title: Camping on Birthday Hill
start: 2020-10-16
end: 2020-10-19

<p>
David, Nancy, and Blaise spent some time enjoying the outdoors of Southern Wisconsin the weekend of October 16th, 2020.
</p>

<p>
On Friday Night David and Nancy camped at Yellowstone Lake State Park near Blanchardville.
The campsite was nicely laid out with good privacy from adjacent campers, but there were some challenges.
It was very cold and their tent and sleeping bags were not good enough to keep warm.
A dog somewhere in the campsite area was barking for hours and adjacent campers made some noise.
Blaise arrived at the campsite early next morning for breakfast.
</p>

<figure>
  <img src="./campsite.jpg">
  <figcpation>David, Nancy, and Karaby have breakfast at their campsite in yellowstone lake.</figcaption>
</figure>

<figure>
  <img src="./yellowstone-lake.jpg">
  <figcpation>Blaise poses in front of yellowstone lake.</figcaption>
</figure>

<p>
The family drove from the state park to the Brooklyn Segment of the Ice Age Trail.
Like the day before, they drove on many small county roads which were very rural.
On this trip they saw an Amish man harvesting his crops using 6 donkeys and an old fashioned harvesting machine.
</p>

<p>
They arrived at the southern end of their planned hike, had a stand up lunch and then drove to the northern end of the planned hike.
It was only a 6 mile hike but they planned to do a short piece on Saturday and the remainder on Sunday, camping at a designated camping are on the trail Saturday night.
</p>

<figure>
  <img src="./IAT-67f.jpg">
  <figcaption>Northern section of the hike. The family began their hike at the parking log where the IAT crosses Frenchtown Rd. They camped at the dispersed site near DA33.</figcaption>
</figure>

<figure>
  <img src="./start.jpg">
  <figcpation>Nancy and David begin hiking.</figcaption>
</figure>

<figure>
  <img src="./corn.jpg">
  <figcpation>Nancy stands on the corn trail.</figcaption>
</figure>

<figure>
  <img src="./fields.jpg">
  <figcpation>The trail crosses across a field. The trail was not too difficult but there was a strong wind.</figcaption>
</figure>

<figure>
  <img src="./blaze.jpg">
  <figcpation>A yellow blaze: the Ice Age Trail.</figcaption>
</figure>

<figure>
  <img src="./nancy-grass.jpg">
  <figcpation>Nancy walks through the tall grass.</figcaption>
</figure>

<figure>
  <img src="./blaise-grass.jpg">
  <figcpation>Blaise poses in the tall grass.</figcaption>
</figure>

<figure>
  <img src="./yellow-flowers.jpg">
  <figcpation>Yellow flowers.</figcaption>
</figure>

<figure>
  <img src="./purple-flower.jpg">
  <figcpation>Purple flowers.</figcaption>
</figure>

<figure>
  <img src="./foliage.jpg">
  <figcpation>October foliage.</figcaption>
</figure>

<p>
The hike to the camping site was nice weather wise and scenery wise but did have some strong wind.
The campsite is on the top of a hill referred to as "birthday hill" by locals.
After they set up camp they had an early dinner and tried to retire very early (5:00 pm ish).
</p>

<figure>
  <img src="./birthday-hill.jpg">
  <figcpation>Camping at Birthday Hill.</figcaption>
</figure>

<figure>
  <img src="./dinner.jpg">
  <figcpation>Dinner.</figcaption>
</figure>

<figure>
  <img src="./tent.jpg">
  <figcpation>Blaise's tent.</figcaption>
</figure>

<p>
At 8:00 pm they were not able to sleep for the night, having just taken a semi nap.
Further the weather was surprisingly mild, but about to get very bad in the early morning.
So they broke up the camping stuff and hiked the remaining 4 miles in the dark before escaping to Madison.
</p>

<figure>
  <img src="./IAT-68f.jpg">
  <figcaption>Southern section of the hike. The family hiked from DA33 to the parking lot at Hughes Rd.</figcaption>
</figure>