The Third Year Of Pike Lake Camp Hosting, BlaaaH!

BlaaaaH! The U.S. Weather Service in Sullivan has issued a severe weather warning for the following areas: Northern Dodge, Fond Du Lac, and all of Sheboygan County. This storm is moving in a north northwesterly direction and is capable of producing winds in excess of 70 miles an hour. This storm has a history of producing golf ball size hail. This a dangerous storm and if you are in its path take cover immediately. The storm will be in Beaver Dam at 7:10 P.M. and so the warning drones on but it is a little to the north of me I take note but not immediate shelter. This is my month as a camp host volunteer at Pike Lake State Forest. BlaaaaH! The U.S. Weather Service in Sullivan has issued a severe thunder storm warning for the following areas: Walworth, Racine, and Southern Milwaukee County. That one’s way south of me so it is no concern here. Pike lake State Forest is located in Central Washington County between the towns of Hartford and Slinger. This beautiful state forest is more or less in the center of Wisconsin’s Kettle Moraine area. This is my third year as a camp host and being such an old experienced hand at this job I’m feeling that nothing can happen to surprise me.

Fran and I drove out to the park a couple weeks before our assigned arrival time. The park is only a half hour from our home so it is very convenient. We meet with the ranger, Terry and he casually tells us that the host for July will not be coming this year and asks if we would be interested in staying for an additional month? We had already agreed to come back for September and this would mean three months camp hosting. BlaaaaH! The U.S. Weather Service in Sullivan has issued a severe weather warning for the following areas: Dane and Jefferson counties. Well now those are directly west of me I better keep and eye out for this one. Fran and I talked about July and agreed to take the first two weeks since Terry and Joe, the rangers thought they could get someone for the last two weeks. We arrived on May 27 and the weather was beautiful. My daughter Rachel came along to help me set up. I was able to back Chummy into the exact same tire spots he sat in last year and soon he was level. Within a few minutes the campsite took on the comfortable lived in look with the Lafumas surrounding the firepit and the goofy lights adorning the screen house. The only problem was that the lights would not turn on. I had installed a new power converter in Chummy which was working well in the driveway but was not working here in the campground. I spent my first night trying to figure out why my power converter was throwing off 30 volts when I plugged it in. Eventually I read the directions and found the converter was bad. A call to the company had a new one in route and a battery charger had Chummy up and running on temporary power. BlaaaaH! The U.S. Weather Service in Sullivan has issued a severe weather warning for the following areas: Northern Waukesha, Washington, and Ozaukee counties. This storm is moving in a north northeast path and will be in the following communities: Hartford 9:00 P.M., Slinger 9:20 P.M.. This is a dangerous storm capable of producing winds up to 75 miles per hour and pea size hail. If you are in the path of this storm take cover immediately.

There is a knock at the door and Brett the ranger is standing in the rain asking if I heard the warning? I tell him yes. He says all the campers have been notified. He runs back to his truck and takes off down the road. The storm hits hard. I hear the thunder and the lightening turns the night to day. The rain is deafening against Chummy’s aluminum roof and canvass awning. No hail just melted water. After about twenty minutes of this pounding the storm lets up to continue as a steady drenching. A couple hours of this drenching persists before it lets off to a tree rain. Tree rain is water captured in the leaf canopy and is now being shaken loose by the wind blowing the storm away. I venture out in the tree rain to check for damage in our camp site and find none. I did remember to put everything away but forgot to cover the firewood. I walk over to the bathroom building and find water rushing over the walkway with large piles of gravel from the roadway. I get the big broom to sweep it away before someone trips and then check the bathrooms, no flooding. There is still distant thunder and Cromwell, our dog is very unhappy to have been left alone inside Chummy. I go back and get him and check out the campground. The campground is situated in a kettle or deep depression surround by tall bluffs. At our campsite we hardly ever get any ground wind, just the tops of the trees will move in a storm. Tent campers are relatively safe and if they have put their tents up correctly they will be dry. The big concern is that a tree or branch would break loose and fall on a tent. The park staff is very diligent in checking for and cutting out dead branches in the campground, but this is always a concern. I find all campers are safe and there is no damage. Brett has already been through and he reminds me we are still under a severe storm watch until 2:00 A.M. as he drives by. I stop and chat with several of the campers about the constant storms, flooding, and severe weather we have been getting for the past weeks. Everyone is in agreement that this has been a highly unusual June for severe weather.

I received my new power converter and installed it in less than an hour. Now my problem was that the circuit breaker was still not holding. Each time I turned on the converter the circuit breaker blew. This time I called the company right away. The tech person suggested I replace the circuit breakers. Well that’s easy for him to say. Here I am parked thirty miles outside of Milwaukee with only small towns around me and thirty one-year-old Airstream circuit breakers. I took one out and started down the road. Place number one sent me to place number two who sent me to place number three who said, "sure we have them." I was shocked but sure enough they did and I bought replacements came back to Chummy put them in and the power converter worked like a charm. I now settled down to what I thought would be a trouble-free six weeks of camp hosting.

There is not a lot a camp host has to do. There are three specific duties. First, I need to be around my site if anyone has questions concerning the campground, park, or area. This does not mean that I need to stay at the site 24/7 but does mean I need to spend some time at the campfire or reading in the screen house. Second I need to clean the campsites after someone checks out. This chore consists mainly of scooping a few ashes from the fire pit and occasionally picking up a piece of forgotten litter. Third, are the reservation tags which require me to know my numbers up to 31 which are the number of campsites we have. I also need to have a command of the days of the month, such as the 23rd comes after the 21st. I have studied these tasks and after three years as a camp host have gained a certain level of proficiency. I do not claim to be an expert. I am working hard at these tasks to become an expert and hope that some year I will be able to report that I have achieved that level. The one chore which holds me back each year is starting the garbage dumpster on fire. This is not a good thing for a camp host to do but now for two years running I have managed to set it blazing. In all fairness last year the fire department was called to put out the fire and this year the park maintenance staff was able to handle the fire. I am getting better, next year I may be able to put it out by myself and the year after that who knows maybe I will not even set it on fire. BlaaaaH! The U.S. Weather Service in Sullivan has issued a severe weather warning for the following areas: Walworth, Racine and Kenosha counties, too far south.

Speaking of fires. This July 4th the park needed someone to dress up in the Smokey Bear costume to parade around the campground and beach area. I became that someone. The temperature was nearing 90 and I was going to climb into a furry suit with a head. This was my penance for the dumpster fires. The suit arrived outside Chummy’s door and I began to get dressed. I saw Cromwell, my dog inside the screen door staring out at me probably wondering what I was doing. In retrospect I now know that he was trying to tell me what it was like to wear a fur coat on a hot sunny day. With all the fur in place and the head plopped securely over my head I began walking around the campground greeting the campers and inspecting the campfires. I say greet but as you know Smokey does not talk and being a friendly bear he does not growl. When Smokey returned to Chummy Elizabeth and Sammy, two of my grandchildren were there. Sammy being the sophisticated six year old tried not to be excited but Elizabeth was unsure what to think especially when Smokey broke his silence and he sounded like grandpa. Smokey was next loaded into the back of a pickup truck and hauled to the beach picnic area. The place was stuffed with kids, picnickers, swimmers, and sunbathers. I started right in with the first group of picnickers, pausing to play some volleyball and have pictures taken with many family members. Smokey had his picture taken so many times that day and with so many people, kids, parents, old people, young people, ugly people, good-looking people. There were tall people, short people, fat people, thin people wanting a lasting memory with Smokey. Another group had people with lots of hair and bald people. People with tattoos and those with none at all. How do I know? I don’t, because I could see nothing out the two eye slits which had filled with sweat and did I mention my glasses would not fit under Smokey’s head? I would hear someone say: "can we get your picture?" And feel a presence of a person next to me. I would place Smokey’s sweaty arm over their shoulder or head and wait until the picture was completed. I would then retract my dripping fur leaving them soaked but happy since they just had a lasting memory taken with Smokey. I only hope that Smokey was facing the correct way for each photo and that his paw did not grope any of his female partners.

When each and every person at the picnic area had been properly Smokied, I retreated toward the back of the pickup truck which was parked on the other side of the treeless, sunbaked parking lot. Smokey trudged by the parked cars as if he was coming from a four thousand-acre forest fire he had fought by himself. Each step Smokey took was a shovel of tough packed dirt dug out of a mile long fire line. Forcing himself forward Smokey knew that relief lay in sitting down on that hot sun soaked pick up bed which would take him to a place he could finally take off the fur suit. There is this rule that Smokey cannot undress in public. It is better for the person wearing the suit to die of a heat stroke than for some little kid or middle-aged woman to find out that this fur coated thing was not real but only a person walking around in a Smokey costume. Who am I to question such a well-thought out rule? I kept on placing a foot ahead of another foot. Blinded by sweat, near death by heat, past exhaustion from lack of hydration, I reached the truck. While we drove to my disrobing point, I was no longer able to wave at the passing cars. My arm had gained too much weight with excreted body fluids. When the truck stopped, I dove out and made a life saving dash inside the office building. Once inside I wrenched off Smokey’s head and gulped the first sweat breath of air I had for hours. I stood propped against the counter while Terry peeled away the layers of soaked Smokey costume. My daughter and granddaughter, Elizabeth arrived to drive me back to Chummy. BlaaaaH! The U.S. Weather Service in Sullivan has issued a severe weather warning for the following areas: Dodge, Fond Du Lac, and Sheboygan counties. Too far north but I bet we will get some rain.

Elizabeth is my newest granddaughter and she was conceived of, well sort of, right here at Pike Lake State Forest. Rachel and I were at campsite, #21 to be exact just talking. She was quite frustrated over the latest doctor’s report on why she and David, her husband had not been able to become pregnant. This same scenario had been going on for a couple years. This time I asked her if they had ever thought about adopting? That was the beginning of a quest of almost three years which ended on March 31, 2008 when Elizabeth was placed into Rachel’s arms in Nanjing, China. Sometime during the process Rachel and David decided to have a celebration at Pike Lake and invite all the many relatives and friends who had helped and supported them during this long quest. This was the year for the celebration and people poured in from all over the country. David’s parents and brother came from Texas, his other brother and family came from Pennsylvania, Fran’s cousin flew in from Minnesota, and all of the Chicago relatives made the drive for the big day. All of these out of town people were joined by many local friends and we filled the large shelter. Elizabeth knew she was the star of the show and stayed awake for the entire party. The weather even co-operated and it was not until we started the cleanup that we had our first storm of the day.

The highpoint of the day was Elizabeth’s dedication. In our family we have a blend of religious traditions so instead of baptism we have a dedication. I wrote the liturgy for Sam’s dedication and used the same one for our granddaughter, Jenna and now Elizabeth is the third to be dedicated to God with this liturgy. Her other grandfather, Norm and I, officiated at the dedication. It was very special to have him participate. Elizabeth was a little angel during the dedication but Sammy stole the show with his "announcements." He began by explaining where the toys were and how to use them. Next, he gave a description of where everything was located, like, food, toilets and the beach. Finally he ended by telling the adults they could just sit and "chatter." We adults followed his instructions and spent the rest of the day chattering. The kids went swimming and found the toys Sammy had pointed out to them. By time the storms habitually moved in everyone was spent and ready to start the cleanup.

BlaaaaH! The U.S. Weather Service in Sullivan has issued a severe weather warning for the following areas: Jefferson and Waukesha counties. This storm is traveling north northeast and has a history of producing winds up to 75 miles per hour and baseball size hail. If you are in the path of this storm take immediate shelter. Well I could be in the path if the storm continues to track the same direction but there is no warning out here just a watch. Each year when I am camp hosting I get to meet many interesting and some not to interesting people. First let me tell you about the not to interesting people. This may not be a fair description since they are the majority of campers we get in our park. These uninteresting people usually arrive on Friday afternoon. They will be driving some breed of minivan with two or three car seats attached to the rear seat and a child strapped into each one. They will either pitch a tent or put up their small pop-up camper, put plastic toys out for the younger children and send the older ones off on their bikes. Next they will place chairs around the fire pit and start a fire using the wood purchased at the BP gas station across the road. Sometime during the weekend they will pack the family into their minivan and drive down to the beach area. On Saturday morning after the father takes the boys to the bathroom and the mother takes the girls they will gather for a hike in the woods. The customary destination is our observation tower which is close enough for little legs to carry them there and back. Sunday morning is tear down time and by 10:00 they are on their way home. The family has experienced a perfect weekend camping and has a pocket full of memories, enough to last until their next camping trip. BlaaaaH! The U.S. Weather Service in Sullivan has issued a tornado warning for the following areas: western Dodge and central Washington counties. A tornado has been spotted on the ground two miles east of Watertown heading in a northeasterly direction. The following communities are in its path, Ashippun, Erin, Hartford. If you are in the path of this tornado take immediate shelter. Well that’s coming toward me. Brent is driving through the campground with his lights flashing and loud speaker ordering us all to take shelter in the bathrooms. There are not many campers in the campground tonight so I’ll take Cromwell with me. I grab the park’s phone and Cromwell’s leash as we dash out the door and run over to the bathrooms. I let the people there know what I heard on the weather radio and assured them I did have the park phone if the rangers needed to get in touch with us. The storm passed quickly, Brent was giving the all clear. Those are the uninteresting people and they are about 95% of the people we get in the campground.

The uninteresting people know how to pitch their tent or back up their camper. They understand that not every electrical convenience from home can be brought and plugged into that little outlet on the post in the campsite. They always remember to bring their tent stakes, tent poles, and tents. They would never use their tent rain fly as a ground cover and wonder why they got wet when it rained. The uninteresting people have perfect children who would never think of spending thirty-six hours screeching to go home. BlaaaaH! The U.S. Weather Service in Sullivan has issued a severe weather warning for the following areas: Kenosha, Walworth and Racine counties. That’s south of me. The uninteresting people come and go without me even knowing they were here. Then there are the interesting people. Yes, it is true a guy actually did use his rain fly as a ground cover and it rained hard that night. He and his female companion were drenched when the rain found its way through the large air vent holes on all four sides of the tent top. The next day he went out and bought plastic sheeting to cover the tent, refusing to believe he had pitched the tent wrong. He covered the tent with two layers of plastic sheeting and of course duct tape to hold it in place. That night he and his female companion roasted in their tent. Then there was the man who could not wait for a line of cars bringing a cross country team here to camp for the night to pass. He drove his $200,000 motor home over a boulder causing thousands of dollars of damage not to mention what he did to the boulder which is now permanently scarred. These are the interesting people, just enough of them to keep me entertained. BlaaaaH! The U.S. Weather Service in Sullivan has issued a severe weather warning for the following areas: Dodge, Washington and Ozaukee counties. This storm is moving easterly and is capable of producing heavy rains in excess of four to 5 inches. The storm has a history of producing winds up to 75 miles per hour. This is a dangerous storm and if you are in the path of this storm take cover immediately. Well I am in the path of this storm, and I better keep my ear to the weather radio.

Interesting people are not always idiots. One afternoon Cromwell and I were cruising through the campground in constant search for litter when we encountered this couple arguing over backing the truck up to their camper. I stopped and directed the husband up to the hitch on the first attempt. The wife asked in incredulous tones how I did that? I replied that I was not married to him. They both laughed. There was this nice couple from Ohio moving to Milwaukee who needed help with their tent. They used the campground as a base while apartment hunting in Milwaukee. Then there was this French speaking couple from Montreal who came to sight see in Milwaukee and see a Brewers game. They had lots of questions about the city and what to see and how to get there. BlaaaaH! The U.S. Weather Service in Sullivan has issued a flash flood warning for the following areas: Washington and Ozaukee counties. These were the type of people I really enjoyed since they made my job as a host seem important.

I was expecting to see many more people vacationing at the park this year, due to the high gas prices, and there were. Traditionally this has always been a park used by local people within about a fifty-mile radius and mostly on the weekends but this year there were many more families extending their stays into the week. BlaaaaH! The U.S. Weather Service in Sullivan has issued a severe weather warning for the following areas: Racine and Milwaukee counties. That’s south of me. One thing I had noticed last year and became more prevalent this year was smaller and lighter vehicles towing heavy campers. I am sure this is a symptom of the higher gas prices but it is also a dangerous situation. I watched as mini vans strained to pull a trailer up our hills in the campground or back into their sites. The worry would be going down a hill if they had to stop or being caught in the wash of a semi on the interstate. BlaaaaH! The U.S. Weather Service in Sullivan has issued a severe storm warning for the following areas: Washington county. Here we go again.

Bob, the ranger is driving through the campground with his lights on and loudspeaker blaring. I make a quick check of the camp site but since it has been raining for most of the day everything is already under cover. I do notice that the firewood is again uncovered so I go and cover it thinking it like closing the barn door after the cows got out. The rain starts now with a purpose. This is the four to five inch storm and already the ground is saturated and can hold no more water. Cromwell has spent most of the day hiding under Chummy due to the thunder, I crawl under and drag him out to get him inside. Now I am muddy and wet, he is muddy, wet, and greasy. I change into dry clothes for the third time that day. BlaaaaH! The U.S. Weather Service in Sullivan has issued a severe weather warning for the following areas: Waukesha and Milwaukee counties. I am getting tired of these warnings. Cromwell settles into a seat next to me and I get out my book. BlaaaaH! The U.S. Weather Service in Sullivan has issued a severe weather warning for the following areas. I switch the weather radio off, turn on the satellite radio, and find some soothing music. The rain is really coming down hard so I turn the radio louder. Fran calls on the cell phone and I have to go outside to get a good signal. I am standing under our awning yelling into the phone to be heard the water is over my ankles and I see the campsite is flooded. The little chairs we bought for Jenna and Elizabeth are floating. Water is rushing down the bluff, through our screen house under Chummy and out into the road. On the other side it is washing under Rachel and David’s Tent and into the campsite. This heavy rain continues for the next several hours and eventually subsides about 1:30 in the morning. Sometime during the storm I had put a movie into my computer and enjoyed watching Lord of the Rings on a ten-inch screen. My choices were that or Mickey Mouses’ Great Adventures. Frodo, Sam and Smegle helped me take my mind off of the storm.

I woke up early to take a walk around the campground and assess the damage. This was Monday morning and the campground was empty. Most of the campers who were staying over left due to the storm and those coming in never showed. This was fortunate since we had six sites under water and almost every other site showed some wash out. I came back to our site and walked around to find that the water was standing under the wood chips. I called Rachel to let her know about her tent which was essentially standing in a pool of water. She said she would come out and take it down. Terry stopped to tell me that three of the campsites had to be closed and they would bring up loads of rock to fill in the washouts on the other sites. I told him I would sweep the road around the loop and help spread the gravel when they got up here. Thus, we began a push to get the campground open before the weekend. Three days later we got hit with another storm almost as fierce as the last one and with the ground so soaked the water just ran and washed out anything we had tried to place in its way. I stood watching the rain come down and the waters rush by thinking that no matter how we build or what we create, God is still in charge of this creation.

It was Friday morning and everything we had done during the week to ensure the campground would be open was washed out. Three sites had to be closed for the weekend due to water continuing to run through them. By utilizing the overflow and the bicycle sites, plus hoping for a no show all the campers would be guaranteed a place tonight. We began to spread gravel and wood chips on the other sites and I started to sweep the road for the third time that week. When the campers started to arrive, we were still spreading the chips and most were understanding. Our site had to wait until Saturday which was OK with me. My son, Nigel came up on Saturdays with Jenna so he was able to help me spread out a giant mound of chips on our site. The storms continued through June and into July, tapering off toward the middle of July. Eventually the ground dried out enough to open all of the sites and the maintenance men built bridges over the new running creeks on the walking paths so by the beginning of July all of the hiking paths were open. However, there were few people hiking.

The rains awoke millions of mosquitoes and they were swarming in search of a warm-blooded meal. A new dance was born known as the Pike Lake Shuffle it goes like this: You first slap your left arm then your right leg followed by slapping you left cheek with your right hand while wiping your neck with your left hand, stamp your feet three times, take off your hat and wave it in front of your face. You continue to repeat these steps until you reach the safety of a screen house or other indoor sanctuary. The newest snack treat was inhaled mosquito which you were able to sample each time you opened your mouth to speak or breathe. Each night before I went to bed I would attack the curtains, walls, ceilings and floors with two fly swatters eliminating thousands of the eagerly awaiting blood sucking thugs. Even with this frantic killing spree I would awake with my head covered with red welts from their feeding frenzy, my head being the only uncovered part of my body during the night. Every four or five days we would have more rain, just enough to maintain the crop of mosquitos. I had heard somewhere that mosquito larva can last five hundred years before it hatches. I began to think that these mosquitos biting me could be the off spring of the mosquitoes who bit Lewis and Clark, or Father Marquette, or maybe even Chief Blackhawk. I watched as the ten thousandth one landed on my arm stuck in its stinger and began its meal, and wondered who were its parents? Then reality sunk in as I swatted it away realizing I probably was already infected with North, South, East, and West Nile Disease as well as Malaria and every other mosquito born disease. I finally declared war. I purchased six citronella torches and two gallons of citronella. Along with the torches I got myself three second hand long sleeve shirts which I vowed to wear with long pants and socks regardless of the temperatures until these pests were gone or I died. This strategy worked and best of all the rains began to decrease. Eventually I was able to again walk around the campground with just a T-shirt and a pair of shorts and sit outside if I kept the torches lit. I wonder if we used up all of the ancient larva and now only have the new stuff to contend with? Five hundred years from now will somebody get stung by a mosquito to whom I contributed my blood? Those weighty matters can now be put aside since with no rain for almost a week the mosquitos are drying up.

The other welcome omission from my daily routine was the BlaaaaH from the weather radio. We just may have used up all of the rain, hail, and damaging winds which had been stored away and now are in a welcome respite. The campground was now busy every night of the week and not just weekends. My days settled down to chatting with the campers, hiking the trails and taking Cromwell for swims at his beach. Life had taken on a normality which was welcome to this year’s beginning. Soon I had come to my last week, then the village arrived.

This was my last Sunday and Fran and I had finished cleaning all of the sites early in the day so we went down to the beach for a swim. When we got back to the campsite, we had a quiet dinner and sat outside reading. The campground was very quiet, the Sunday arrivals had yet to check in and we were enjoying the peace. Fran left for home about 6:00 and I had a quick supper and Cromwell and I took a walk around the campground which was still mostly empty. I visited with a couple of the newly arrived campers and came back to our site to settle down for a peaceful night of reading. I began to notice there was an increase in auto traffic around the loop in the campground but thought nothing of it. Often we had town people drive through just to start at us campers. Then I started to hear a soft din from the other side of the loop. This din began to increase until it became more of a roar. Suddenly out of the trees from the paths in between the campsites throughout the park emerged children. There were children everywhere from two to twelve years old. The roar became screams and the children multiplied to take over not only the paths in the center of our loop but the paths around the outside of the loop. I was literally surrounded by screaming, running, yelling, jumping, rolling, hopping, and loud, children. It was like something out of a Stephen King novel: Children of the Camp Ground . I searched to see if there was a leader to this pack but could distinguish none. It appeared that this herd had broken loose somewhere on the other side of the campground and then spread untethered and un- supervised. Music was blaring from the top of the hill which was a good sign as to where this herd had broken loose so I called the ranger to see if he could come and lasso this herd back to the corral. The roar was reduced to a dim and the herd were reigning in for the night. However, at 5:30 A.M. the next morning the gate was left open and the herd got out again. The children spread throughout the campground with yells and screams loud enough to curdle milk. Needless to say we got complaints from everyone in the campground except the folks next to me who only spoke Hebrew.

The village turned out to be three families. Each family had a mother and many children. I was never able to count all of them but think the number was close to twenty-five or three hundred. They were all brothers and sisters and cousins and really very cute kids once I got to know them. The rangers took on the task of educating all of them as to how one acts in a camp ground. This education extended to the three adults. Terry gave a talk about being very quiet in the mornings so the animals could sleep. I gave a talk on litter and not throwing cigarette butts on the ground, directed to the adults. The village stayed for the entire week and they became good campers with constant education. I would take groups of them on hikes through the forests and show them the "secret" paths which led to the ponds and the swing.

My last day finally came after two months set up on the same spot it was time to tear down, pack up and ship out. By the time Fran arrived to take me home I had everything packed and ready to move out. We took a nice hike until the mosquitos drove us out of the forest. On my way past the village I handed out litter bags with instructions to the kids on how to walk through the campgrounds and pick up the litter. We hitched up the Saturn to Chummy and started to pull out of the campsite. In my rearview mirror was a group of kids from the village running after Chummy and waving goodbye. I quietly said to myself, "I’ll be back in a few weeks."