A few weeks ago I posted about a boy who talked all the time. Henry. Henry camped with his parents and older on a site next to us at Cunard Lake Campground in late July. Henry has been surpassed by a group of girls that camped on our loop at Mirror Lake State Park. When camping you never know what noises you have to bear.
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| Mirror Lake State Park |
It was a group of four girls, who had done a very good job of setting up their tent and screen tent. They continued to talk and talk. I think they quieted down some later in the evening. They were present for only a couple days, arriving Monday, but leaving Wednesday, but their presence sure put Henry to shame. Of course, Henry was one person, this was a group of four. Given that they were further from us than Henry, I suspect their gabbing was not as annoying as it may have been if they were right next to us.
Many years ago we camped at Mirror Lake in September, perhaps our second season of camping, and our two boys were young. The experience that night almost ruined camping for us. There were two men who arrived late, and made a great deal of noise and were very loud. Another camper on the loop got up to ask them to quiet down during the early morning hours of the next day, but they did not. This camper, in a time before cell phones, left and called the sheriff. The sheriff deputy arrived and I recall a long conversation. It was cold when we got up the next morning, without having gotten any sleep, I recall a thin layer of ice in the coffee pot. Because we lacked sleep, we decided to pack up and go home. That was likely the most troublesome time we ever had camping. When we got up, those two men were soundly sleeping, and I felt like banging some pots together. They may have been too drunk or high to wake up even if I banged the pots.
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| Mirror Lake State Park |
Noises, however, can be by other than humans. My camping partner, Land Girl, is a light sleeper, and any noise, even heavy breathing, can be bothersome to her. At Mirror Lake there was some animal, not sure if a bird or mammal, made an annoying noise that kept her awake most of the night. I never recalled hearing that noise before. Perhaps the best way to describe the noise, was like a fast moving ratchet. The first night the noise went to about 3 or 4 am, and the next night about 2 am. Whatever was making the noise got kinder to Land Girl as each night came. This disrupts here sleep, particularly since I tend to get up about 5:30 am to use the restroom.
The most present noise at Mirror Lake is the Interstate Highway that is less than half a mile distant. The constant hum or roar of the traffic provides a noise akin to what millennial parents have in the sound machine to get their young children to sleep. It has the opposite effect on Land Girl. The funny thing is, even though the highway, and Lake Delton and Wisconsin Dells are so close, our Verizon phone only got only two bars at the campsite. And, at times, one bar.
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| Mirror Lake State Park, Echo Rock |
The last time we camped at Mirror Lake was in June of 2024 and we had the annoying pleasure of the Sponge moths (Gypsy moths) falling down our of the trees on the screen tent, camper, car and even us. The plopping sound was more annoying by the appearance of a moth on the picnic table in front of you.
As a child my wife camped with siblings and parents, often joined by one or two sets of family members and their children. I have to think they were not the most quiet bunch of campers, and if that was today, would I be writing a blog post about them as I have about Henry and now the four girls. Perhaps, now that I am in my late middle age (this will give the wife a laugh, as she will say I am a senior citizen and not late middle age), I may find the noises more annoying than before, although no reasonable person would think that disturbance many years ago at Mirror Lake was reasonable.
