Dark Clouds

For part of this past week my spouse and I were camping in southwest Wisconsin.  I have written before about how, when we camp, we are the rain makers.  When I worked and public works complained about water usage (watering of lawns) due to drought, I suggested that it would be time for me to go camping. It rain on a trip in the last full week of August to Clear Lake, and it occurred again this past camping trip. We packed up at Clear Lake since rain was expected all day (and we were to leave the next morning). On this trip, it started the rain lasted, well, basically a full 24 hours. A  long thin line of storms and rain, and the related dark clouds was placed right over us.

Same Campsite and same Time of Month as Last Year

We arrived Sunday early in the afternoon to a our southwest Wisconsin  state park campground loop of 69 sites, having only three other campers. with light rain as we started to set up camp.  The rain stopped to cook dinner outside and start a fire. After dinner we started a short walk in the campground, and we were about 3/4 of the way through, about 5:30 pm, and it started to rain.  We made it back to the camp site to get stuff covered or put away and made our way into our camper. As the Packers were getting deluged by the Saints in Jacksonville, FL, we were getting rain. The camper is small, so not much room for maneuverability, but we did some reading and worked on some puzzles. Lights out earlier than normal, due to the rain. With inclement weather, I can now see why people have larger campers. Maybe we should get a larger camper?

One of Two Lakes in this 5350 acre State Park

It seemed that all night long we had a great deal of thunder and lightening, but with mainly light rain, but by morning the rain started coming in heavy, although we had a small enough break for my wife to warm water on our camp stove for tea and oatmeal.  The rain then came again, and as we sat in the camper, wife missed a perfect opportunity to beat me in Cribbage. After a long time, we looked at radar and saw the long thin band of storm activity.  This band, at the time, was centered north to south right over us, as if the camping gods were getting back at us. I seem to think they always want to get even with us. I noticed that if we traveled 10 or so miles north or south we would no longer be in rain.  It was a thin band of storms about 20 miles in width. I then had a bright idea to make our way to a small city about that distance north, on the north shore of the Wisconsin River.  The band of rain seem to end at the Wisconsin River, which runs east to west in this location. We had lunch at a restaurant and then tried without luck to find Percussion Rock.  We did have a nice drive through part of the infamous Wisconsin Driftless area with farms tucked in among the hills and valleys, and steep slopes and curvy roads that make for fun driving.

The Park's most Famous Site

The rain had pretty much stopped as we made our way back to the campground. After we arrived back, we started a hike, but thought the better of doing some trails thinking of how muddy they would be.  bad feet and knees may not do well on mud. The overcast, cool day may have put a damper on things, but we did get an evening fire started, and of course it started to rain again, so we again made our way to our camper, and played some cards. 

Rock Outcropping

The camper kept us dry, and Tuesday morning, it was overcast and cool, but no rain. We did the hike we wanted to do the prior day, and had success climbing a steep muddy hill, more famous for cross country skiing (down) than probably for hiking. 

An "O" Shape in a Tree Branch

What most struck me, was how the long band of rain stretching from eastern Wisconsin to west of the Mississippi, when I looked at the radar was so narrow, and was the only rain in the state. It made me ponder why we did not go further north, even though the rain chance was greater. If there is rain it will find us, and this trip proved no different.  We did have, however, one trip this year, for four nights where we did not have rain the entire trip.  That is something unusual, but a nice experience for us. The long thin line of storms had to go right over us, and any other camp ground we were looking at, would not have had the rain Monday morning as we did.  I am not sure why, but it seems to me, at least when camping, that the weather is often worse than predicted (in the night it was not supposed to rain until after 8 pm), and seldom better than predicted. I guess that is because we are the rain makers. 

Hints of Fall in the Landscape

As the dry summer comes to and end there are some farmers, gardeners, and lawn aficionados that are happy we camped to at least partially assuage the dry conditions. It may be late in the growing season, but we successfully brought a long, but narrow band of rain to part of southern Wisconsin that Sunday into Monday. The thin weather line put a damper on some of our intended experiences, but it would help the thirsty crops in the area of the thin band. I can say that literally there were dark clouds over us. 

 Photos by author, Sept 2021