Riverway Camp Site #3

 This weekend my  master naturalist group organized a camping trip to William O'Brien state park. We had three camping sites on the Riverway campground. I was in camp site #3.  Even though the weather reports predicted storms I left on Friday after work. Many people stayed home on Friday and came on Saturday instead. I arrived about 6:30 p.m. No rain fell on me that night but rain had poured down earlier in the day. The air was thick with moisture.  Campfires had a hard time getting enough oxygen to stay alight.  I brought my kayak but forgot the paddle.  I made arrangements for a friend to bring me my paddle. During the evening we heard rapid repeating gun fire.  Was this a machine gun nearby?  An AK47 perhaps? This was not a sound I was used to at this state park. I put up my tent and went to bed listening to a pair of barred owls calling.  One of them was so close one time I think the owl must have been right above my tent. I woke up early and went for a walk along the river.  Oh, the Saint Croix is such a beautiful river. All summer it has been running a high volume and only in August is the river down to it's normal level. After a big breakfast at camp site #2 I took a another hike along the river to look around and breath in the fresh scent of white pine.  By the time I got back other people had arrived including my camping partner at camp site #3. Earlier this year the two of us camped in 12 state parks in 9 days so we knew each other.  We had a big lunch and headed over to the beach area to do some volunteering.  We set up tables. One person had a table on wolves. Another couple people had tables on reptiles. A couple people gave away master Naturalist bling and explained the program.  There was a table on blue birds and another table on monarch butterflies. I was at a table with invasive species and dead animals. I was near the table with the pelts of a wolf, a bear, a beaver, a muskrat, a river otter, a badger, a possum, a red fox, a gray fox, a white tail deer, a snowshoe hare, and a bobcat. To the left of me were 12 animal skulls. As kids walked by with (or without) their parents I would wave and yell, "Come see the dead animals."  Funny how dead animals can bring kids over. Between 1 p.m. and 4:30 we had 148 people come and see the dead animals and invasive species.  We cleaned up and had dinner at camp site #2. Taco bars are my favorite! At 7 in the evening one of our members gave a talk at the visitor center on wolves so we all went to that.  When we returned we found a huge campfire going in camp site #3. We made s'mores in several ways.  Instead of graham crackers some people used ice cream cones.  Instead of white marshmallows some people used pink marshmallows flavored like strawberries. A ranger came by and we asked about the gun fire the previous evening. She said the park officials are looking into that. She said it appears a local farmer is hosting shooting events which may or may not be legal so close to a state park.  All the kids at the event had glow sticks.  I had a yellow glow stick around my wrist. I was told I needed it so I would not get lost. While the youngest kids left to go frog hunting I crawled into my sleeping bag and went to sleep. I did not sleep well. Things kept falling around me.  Acorns were coming down but was I also hearing rain fall? Lightening was flashing and I could hear thunder in the distance.  I got up and went for a hike with a friend. As we walked along the river we walked through pockets of hot air and pockets of cold air. When we got back to our campsite we quickly took down our tents and put them in our cars because we were sure it was going to rain hard any second. As we finished up the sky got lighter.  I guess the storm moved into Wisconsin and we weren't going to get wet.  After that we had another huge breakfast. Soon my friend arrived with my paddle so I went kayaking.  I kayaked up river the length of the state park which about a mile and then kayaked back again. The park naturalist was going to give us a talk on how to engage students in nature. I knew I would be a little late but I just had to get a kayak ride in now that I had my paddle.  As I paddled up I saw families standing on the sandstone boulders. Some were exploring. Some were fishing. Some were cooling off their feet in the river. Seeing the parents with their children brought back many memories for me bringing children to this park and hanging out at the same huge boulder, the climbing pine tree by the group camp, and the picnic shelter with a fireplace in it. I was about an hour late to the talk by the park ranger but the group included me anyway. After that we had another huge lunch.  Rain was expected by 2 p.m. so everyone was packing up. I left about 1:30. Oh, what a fun weekend to spend along the Saint  Croix River!