First camping trip cut short! And I blame JOHNNY DEPP!!!!

[Laurabearz]

First I want to say a big thank you to you all for letting me pick your brains, it really helpled!

Our Family's first Camping trip is over, and boy oh boy what a trip it was!!

First... it was NOT at the Fort. We went up to Mirror Lake SP Wisconsin AKA Shot Gun Alley, but more on that later... lol


The happy family

Our campsite from a distance (site 115, for those who might be interested in camping there)

A ravine behind our camp ground

Family at the bottom of it. lol

Our first campout breakfast


Worlds largest pancake

And the rest...

For Lunch we used the pie irons These are ham and cheese sandwiches.. The kids also really loved pizza grilled cheese too!)

Even though we were early in teh season they opened up the rental booth

So we Canoed..

And we fished...

My boy has decided the best part of fishnig is the worms..

they kept him busy for an hour lol

Hiking..

This is a hanicapped trail

which lead to a look out

The kids were very excited to find these "catapillars"

they are called tent catapillars, and apparently are really bad. Kind of gives me the willies... lol

And lastly... the kids helping us pack up

Now I am sure you all are wondering why I said Johhny Depp cut our trip short.

Seems Johhny and gang were filming Public Enemy onsite at the park, which seemed really really cool when we got there and were told around it. We were also told that they are filming at night and we would most likely here more traffic on the road, and gunfire. Ok well.. we had driven 3 hours to get here... sounds like no biggie and a bit exciting, woot Let's CAMP!!

What it really meant was...

HUGE trucks everywhere, Major hiking paths CLOSED, and the "extra traffic" was hundreds of ATV's screaming by at high speeds (wheels squealingand the corner), and since we were on a corner, their lights lite up our campsite every 10 minutes all night long...

On the upside, when I go and see the movie, I have the gun shot pattern embedded in my brain (bang.....bangbangbang.... Bang.... bangbangbang Over and over), so I will know exactly which scene kept us up all night

But the biggest bummer of it all was some of the nicest areas of the park were now off limits to us. That really sucked.

So after one really long night, and a fun filled Saturday, cold weather and a good chance of rain, we decided it just wasnt worth it. Too much closed to us, too many ATV's zooming around. We even heard from a Ranger that they just got permission to ticket the crew for speeding. Unfortuatly they had no rangers out at 3 AM to issue tickets, they would have gotten writers cramps.

So here are some of the Movie Crew Pictures...


Oh Look.. all the things we want to take advantage of is the main Truck staging area! Fun fun

 

[Laurabearz]

A generator

and a close up of the water case that was sitting on it

The kids got ahead of me and ran under the yellow tape.. lol I called them back after I took the picture lol

Some of the cars they used...

Oh and in this photo, you can see deep car ruts.. perhaps a car chase?

There were also Cigarette butts all over, and beer bottles laying around. Nice

 

[2goofycampers]

Way cool pics.

 

[nessz79]

Wow!! What an adventure!!

Well, it looked like you guys had lots of fun before Johnny Depp moved in- LOL! What a great practice trip...there are probably things you learned with it being the first trip (such as check with Hollywood first, haha).

Too bad you didn't get to see Johnny Depp himself.

Lots of great pics- love your kids!

 

[medic9016]

What bummer that you trip was cut short. They could of at least ask you and your family to be movie extras. Nice lookig tent, it looks huge. Really does look like a nice place to camp though.

 

[terri01p]

Oh that is so cool, the park really looks beautiful, never been to that part of the world, we would love to sometimes.

Could use some of that breakfast right now

 

[momoffive]

Great pictures! Sounds like you did have some fun reguardless of the film crew . I too love the tent. How big is it and what kind, do you mind?
Loretta aka momoffive

 

[ftwildernessguy]

Okay, let me get this straight - Jack Sparrow was driving a car? Where is the Black Pearl?????

 

[MadFF]

Too bad you couldn't find a crew or cast member and ask if you could get closer to watch some filming. That could have made up for some of the inconvenience!

 

[Gatordad]

before Depp had to make lame-**** disney movies, he made some good films.

 

[Laurabearz]

Great pictures! Sounds like you did have some fun reguardless of the film crew . I too love the tent. How big is it and what kind, do you mind?
Loretta aka momoffive

10x 18 or maybe 12x18 But with the 5 of us in there, it was tight. I must work on tent organization a bit better

Too bad you couldn't find a crew or cast member and ask if you could get closer to watch some filming. That could have made up for some of the inconvenience!

No no no... everyone was mean mean mean...

Oh that is so cool, the park really looks beautiful, never been to that part of the world, we would love to sometimes.

Could use some of that breakfast right now

The breakfast was GREAT!!! Only took us an hour and a half to make it

We can not wait to Camp again! We learned ALOT!!!! We checked out our spot for later in the summer, and figured out the set up for that.

I am so happy we all had a great time.

 

[PolynesianPixie]

Looks like a great trip...sorry it was cut short, though! Bummer! It will surely be one you remember, though!

 

[Laurabearz]

I forgot to mention It's a Bass Pro Shop tent, and I have to say we are not impressed. TWO of the stake loops ripped off... ALthough last summer it held up extremely well durning 3 weeks of heavy rains with no leaks even before we sealed the seams.

But we will use it until it's unusable

 

[ynottony99]

Beautiful park. Looks like it would be worth going back after 'Hollywood' is out of there.

 

[DisOrBust]

Mirror lake is one of our favs but the road noise even when Johnny isn't there can be brutal!! They really did close the lake acess??

 

[BigDaddyRog]

New Orleans has been filled with the "hollywooders" for the past couple of years now....suddenly this is deemed a great movie making district, which I guess is true....but it aint doing any favors for our traffic. And I really cant stand how these folks come here and automatically think were the inbred half-wits that N.O. people are always made out to be in the oh-so-realistic hollywood version of a N.O. local.

 

[Laurabearz]

Oh yes, we heard normal road noise, but that was more like white noise... the Club Cars and WHite Vans that sped down the road, every 10 minutes, from the boat dock to the lower part of the camp ground where the crew's headquarters were... well that was horrendious.

I told them, they should have called us to let us know, but they said it was a "closed set" I guess it isnt closed anymore they might just be there next weekend too if anyone is interested

We did have access to the lake, but could not go near the beach. Also the whole top half of the park was pretty much off limits, something I misunderstood when we checked in. I was told the cabin was off limits and that we would most likely hear gun shots since they were filming up near the echo trail in the middle of the night. We were not told that also meant that whole area up there would be closed during the day too. Sucked. We did make it to the lookout before a ranger yelled at us lol


Say... Disorbust... How is Devil's Lake?

 

[ntsammy5]

WOW what a neat trip!

 

[We4mickey]

They are filming in several different areas of Wisconsin. Too bad it ruined your campout. If you get the chance, Devils Lake state park is really nice too and not that far from Mirror lake.

 

[Laurabearz]

They are filming in several different areas of Wisconsin. Too bad it ruined your campout. If you get the chance, Devils Lake state park is really nice too and not that far from Mirror lake.

It did not ruin our trip.. it just made it shorter than planned, but then again with the weather moving in, we might have packed it up early regardless, this just made it a no brainer.

We have 3 nights booked again at Mirror lake for July, we loved what we saw and can't wait to go back. On that trip we will take a better look at Devil's lake.