It looked like Walt Disney threw up

"It looked like Walt Disney threw up"

This was a phrase my friend Terry would use when something was full of colors. This was the case on our trip to the property this weekend…. The fall colors were just amazing.

Fall is my favorite time of the year. I love the coolness and freshness of the air. I love the color changes of the trees and other vegetation. I love seeing my breath on a cold morning. I love warming up by a campfire. I love having three or four blankets to keep me warm in my bed while the air is chilly. So needless to say, fall is my favorite time to be up at the property.

Lorraine and I had put this date on our calendar for an expected trip in between our busy year. There has been way more of our time committed to "other stuff" than we would like, but this weekend appeared to be one of the few we had open.

We departed around 7:30 AM on Friday morning, and the trip was pretty un-eventful. We stopped at Ski-Hi to get apples and donuts. The view there was spectacular. I expected some muted colors as we travelled up through northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin, but the colors were really starting to pop in those areas also and the colors only intensified as we travelled further north.

We arrived at the property a bit after noon, and after getting things set up we went straight to work. Our purpose on this trip was to continue to widen the driveways and push back the vegetation. It was growing into our driveways and narrowing our paths. Also, when the vegetation grows in, debris that drops from the trees gets pushed to the sides and then become barriers to driving a little wide in places. In addition to this, we need to begin to prepare for the clearing work that will need to occur south of the driveway split to make space for our utility building.

We started on the first leg of the driveway from the road back to the split. The "split" is where the driveway splits into the initial leg that goes to the fire lane, and the second leg that goes back to the campground area. This is also the segment that has rock down. Weed-whacking, pruning and pole sawing was the work of the day, but there was a noticeable difference after our work was completed.

I don't really want to use up our firewood in the Babcox, so we cut up some downed tree limbs back by the clearing to use for our firewood. Deep in the woods where the ticks are waiting.

We went into town to grab chicken at Hansen's, but were disappointed that we had to settle for less-than-broasted chicken for more money. Coupled that with some steakhouse coleslaw and some deviled egg potato salad and it was a decent meal.

We stayed warm by the campfire as the temperature dropped. We were in bed by 10:00, and as the temperature dropped to 27 degrees, it was sure nice to have a heater in the camper and it was nice to load up with blankets to keep us warm.

I slept really well that night, probably due to the cool sleeping conditions. 27 degrees by early Saturday morning, but with some heat in the camper it was quite toasty, although we don't heat it up that much.... probably in the 50's. But that little bit of heat is the difference between a chilly night of sleep and a comfortable but cool night of sleep. I was up around 6:30 and immediately got a nice fire going.

After Lorraine got up she proceeded to cook us up some pre-cooked breakfast burritos and coffee. It was awesome. And then it was back to work. We started at the split, and worked our way back to the fire lane. We wrapped up our work around noon.

We had two things we wanted to check out on this trip. The first was a road detour we took a few years back when Highway 12 was closed due to a new bridge being installed over Allen Creek. My mowers had told me about this other route to get to BRF from the property. We remembered this trip, which travels south on County Road F out of Alma Center, as being a typical driftless view of hills and valleys. We wanted to see this in the fall, and it did not disappoint. Here is a pano-view, but the picture does not do it justice...

We headed into town to get some lunch, and then headed out to our second destination.... Perry Creek Natural Area. I knew about this, but had never gone there. In fact, before we purchased our property and took our vacation in BRF in 2012, we drove by this every day to and from the cabin we were staying in that was on Robinson Creek.

Perry Creek is simply beautiful. The trails are decent, but I could tell in the warmer summer months the mosquitos and ticks will get the better of you. But for nice place to spend an hour or two, it is perfect with much to see. Here are a few pictures.....

Yes, I would highly recommend Perry Creek for a short hike and beautiful scenery. But in the summer you probably need to wear long pants and spray up for mosquitoes and tick avoidance.

We then took off for Oxbow Pond. I love that place, but the fishing seems to be finicky and I spend more time there not catching fish than I do catching fish.

We then headed to the campground to take showers. Since we are into freezing temperatures, the camper has been winterized and we do not have water, so it is the campground showers that we must rely on.

We had to run to the Cenex to purchase a few things at the gift shop, and saw that Stone's Throw Supper Club was open again. We decided to eat supper there. Stone's Throw never disappoints, and we would recommend them for a nice dinner.

Campfire and loading up at night, a good night's sleep, breakfast and on the road in the morning. Another great trip.