2023 Family 350 Day 3 - Bugs Blueberries and Worms

After morning coffee I headed out with my sisters to the Wilderness State Park.  My phone GPS routed us to the south end of the park, which wasn't the original plan, but we went with it.  

We parked at the trail head and headed north on one of the trails.  It was a narrow trail but with a little bit of everything.  Lots of elevation changes, quiet wooded areas and much greenery - including tons of ferns.

In a few cases, we found company.  These guys have much work to do since the bugs were quite bad.

There was also quite the crop of wild blueberries growing.  I expected to see bears, but didn't see any evidence of large mammals, even deer.

We eventually made our way to the Sturgeon Bay Trail and walked it.  We didn't get much in the way of views of the lake, but it was still pretty.  We briefly interrupted a couple in one of the cabins, until making our way down to the bay.  By this point the wind was blowing and the shallow bay was on the wavy side.

Since we started at the south end, it wasn't realistic to do a loop and the hiking ended up being out and back.  It was long enough that it didn't really seem like it was it was an out-n-back hike.

As we made it past one of the swampy ponds a great blue heron flew very close - almost like it was showing off.

When we left, we were the only car at the trail head.  Once we returned there were several other cars, but we had seen almost no one on the trail with the exception of right near the cabins.

We headed to O'Neal Lake since it looked like a good option to allow my nephew to fish.  It definitely appeared to be a good lake as I saw several bluegills swimming right near the dam.  Unfortunately, the road to get to O'Neal Lake was probably not best for a Prius.  It wasn't terrible, but I suspect my brother would not have liked it.

The lake itself was both deserted and gorgeous.

We drove south a little farther for gas and to ask for other options for nephew fishing.  We got some leads, but nothing really stuck out as a good option except the fish hatchery.  That would have been a good option, but the catch-and-release only happens on certain days.

After a bit more driving, we headed back to the house where I was able to corner our Host who gave some additional advice on where to fish.  This led to worm hunting which was far more difficult than it should have been.  But Big Sis and I were able to find at least a starting group of worms.