northern Wisconsin in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest.

We found this spot by drawing a line between Door County (our last stop) and the Apostle Islands National Lake Shore (our next stop), and dropping a pin half-way between the two. This would be our "back to nature" stop after spending time in touristy and urban areas.

We filled up with water at the Three Rivers Chamber of Commerce Office. This little town has a few businesses, but they don't have a garbage system.  We found this "trash truck" parked on Main Street. Locals pay per bag for garbage deposited into the truck.

With a full tank of water, we headed out to our national forest no-hook-up campground at Laurel Lake. There were only 12 camp sites in this remote location, and we were the only camper there on our first night. Some sites were reservable and some were first-come-first-served. Our campsite backed up to Laurel Lake. Because we don't have any electricity for these three days, we were excited to see blue skies and cool weather in the forecast.

It's nice to be using our solar panels again. So Mark climbed on top of the trailer to clean off the panels so they could work their best. Using solar meant we wouldn't be using our air-conditioner or microwave during this stay. We were blessed that the brutally hot summer temperatures in the southern part of the country didn't follow us to northern Wisconsin. We enjoyed temperatures in the 70's for highs and 40's for lows. That's the kind of July weather we were looking for!

We really didn't have a good plan for what we would do during these two days. But a stop at the Chamber office helped us decide. Our first stop was the Three Eagle bike and hike trail. We noticed that the first three miles rode along the highway. So we opted to start at the second parking lot and headed north through the woods from there.

The cinder surface was fine for our skinny-tire fold-up bikes. But soon we came to a long boardwalk section that was even better.

We crossed over the cranberry boardwalk, where the cranberry plants were just starting to bloom. They will put on berries that will ripen in the fall. Who knew that Wisconsin was the leading producer of cranberries in the world?

The trail was relatively flat, and shaded by tall pines. We enjoyed the blue sky peeking out through the trees.

In this part of Wisconsin, we found we were never far from a river or a lake. We crossed this bridge made especially for the Three Eagle Trail.

The trail got its name--Three Eagle Trail--from the fact that it connects the town of Three Lakes to the town of Eagle River. We could have ridden to Eagle River in 12.7 miles, but the only problem was that we would have had to ride that 12.7 miles back to our pickup. We weren't crazy about the 1.5-mile section that was on a newly-tarred county road. We were spoiled by the shady cool forest, and we decided to turn around on that road and head back to the woods.

In all, we got a 12-mile bike ride that was a great way to start off our stay. The person at the chamber office also mentioned that we should go see the Burnt Rollways Boat Hoist. What could that be? 

We found out that Oneida County has over 1,100 lakes. That's not 11 lakes--that's 11 HUNDRED lakes--in one COUNTY--not the whole state! Many of them are so close together that they form chains. Boaters can actually cruise from one lake to another without having to reload their boat on a trailer and moving it. There is a 28-lake chain with 106 miles of shoreline named after the nearest town, Three Lakes, Wisconsin. It's a bit confusing that a chain of 28 lakes is named the Three Lakes Chain of Lakes. That is the largest chain of fresh water lakes in the world.

You might think that would be plenty of lakes and plenty of miles to zoom those boats around. But just on the other side of the dam is another chain of lakes. The Eagle River Chain consists of nine lakes with 68 miles of shoreline. In 1911 a hoist system was built to connect the two chains. It can hoist boats over the road on top of the dam that separates the two chains of water.

It was updated to an electric motor system in the 1950's, and it has been hoisting boats from one chain of lakes to the other for well over 100 years. Only minutes after we arrived, our first customer came from the Eagle River side of the dam. 

The water level is lower on that side, so the boat has to be lifted up. 

It actually goes up and then will be rolled over the road that we just drove our pickup on to get here.

While out of the water, the boat is inspected for invasive plants and animals. 

Then the hoist moves the boat back down until it is floating in the Three Lakes chain. How much would you expect such a monumental move to cost? We were surprised that a one-way hoist was only $15, and if you're planning to return today you can get both hoists for a total of $20.

We sat and watched the next pontoon boat being hoisted over the dam in the opposite direction. The passengers walked across the road, reloaded onto their lowered boat and were on their way to a whole new chain of lakes.

While we watched this new-to-us process, we pondered whether we wanted to kayak a few miles up the Three Lakes chain or the Eagle River chain. We also watched a lazy flock of geese napping this afternoon.

The local advice was to go south on the Three Lake chain one mile to Nine-Mile Creek. (Wow, that's a lot of numbers in that description!) So we aired up the kayak and heading south.

The narrow channel has been dredged deep enough to allow even the biggest boats to safely navigate slowly to the first sizable lake in the Three Lakes Chain. Have we mentioned how much we are loving the blue skies and cool temperatures here?

While the chains were very popular with motor boats, we were looking for a calmer place to paddle. So we soon took a left and entered Nine-mile creek. This actually wasn't part of the chain, which meant we wouldn't have to dodge the motor boats as we kayaked.

At times it was so shallow that we were dragging our kayak on the rocks. But the quiet water meant that we could stop and smell the lily pad flowers.

We didn't use any special camera effects or coloring on the photo below. Doesn't it look like a painting?

The lotus plants were also blooming their butter-colored flowers.

Unlike the motor boats that were speeding on to conquer every lake, paddlers go slow enough to see the intricacies of the inside of the lotus bloom. We have wandered into more of God's wonders!

The most fun was spotting a river otter playing in the water up ahead. By the time Denisa got the camera out, the otter had made it to the cover of the tall grass at the edge of the river. If you know where to look, you can see his brown fur among the grass.

The only other wildlife we found on our paddle was a turtle, napping on a log that had fallen into the creek.

We thought we were seeing black butterflies along the creek. Then we got a closer look and found that they were unusually-colored florescent turquoise dragonflies. 

Those motor boats speeding down a chain of lakes didn't see details like that!

We only made it 0.8 miles down the Nine Mile Creek before we hit a shallow spot and had to turn around. We love the serenity of a glassy creek that mirrors the clouds above it. We had wandered into more of God's wonders on this blue sky day!

We weren't finished kayaking, so we headed down the chain towards Long Lake. We didn't have to worry about shallow water or rocks because this was where the big boats go. We paddled just until we got to the opening of Long Lake. After a view of this bigger lake with its waves and traffic, we turned around and headed back towards the hoist and our put-in spot. 

But instead of packing up the kayak, we tied it to the top of the pickup. With 1,100 lakes in this county, we're certainly not finished kayaking yet! Our camp site is on Laurel Lake (one of the chain lakes) and we had a lovely boat dock in our campground.

We unloaded the kayak and were on the water in minutes for an evening paddle around Laurel Lake.

We were really in search of the loons we heard calling last night. Loons are one of our favorite birds, and Denisa really wanted to get a picture of a loon this trip.

We kayaked beside our camping spot, and we could see the white back end of our little trailer through the pine trees.

We liked the quiet end of Laurel Lake where the water lilies cover the surface of the water and we were protected from the breeze.

But we left our little peaceful cove and headed towards the larger section of Laurel Lake. That took us into the turbulent water caused by the traffic from the motor boats zipping up and down the chain of lakes. It was a little like being on a freeway, dodging the cross traffic. Also this section of the lake was ringed with private residences, each with a floating dock and all the menagerie of lake life. We weren't expecting any more wildlife sightings, but we were glad to see a big bird fly across the horizon.

We watched long enough to confirm that it was a bald eagle. We were lucky enough to see him land in one of the big trees on the far edge of the lake.

Based on the yellow color of his beak, and the pure white feathers on his head, this was a mature adult bald eagle.

Of course we paddled over to get a better look. That adult bald eagle posed nicely for us with the blue sky background in that tall pine.

We paddled for 3.3 miles on the evening's loon hunt, jutting into every quiet cove and around the curves. We went all the way into the next lake in the chain--Medicine Lake. But we didn't see even one loon.

By this time the sun was getting low in the sky. Who knew we were going on a sunset kayak trip? The boat traffic stopped and the wind calmed. Suddenly that big ole chain of lakes became a giant mirror.

Our arms were tired by the time we paddled back into the quiet section of the lake by our national forest campground. We were just a few feet from our dock when we looked to our right and saw an unusual sight.

It was a family of sand hill cranes hanging out on the other side of the tall grass that lined the lake. We didn't take any pictures of the sand hill cranes at the Crain Foundation we toured this week. So it was interesting that we got to take crane pictures in the wild--while sitting in our kayak.

The younger crane still had his golden brown baby feathers.

These were large birds, with the adults standing around five feet tall with a seven foot wing span. Seeing them so close made us feel rather small sitting in our kayak. A pair of cranes usually parents only one chick per year, and this baby must be strong enough to fly all the way across the United States this fall. Our nearness didn't seem to bother them, but they did decide to relocate further away from our kayak. As they walked into the opening, we got our best view of the chick.

That was certainly surprising to see such a big bird so close. They were as surprised to see us as we were to see them. At the Crane Foundation headquarters, we learned that parent cranes are very protective of their little ones. They have been known to attack intruders into their nursery area. We felt a little vulnerable to attack if the parents viewed us as a predator. Being attacked by a bird her same height while sitting in an inflatable boat is the makings of Denisa's worst nightmare.

We'll end this blog at the same place we started it--at the little dock at our forest service campground in the middle of the woods. We didn't have big plans for the day, but we were busy from early morning until well after sunset. We have so enjoyed the blue skies and the cool temperatures of the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest this July day!