Northern Wisconsin/Yoop

Me and the dog spent a week in a remote campsite in northern
Wisconsin. One week was not the original plan but rain, rain
and more rain in the forecast convinced me to end the trip
early.

Fish were caught (smallies and brookies, no musky), the canoe
was paddled and a fun time was had by man and beast but I've
had better years up there. The mosquitoes and biting flies were
as bad as I've ever seen them and like I said the weather sucked.

The first thing I noticed while driving to the campsite was the
road improvements. When a remote dirt road in northern Wisconsin
gets major improvements it can only mean one thing; logging.
Sure enough, my pristine northwoods paradise looked like a
battle ground scene from a WWI movie. "It's good for the animals
and healthy for the forest" say the experts, and I suppose that's
true. But it still looks like **** and aesthetics matter. The most
tasty and healthy food ever cooked would be inedible if it looked
like a steaming pile of dog ****. Just sayin'.

And then there's the logging trucks barreling along backwoods
dirt roads at 60 mph and heaven help the fool who gets in their
way. They must get paid by the load.

But enough with the whining and on to the good stuff. I read
here on roff about Frank Reid fishing in the buff. Attempting to
erase that mental image will require me to send the offspring of
some mental health professional to Harvard but it was actually
"in *A* Buff" not the buff. Thank god. I'd never heard of a Buff
so I Googled it and discovered they have a Buff which is supposed
to repel insects. Knowing I was going into northern Wisconsin's
worst insect season in years I bought one. Two words:

*HIGHLY RECOMMENDED* !!!

It works and it works very well. The things you can discover by
reading roff.

I fished for smallies in Sylvania which was the only fishing I did
in the Yoop, the trout streams in Wisconsin were running cold, clear
and darn near perfect so there was no need to drive elsewhere.

Not a lot of catching this year, one stellar day with the smallies
and a couple of decent days bothering brookies but a good week
for all that. Like the Cubs' fans say, wait 'til next year.

--
Ken Fortenberry