Rainmaker

As I look back, I think it should have been an omen for our camping trips.  I refer to our first major family camping trip in July 1999.  It was a five day trip to Pattison State Park, which is south of Superior, WI, and contains Big Manitou Falls, and Little Manitou Falls.  The former mentioned water fall is the tallest in the state of Wisconsin, at 165 feet.  By comparison, the falls at Niagara are only 2' higher, but of course are more massive and have one pretty distinct fall.  In Rainmaker, I do not mean a person who brings in a great deal of business for their firm.  I mean bringing real rain.

Photo of July 1999 photo at Big Manitou Falls.
Mist produced a rainbow

I recall our arrival date at Pattison State Park on that Sunday.  Prior to our way to Superior we were in LaCrosse to have our teeth cleaned, and Saturday night was spent in Hammond, WI with my wife's sister.  From there we made our way on Sunday to Pattison State Park.  Back in those days, of 55 mph speed limits it was about a 6 hour direct trip.  It was late July and we arrived to a sunny, rather warm day for not only for this area of the state, but even down state.  Be as it may, the persons in the camp site we had reserved were still present upon our early afternoon arrival; check out time is 3 pm.  Being warm we decided to visit the falls, and spend the time at the beach along the lake, created by the dam of the river which feeds Big Manitou Falls.  Little Manitou falls is upstream of that dam.

Photo of  July 1999 photo at Big Manitou Falls

As their departure hour approached at 3 pm, we went to the Campsite, and sure enough they were just departing.  We set up camp, and realized that we needed to go to town for some ice for the cooler.  On our way back from Superior with a new load of ice, we noticed some dark storm clouds just to our west.  Well, we got back to camp, and the thunderstorm and rain simply opened from the dark clouds which had moved in over Pattison State Park.  It poured cats and dogs, and possibly even bears, not to mention raccoons.  After the main storm passed, we got out of the tent and water had ponded above my ankles in the campsite and around the tent.  We made our way through water at least that deep to the restroom-shower building and then back for the night.  After you have rain, the water on the leaves then drips off, usually over the course of possibly several hours.  The drip...drip...drip......drip, can be rather annoying.  When we awoke the next morning the bright blue sky with low humidity was in contrast to the dark sky and clouds of just twelve hours earlier.  then again we heard a strong rumble--we knew it was not a storm, and quickly understood it be Big Manitou Falls.  It was an awesome sight, the power of water flowing over the Keweenaw basalt layer  was remarkable.  As a geological aside, basalt is a much stronger rock than limestone or dolomite, so the erosion of the basalt layer would be less than the dolomite at Niagara.  We then decided to make our way to Amnicon Falls State Park (same geological makeup as Big Manitou), east of Superior, but it took much longer than anticipated due to washed out roads.  Superior, and area, had received 6" of rain in three hours (7 pm to 10 pm).  To put that in perspective a full day 24 hour one hundred year storm event for Dane County, WI will produce 6" of rain.  As noted that is over 24 hours, not three.  The Mayor of Superior was recalled due to lack of inaction from the massive storm.  We have been to Pattison State Park a few times, most recently last year, and we have not seen again the falls as massive as they were that beautiful morning following the horrendous thunderstorm that would flood our campsite just over twelve hours earlier.  We were part of the lucky ones, others literally had their tents blown down.

Part of Big Manitou Falls, photo of  July1999 photo

During dry years, when Fitchburg had water regulations for lawns and gardens in place, I would simply tell the public works director that Fitchburg could pay me to go camping because whenever we went camping it would rain.  I thought Andrew brought the rain, but the last two camp trips proved that scenario wrong.  On July 29 my wife and I made a three day camping trip to Laura Lake near Armstrong Creek, WI.  Having checked the weather the morning of our departure, there was a 20% chance of rain Sunday afternoon and 10% for the remainder of our trip.  Sure enough just after dinner Sunday we had rain, not hard, but a thunderstorm was moving through and even though the rain was intermittent the thunder and lightening were enough to keep us cooped up in the screen tent, with homemade rainfly. So, I think at the time, this should be the last of the rain.  I suspect that thought jinked us.  On Monday, after a late dinner following our whitewater rafting trip, we got a real downpour from yet another thunderstorm.  It really poured, not near as much or as long as at Pattison, but still a significant rainfall event.  Again, lightening and thunder kept us at bay for the rest of the night even though the rain had pretty much stopped after about one hour.  Does, the rain follow us?  I have to think so.

Part of Amnicon Falls, photo of July 1999 photo

We again went camping again this past Monday to Thursday at Laura Lake (same place and had the same site), and had a beautiful partly cloudy day on Monday.  The forecast was mainly cloudy and cool Tuesday, but Wednesday and Thursday would be warmer and partly cloudy, with little chance of rain.  The forecast up to Wednesday night proved accurate.  Wednesday night, we had just gotten to bed after listening to a generator from a site three down from us which ran from before 8 pm to 9:20 pm.  I guess it was about 10:00 pm, and hearing the rain, I am hoping it was just a little sprinkle, but then I heard thunder. We had not put on the home-made rainfly since the chance of rain was so slim.  I made three trips out of the sleeping tent to the screen tent at varied times to make sure gear was in decent shape as wind and rain picked up.  It would make for a wet pack up on the morning.  One benefit, the wind was so strong during and just after the rain, we really did not have the drip...drip.....drip we normally experience all night long, and as happened twice on our previous camping trip.  The wind was so strong, my wife thought a tree was going to fall on our new vehicle.

Part of Big Manitou Falls, July 2017

If you are counting, we have camped, essentially for six days (arrive early afternoon on Sunday or Monday and depart about 9 am on Wednesday or Thursday in the past two weeks.  Of those six days, we had rain on three of those days, or 50% of our camping days.  That is not a very good track record. It appears that even if the rain chance is only 10%, the rain will find us.  I wonder if it thinks my wife's red hair is a fire that needs to be doused?  In June we had a small local camping trip planned only a few miles from our house, and we delayed that trip one day due to a heavy thunderstorm that went through the area.  A few inches of rain fell in that storm event.

Make shift rainfly for our Screen Tent
(we stake out the side and back flaps)
July 2018 photo

I suppose this brings to mind some questions.  First, why do we continue to camp, particularly with a tent?  And, if it gets dry next summer am I willing to go camping to bring some much needed rain to an area?  For an answer to the first, you will have to wait for the next post, and for the answer to the second, it depends where, and show me the money.  After all, the two of us are the rainmakers.