Oct 25, 2014 - Mushroom hunting in the Northern Kettle Moraine State Forest

Sybille and I head headed down to the Northern Unit of the Kettle Moraine State Forest this weekend to hike another 30 miles of the Ice Age Trail.   Couldn't secure a reservation for the Ice Age Trail shelters so we joined the Fox Cities Backpacker Meetup Group Friday night to camp at shelter 5.   Nice dinner of German bratwurst by the campfire.  

On Saturday morning we secured a campsite at Mauthe Lake where we stashed a bike and then drove to near Shelter 1 where we hiked north on the Milwaukee River segment of the trail through Washington and Fond du Lac county.  The trail follows along a mix of kettles, eskers, drumlins and glacier-formed kames.  A wonderland of glacier topology.  Lots of mushroom finds including some boletus, honey and hen of the woods.  We collected some boletus mushrooms to add to our dinner menu. 

At Mauthe Lake Sybille rode the bike back to the car as I continued on into the Parnell segment to Shelter 3 where we left off on our last backpack in the Kettle Moraine. 

We spent the night car camping on this great campsite on the top of a hill overlooking the campground and Mauthe Lake.  You could see all the lights from the Halloween decorations around the campground as we enjoyed a campfire and stir fry dinner with our mushroom find.