You Call this R&R?

This morning I got thinking of things coming up and decided to ask the family if they'd like to go hiking over at Devil's Lake, Baraboo WI?  We figured that it had been about 10 years since we've ventured over there.  During our drive over we picked up munchies and drinks, at this time the mood was upbeat and full of laughter.  Little did any of us know what was in store for us.

 

The day was beautiful, a little humid but under the coolness of the trees it felt perfect.  So on our hike we went.  Climbing up and up and up.  Mom, Dad and 8 kids in tow.  

We kept climbing up until we saw this...

To the right you can see the brown building where we started out.  After sitting there a while we noticed a pair of bald eagles flying around...how cool was that?  That was something none of us have ever seen before.  Then it was onto the rest of the trail.  We wanted to circle around the whole lake.  So we moved on...right on off the path and into a patch of poison ivy.  Luckily no one was affected.  We were standing right out in the middle of no where.  Mark walked away and found that we were 300' off the path.  That's what happens when everyone just follows the front person.  As the old saying goes "what goes up must come down"...down happen to be a path straight down some tumbled rocks and a waterfall. 

We gingerly made our way down this...every step was thought out.  Then we hear the lead person yell, "I see the bottom"...that was music to our ears.  We never felt so good about walking on flat land.  We climbed up 334' and had to come down 334'...all in this one path. 

This is what we see at the bottom. Beautiful, flat marked out paths!!! At this point we aren't half way yet...but the rest of the hike is FLAT!!!

So we continued on our way. 

This was the rest of the hike, in and around boulders.  All in all...great day.  Hiked over 3 miles and it took 3 hours and 15 minutes.  By the end it was more like 8 kids with mom and dad in tow.  LOL  Now we are talking about taking grandma and grandpa along and spend 2 days.