Anybody spent any time in Wisconsin? I am doing a road trip and

>>701027
I'm a Wisconsin Native and I honestly can't say much about our state forests/parks but I can recommend some stuff with a bit more information. When are you taking the road trip? What is your time frame for the trip? Do you want to visit the regions in any particular order?

Another Wisconsin native here. Northern highlands are loaded with lakes if you like fishing, otherwise basically everywhere but the southeast corner is woodlands or very rural

Coming from a native, stay away from the southern half of the state, but if you have to kettle moraine and the lower Wisconsin River are alright. I guess you should probably go see the dells, but it's crawling with Chicagoans in the summer. Apostle Islands is definitely the most /out/ place here. Door county is nice too.

>>701806
So true. I was thinking of recommending Brule River for the Lake Superior Lowlands portion of his trip. Wisconsin has lots of okay hiking and lots of "good" fishing but Brule River has some of the cleanest waters in the U.S. ( I think ) and many different types of trout in plentiful numbers to catch. It is also a good river to go down in a canoe if O.P. is into that sort of thing.

I promise O.P. will have plenty of places to hike in other state parks.

Pic related; not my pic but google images is full of pictures of catches like these from the river.

You'll have to put up with lots of mayfly depending on when you go.

http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/parks/findapark.html and click on the tree next to "Brule River" to see park details.

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>>701817
Oh, forgot to mention you can also click on anything with red or blue. The map isn't complete though and depending on how this thread goes I may clue you in to one of the places the map fails to have.

>>701811
The southern half of the state isn't that bad but I agree a lot of it isn't worth a second trip.

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>>701817
aand I also forgot the pic. I'm not doing so hot tonight. Here it is.

>>701825
Aand that map only lets you click the shit if you are on the map's website.

Fuck yeah Wisconsin thread. A lot has been covered by these other upstanding wiscofags, but I will give you my perspective too because fuck it. I love my state.

If you want to experience the Western Uplands, aka the Driftless region, named because it was untouched by glaciers during the Ice Age, the best place to do so is the Kickapoo River valley area. There is a state park, Wildcat Mountain, there that is solid. However, the Kickapoo is best experienced on a canoe or a kayak. There are a shit load of outfitters if you do not plan on bringing your own. It is not a particularly fast river, but it has its moments. The scenery is great. The area also has quality trout streams, with Brown Trout and native Brook trout being the most popular.

The Eastern Ridges and Lowlands area has the most population density, so it's harder to get away from people there. Kettle Moraine is your best bet inland because it has a more diverse natural area than most other parks in that part. I do recommend spending time on the Lake Michigan shoreline. Another anon mentioned Door County which is a popular, but often crowded area. Otherwise Kohler-Andre State Park and Harrington Beach State Park are nice parks on the shore. But very popular.

>>701893
Central Plain region is boring as shit. If you drive north from Madison, it's like two and a half hours of flat as fuck farmland until you hit the Northwoods and then it's awesome again. That said, I'm a big fan of the Black River State Forest which is partly in the Central Plain area. It is fairly large, not the largest chunk of public land in the state but large enough for dispersed camping and a variety of wildlife and other cool shit. I go grouse hunting there during the winter.

>>701894
Northern Highland is a great place to go /out/. It's got a bit of everything except mountain climbing because this is Wisconsin and we don't have mountains. If you like fishing, the area around Minoqua, WI has the highest concentration of lakes in the state, which includes the Northern Highland American Legion State Forest. Long as name, great public land. It's huge, there are a ton of places to camp (both dispersed and car) lots of places that are secluded. Also worth mentioning is the Nicolet-Chequamegon National Forest. The eastern part is Nicolet, which is riddled with trout streams and wild (undammed) rivers and just tons of forest. The Western part if Chequamegon, which is big, meandering rivers and lots of lakes. Both are worth checking out.

>>701899
Last, but certainly not Least is the Lake Superior Lowlands. This is my favorite part of the state. >>701828 mentioned the Bois Brule River, and he is 100% correct. it has some of the greatest trout fishing east of the Mississippi. It has canoeing and kayaking complete with rapids up to I think a Class IV designation. It's fucking awesome.

Then of course >>701811 mentioned the Apostle Islands. Awesome place. Madeleine Island, the biggest one, gets the most traffic because a ferry goes straight to it, as well as the Lake Superior Ice Road during the winter. Sea Kayaking the islands is fun, especially because you can camp out on the islands. And every year (maybe not this past one because it's so mild) for a few weeks the sea caves are accessible by foot during the winter ( you can kayak them during open water too). They're on the main peninsula and definitely worth the crowds that gather when they are accessible by foot.

>>701027
>Any opinions? is it worth checking out?
Avoid the beaver dams. Trust me on this. From a story I sent to someone else:

It was during the middle of summer and hot as hell out, and because we were in a wetland it was humid and the water would reflect the sun on to you, enough so that I was pissing blood on the second day of the trip due to dehydration. A few more days in to the trip in the late afternoon me and a couple (in both senses of the term) of adults were tired and were going to break off from the main group of a dozen or so people and head back early to the camp on a island. Well since I was a kid, and was having problems saying hydrated, I wasnt moving as fast as them, and they apparently didnt notice or didnt care so I got separated from them. I wasnt really paying attention when we left camp, so now I was lost in the middle of the fucking wetlands, and was losing daylight rapidly. If it was the woods it wouldn’t have been nearly as bad, I could have at least quickly built shelter between the canoe and some branches and pete moss, but no, i had to get lost on the water. There were only a handful of islands here, and the closest thing you could call ground was these large patches of pete moss, which were often strong enough to support your weight, but would sink an inch or two below the water line when you walked on them.

I knew enough from going there before and the boy scouts to know how fucked I was. Besides the t-shirt and shorts I was wearing, all I had with me was a metal canteen with half a quart of water, a swiss army knife and a wind breaker. So I sat around feeling sorry for myself and trying to think of wether I should stay there and hope they send out a search party, or keep moving and possible get even more lost. No compass, no map, and the grasses, cat tails and other shit that grew there were tall enough that I couldn’t see over them for any appreciable distance if I stood up in my canoe.

1/?

>>701921
The prospect of having to spend the night in a canoe seemed pretty shitty and I was going to run out of water soon and go back to pissing blood, so I decided to keep moving.

So I paddled and paddled and paddled in the general direction I thought the island was in, but was never really sure, because the waterway snaked through the gasses, and pete moss, and there were constant turns, so it was easy to get lost. What was even worse is that there were fucking beaver dams everywhere. Some were small and barely above the waterline, and others were 4-6 feet tall. You’d have to climb up them, and carry the canoe and your gear with you. This is a lot harder when youre a kid, and that they gave us fiberglass canoes instead of light weight aluminum canoes, didnt help either. I’m not sure how much you know about beaver dams, but if a hippie ever tells you that beavers are natures architects, dont listen to them, they’re full of shit. Those dams are nothing more than haphazard piles of rotting sticks. So while I was climbing over one there was a loud cracking sound and I fell inside of it up to my waist. I’m sure you’ve never been in a beaver dam, but i’ll tell you, there is nothing good inside of one, its full of leeches and misery, but mostly leeches. I manage to toss the canoe over the otherwise of the dam, and pull myself out. I look down and my legs are cut up and covered in a couple dozen leeches. Thanks god for making a shitty day even worse.

So I keep going, keep scaling dams and magically in the distance see some tree tops. I head over to them and find its the island our camp was on. I ended up yelling at those adults who abandoned me, and sat by the fire burning leeches that were now swollen with my blood off my legs. Thankfully I didnt get an infection from my cut up legs and the murky water.

2/?

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>>701922
My dad and Tamarack Song werent exactly pleased that they abandoned a kid in the middle of no where either. But the rest of the trip was uneventful so besides that and the whole pissing blood thing, I guess I had a good time. I have a pic of me after the trip which i’d send you but its in a box underneath a ton of other boxes, and i’m not really motivated enough to dig it out, so attached is a pic of when I went up there to dispose of part of my fathers remains, my little brother, Tamarack, his wife (forgot her name) and me. Please ignore the horrible hair, I had to cut it for a job I didnt get, and I had spent a few days sleeping outdoors in a improvised shelter. And this is why I fucking hate god damned beavers. They are literally the furried jew, just look at it, hunched over, the beady eyes, rubbing its hands together, disproportionately large noses, hoarding all the timber it can get its webbed feet on so the dumb goy animals can’t have any? It is literally the jew of the animal kingdom, they even wear yamakas!

3/3

>>701893
I'm checking out the Driftless Region for sure. What is the best hiking out there? I'm seeing Governor Dodge State Park and Wildcat Mountain State Park. Any trail suggestions?

>>701825
A lot of the driftless region parks look sick

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Alrighty, I like the way the course of this thread is going so I'm going to name something NOT on the map I posted earlier.

This just might be the NICEST place near a crowded community you can find in Wisconsin.
I have a lot of fond memories of this place so I don't want it fucked up by travelers but you guys seem to be alright. This is by no means an overnight-destination but it may be worth setting aside a few hours to walk around as a rest-stop during your traveling. I think this technically is in the Eastern Ridges & Lowlands but because it isn't on the big map I posted before you'll mostly encounter locals if you visit and I can't recall it having ever being busy on a weekday aside from when schools were field-tripping.

http://www.1000islandsenvironmentalcenter.org/

>>702175
Can confirm. Not anything to go out of your way for but it certainly isn't a bad place to stretch your legs if you planned your route near the area..

>>702096
I'll bump this thread back. I was up around Rhinelander/Tomahawk area ice fishing this weekend before the game fish season closed.

Governor Dodge is a nice state park in my opinion, but it is not very driftless. Quite a few hiking trails though. Wildcat Mountain has a solid trail system, but it's not super extensive because the park is not that big. But, the views down to the Kickapoo River are pretty fucking awesome.

Wyalusing State Park is another good one. On the Mississippi River, where the Wisconsin River meets it. Lots of bluffs to hike around. Also, Timber rattlesnakes. Devil's Lake State Park is the most popular state park in the state and It has good hiking trails too. Plus, timber rattlesnakes.

>>702175
Dude. Yes. I grew up in the Fox Valley and 1000 islands is one of my favorite stops there. I used to go eagle watching there with my family in the winter because that section of the Fox River doesn't freeze and a bunch of eagles nest there. There is also this place that is in Appleton, which is a nice green space with a similar feel to 1000 islands: http://www.bubolzpreserve.org/

>>701811
Apart from the fibs, what's wrong with the southern half?

Another Wisconsinite. Most of the area around the Eastern Ridges and Lowlands are taken up by farms, and what isn't used for farming tends to be marsh. High Cliff State Park sits on a ridge overlooking Lake Winnebago and is a favorite of mine (I just like looking out over the lake to Oshkosh).

The Northern Highlands are pretty neat, and there is a lot up there I haven't seen yet. The only park I've been to up in that region is Granite Peak (Formerly "Rib Mountain"), It's a nice and tall wooded hill with a ski slope. I haven't seen it since I was a kid, but I remember it being pretty damn cool.

Nelson Dewey State Park sits on a hill by the Mississippi River. I liked hiking around it, but the view to the south is kinda spoiled by a coal power plant and the surrounding township. Just keep looking upriver if you don't want to offend your eyes.

>>705018
It's mostly farmland and cities, so not the /out/est places in the state. It's where most of the people live, too, with four of the five largest cities in the state found there (Milwaukee, Madison, Waukesha, Kenosha). There are a lot of /out/ opportunities like trails, conservancies, wildlife areas, state parks and the like, but they aren't nearly as secluded or removed from civilization. Most are well kept and nice, just probably more crowded than your average sc/out/ prefers

>>704800
Muh nigga.

I fish in Rheinlander all the time. Parents own a cabin on Flannery Lake.

For this thread, I recommend doing it in the summer, plenty of county fairs, camping is mint, lost of attractions open.

> DePere WI here boys!

>>701027
Wisconsinbro here, our forests are the creepiest fucking forests around, just a warning.

>>701027
I was born in WI, but I moved down to AL and still have family up there.

All of my heritage comes from Hartford / Madison, so I might not be of much help.

Just stopping by because I'm happy to see fellow Wisconsinites. Located in the SE but spend a lot of time in Marinette county

western wisconsin master race

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Great to read about our beautiful state from others that love it.

If anyone is around up north in late august or early september wild rice harvesting is worth doing.

Went two years ago and spent half a week in a canoe surrounded by by 3-7 foot aquatic grasses loaded with one of the best foods in the state.
Bald eagles were the only other souls on the lake.

Ricing ain't a garden variety wild food and it's not the "wild" rice at most stores - the kind harvested by tractors in flooded CA fields.
On a good day, two people can pull 100 lbs.

$9 for an annual license (residents only).

Most locals have a friend who riced once but don't know much about it.

GLIFWC ( d0t ) org updates maps on the status of rice beds in early august.

Have a native process it for you

Happy ricing