The Hayes Family up enjoying the lake and finding Yertle the turtle.  One of the kids had sharp eyes and spotted him without coordinates

Kids checking out the treasure in the treasure box

I caught this Blue Heron swooping around the lake.  I missed some elusive Flickers among the trees

Had to make a quick stop at the Bearskin trail in Minocqua.  We have set 6 geocaches along the trail and one of them had gone missing.  So I chose this cold foggy morning to stop to replace it and shoot some fun pics of a different lake for a change for the blog.  The tressel bridge is always fun to take pictures of and the fog added to it.  Very Halloween feeling.  The trail lady was not there to take money it was eerily quiet

Frost on the bridge from the fog rolling across it

Just passed the bridge I found a spot to leave the cache.  If you are in the area and want to find this one and the other 6 between Minocqua and Hazelhurst along the trail go to www.geocaching.com and look for Going on a Bear Hunt 1 – 6 they all give clues to the final cache at the Bear’s Pot of Gold.  Enter Minocqua’s zipcode 54548 we have 20 caches hidden through out the Minocqua and Hazelhurst Area

View down the trail in the fog and late fall leaves.  I know most folks love to walk or bike the trail in the summer, but to me this is the best time to be on the trail, quiet and great views

On the way back I shot this pic of The Thirsty Whale in the mist.  Looking off the otherside of the bridge the fog was too thick for a good pic.

It was a beautiful fall day.   The Packers were playing Detroit and the first half was enough of a game to see, so off down the road we went on the hunt of a geo cache.  We headed to the notorious Camp 9 road that connects to an even more infamous Manhardt Road.

No power lines, no houses, dirt road and lots of nothing.  Manhardt is a scary road to be on in the winter.  If you miss the 90 degree turn that Camp 9 does on the way to Winter Park to ski, you end up on Manhardt where there are no plowed turn arounds for 10 miles.  Only lots of snow, snowmobiles and large animals, not a place to be during a snow storm.  Today it was much safer to wander down.  Firelanes had trucks parked in them from folks bow hunting.  Some of the land is private and others is paper company land, all of it is deserted and only really used for hunting and hiding dead bodies from the days of the Chicago Mafia

After much driving we were out in the north and western end of the Willow Flowage, by Willow Lake which flows into the Willow through a river.  The drive out was beautiful.  This picnic area is about a 25 minute drive from the resort

Really neat area.  We walked across the rocks and through rocks in the pool.  This area will be neat to return to in the spring for fish spawning like we do at Cedar Falls

There is a picnic area and benches to sit at to watch the river go by

Geo Cache spotted and signed.  This is the reason we go caching in the Minocqua area as it brings us to some amazing new spots we never knew about www.geocaching.com will led you on your own adventure in your hometown enter your zip code and see what pops up

My favorite sign of the day.  Not sure where the barrel was