Devil's Lake again

This last weekend both Landon and i had 2 days off in a row! that never happens. so we headed up to Wisconsin to enjoy Sunday and Monday rock climbing and camping at beautiful Devil's Lake State Park, WI.

Landon at the top of our first climb.

Landon calls his biggest hex "webster".

this may look similar to our last visit to devil's lake.

We had so much fun. We are also extremely out of practice, no matter how many miles we run or pull-ups we (actually i can't do any) do, we are still far behind as far as climbing fitness goes. the only way to train for climbing is to climb.

something neat about the cliffs at devil's lake is that they are quartzite, which is the same kind of rock we climbed at hell's gate in Kenya. Landon said it made him nostalgic. The rock is glossy-slick with sharp edges and thin holds making it really challenging. no smearing for lack of foot-holds. lots of crack climbing which has always been super intimidating to me. and all the routes at devil's lake are not sport-bolted, so Landon had to climb traditional. i love to watch Landon climb trad. - he is so fantastic and this is the climbing that seems to me to be more dangerous (though Landon would probably disagree). i just love to see my husband wild and adventurous!

the weather was amazing for our trip - no rain, and blue skies with sweet breezes. we weren't eaten alive by bugs or burned by the sun. we slept well and i woke Tuesday morning frozen-sore. kind of a good feeling as i never do anything strenuous these days to warrant frozen muscles.

the drive to devil's lake is past Madison, about 3 hours north of gurnee. it is beautiful to drive through fields of crops and picturesque farms. i loved the drive! and i like having Landon at the mercy of all my interesting questions - he is so sweet to share these times with me without irritation.

Duvi at our campsite. this is the first time he's ever been chained up. you know we don't have a fence at our house and we never leash him or have had to chain him. we were in a pretty crowded and close-quartered camping ground so we had to chain him to the fire pit. he got used to it.

Here is Landon killing slugs by pouring salt on them. he's still afraid of them.