I have to admit, I'm a little hesitant to write this journal entry. One of my most favorite places to go in Wisconsin seems to be a hidden jem, and it'd be nice if it'd stay that way, but it's too good not to talk about. Marrying into the Stowell family was a further entry into the outdoors life that I already loved. I've been a deer and turkey hunter since I was old enough to take hunter's safety and have enjoyed fishing all of my life, especially with Grandma Toby, but I never really camped much until I met Ralph. From early on we always went camping every summer, his parents moved up to northern Wisconsin while he was in college and his mother works for the Flambeau River State Forest. It's always been a fun way to enjoy our outdoor activities up at the Flambeau and get in a visit to Ralph's parents. That being said, one of our favorite campgrounds is at Connor's Lake in the Flambeau River State Forest. It's a small beautiful campground and actually pretty quiet. There's another campground at the forest nearby called Lake of the Pines. Both campgrounds are beautiful and sit right along two really nice lakes. 

When our kids were little, Ralph and I had a completely awful experience camping with our oldest two boys. Picture a group of 15 tents, a complete tent city you could say and ours was right in the middle with us and a 2-year-old and a 1-year-old, who by the way had never camped before. Let's just say the crying baby didn't like the idea of sleeping in the tent and didn't give up telling us about it for... the entire night. Our tenting neighbors were good sports and laughed about it the next morning, but we were sleep deprived parents who were not overjoyed by our first camping with kids experience. :) So we held off on camping with the kids when they were babies and went with our college buddies, until the past few years. Our college buddies now all have four kids as well, making it a group of 12 kids all the same age, and so we all go together and have a great time. 

Connor's Lake has been the campground we have gone to most years and is especially nice, with a shallow swimming area and a nice sandy beach, and again not a big crowd. The past few years our whole group of kids have really found kayaking fun and are entertained with it for the whole time we're there. Our kids look forward to this camping trip every summer.

So when hearing that Discover Wisconsin is having a photo contest highlighting some great places around Wisconsin, I thought it'd be fun to enter some from our Flambeau River State Forest trips.  I entered a few pictures from those camping and kayaking excursions and you can vote for them if you'd like, but just go check out the photos, there are some amazing photographers out there traveling the state. :)

Here's a link to one of my photos, http://a.pgtb.me/Qd5zRJ/nQ9TC?w=66624273&e=188129926. Or on Facebook you can like the Discover Wisconsin page and see the entries there. 

It takes about five hours to drive up to this campground from our home, but it's well worth the trip. Happy paddling. :)