Summer Vacation - Part 2

After our time in Wisconsin Dells, we continued driving northward and arrived at the Porcupine Mountains.  It's still a 5 hour drive north, so it took nearly all day.

Here is a blowup of the Porcupine Mountains - it's a big area.

The workers at the Porcupine Mountains Visitor's Center were very helpful.  We had many questions, and they answered them all.  We drove to our trailhead for the short hike to our Yurt, and were bombarded with mosquitoes.  We changed quickly into our Permethrin treated clothing.

It was a quick and easy half mile hike to our yurt.  Most of the trail was a muddy and rutty path for a pickup truck.

At the Yurt, the mosquitoes were worse.  We had to put on our headnets that we would wear for the next 6 days.  You might think it is uncomfortable, but it's really not as seen by this guy's expression:

Our Yurt was awesome.  It is a soft-sided canvas cylinder with a cone on top.

The structure of the Yurt is this collapsible wooden "mesh".  Vinyl windows zipped up and down, and made for good ventilation.  There are a total of 4 beds.

Also in the Yurt is a small wood stove.  We didn't use it, but it would be cozy in wintertime.

Outside of the Yurt is a green metal Bear Box.  We stashed all our stinky stuff in here for the night - food, toiletries, tooth paste, campstove fuel.  Bears love all that stuff, but can't get into the box.

With headnets on, we had a campfire to cook hotdogs and s'mores for dessert.  It was a great day.

Side Note - The hardest thing with the headnets is remembering to remove them before taking a bite of your s'more.