Wisconsin consists of two geological parts, the southern lowland in the, central lowland in the southern part of the state and the superior upland in the north.
The southern part of the state is largely agricultural and of course is noted for its dairy products.
The landforms of both the southern and northern areas were carved out by advancing in receding glaciers during the great Pleistocene ice age.
It isn't too hard to imagine how torrents of water gouged out the Wisconsin Dells as vast amounts of water flowed south from the receding glaciers.
As the glaciers receded to the north, they left a land of lakes and I'm sure I don't have to tell you how many Chicagoans like to go to this area for recreation during both the summer and winter months.
The first film in our Wisconsin visit was shot in the northern lake region west of Monaco near the little town of Fifefield.
Then we have a little light hearted ditty I call I'm Stuck on You and then we jump down to the Kickapoo River in southwestern Wisconsin near Richland Center where we get some views of rock formations that are similar to the Dells farther east.
Then we end our Wisconsin trip with a fall sunset over Green Bay viewed from Peninsula State Park in Door County.
Dog Lake, a little lake up in northern Wisconsin.
Despite its unromantic name, it's one of my favorite places.
The sun was trying to break through the early morning fog when we arrived at Dog Lake on this particular day.
We pushed a boat into the water and hooked up our electric motor on the transom to earn any gasoline powered boats to interrupt the tranquility of this lake.
It's especially peaceful with sunrise and sunset.
That's when we like to go out and sit in a boat with a fishing rod in our hands and watch the drama of life unfold before us.
We know there are some big bass under the lily pads.
Sometimes they bite at our bait, but it's usually the little bluegills that steal our worms and get hooked.
But it really doesn't matter.
The important thing is we've gotten away.
Let me take you away too and we'll spend the day watching nature unfold before us on ever changing Dog Lake.
And so the day ends on Dog Lake.
No, we didn't catch any big bass, but we did capture many beautiful memories.
Deer and otters, bluegills and water bugs, butterflies and dragonflies, muskrats and horses, blackbirds and hawks, kingbirds and mallards, trees and bushes, flowers and shrubs.
These are the things we captured today, things we will preserve forever in our memories.
Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Up Deserted Highway 131, past the little town of Viola.
We crossed the Kickapoo River at Viola.
It's only seven more miles to Lafarge, and just past Lafarge is where we rent the canoes.
Music Bob, Lloyd and Jim anticipate the spray of the white water.
This must be the place.
Music The canoes are quickly loaded and we received some last minute instructions.
Mr.
Smith agrees to put the canoes into the river a few miles upstream at Wildcat Mountain State Park.
We stopped for a few minutes at the park to look around and get our bearings.
Music The Kickapoo Valley looks pretty big.
It must be two or three miles wide.
Music But where's the river? It must be down there somewhere.
Ah, there it is.
But it doesn't look very big from up here.
Music We go down to the canoe landing and prepare to launch the canoes.
Music The river doesn't look very big down here either.
Music Everything looks serene so far.
No white water, but it is pretty.
Music Bob is enjoying the scenery.
I wonder why he isn't paddling.
Oh, I guess he heard me.
There he got a couple of strokes in.
Bob is easily distracted.
Music Those other guys are cutting right along.
Music Sometimes it takes some tricky stirring to miss the tree limbs.
Music Bob, while you're dragging your paddle, is there trouble ahead? Trouble it is.
The tree has fallen completely across the river.
Music Now this is recommended only for tough canoes, preferably rented ones.
Music Now here's a lesson on how not to enter a canoe.
Music The river must be pretty well traveled.
The local real estate agent has put up his sign along the bank.
We decide to camp here for the night, and natives must be friendly if they put up a welcome sign along the river bank.
Music The weather has turned chilly and the fire looks feels good.
The morning breaks bright and sunny, and we set out again.
Music We stop for water near one of the many bridges across the river.
Music We discover here what keeps the river flowing.
It is fed by artesian wells along the way.
This is the closest thing we've seen to white water, so we bottle some to drink.
It tastes mighty good.
Hey Bob, why aren't you helping? Music Who's that guy? Back to some more strenuous paddling.
Music The bluffs that line the river lead us to all sorts of speculations on how the valley was formed by a tremendous flow of water when the last vast ice age ended.
Music Hey watch your head, Lloyd.
Music That's real form.
We finally got back to Lafarge.
A sign tells us to portage around a dam.
Music It didn't turn out to be much of a dam, but it did give us a chance to see a much bigger project, an Army Corps of Engineers dam that was begun in 1970 after 35 years of negotiations and planning.
Construction was halted after it was 75 % completed because of political bickering.
We called it the Kickapoo Snafu.
Mr.
Arlen Johnson is a strong advocate of the dam.
He took time out to tell us about the dam and the lake it would create.
There's a lot of people that would like to camp, they'd like to hike, they'd like to ride horses, things like this.
And what's wrong with that? Is that a dirty word? No, recreation's not a dirty word.
There's people that are in opposition to this project for recreational reasons.
They want to canoe.
Canoeing is another type of recreation.
We're looking at taking 12 miles of that river and turning it into a wide river or a lake.
The river's 105 miles long.
There's a lot of river to canoeing at.
The upper end of that lake is going to resemble the river the way that it is not only a little bit wider, that's the only difference.
The lower end, you're going to get a little more water, it's going to look a little more like a lake.
We're going to create a heck of a lot of still water canoeing to be sailboating on there and electric motors, fishing, of course.
Things like this, there won't be any water skiing.
So the canoeists that want to come all the way down that wide river or lake can do so, portage over the dam and continue all the way downstream.
Music Music Bridge number 27, back to Viola, not many miles by car from where we put in, but about double that distance on the winding river.
Music We camp our final night along the river in the city park at Viola.
Music A pair of dry, warm socks feels good.
Did somebody say it's time to eat? After supper, Bob tries to teach Lloyd how to play liar's dice, but Lloyd doesn't seem to believe he has a full house in that box.
Bob finally convinces Jim to play cards with him.
Music The next morning it's time to pull up stakes and head home.
We all agreed it was a very delightful trip.
Music Music Music Music Music Music Music
