For two of us, Devil’s Lake State Park in Wisconsin was our next destination. Olivia and I met up with Bob, his family, and several friends at a group campsite at the state park. We’d spent the previous four nights in a tent up in the Upper Peninsula, and so my thoughts when I’d originally confirmed our participation was, “What’s another two nights?” But after a night punctuated by the shrill, deathly sounds coming from the venue—how about that for a collective noun?—of turkey vultures occupying the grove next to our site, I’d modified that question to, “How in the hell are we going to make it through a second night?”
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn97d18iZEqZ5SJh5qg4dMGDGb1UFRYg7u29ZtGZgEmnndXZIzCy2iz8lDjq1AnpQ9FB-cvFY81pwINB7tIzgM_LHRg6mZVWNiE4f1n-NHa9FpXOrn1mlPZGoJVkGff4mMm6sR/s320/hike1.jpg)
Fortunately and necessarily, the birds remained quiet as we took a group hike on the stone-stepped climbing trail up to the bluffs overlooking the lake. Later on in the day, we got a closer look at the lake when swimming in its warm waters.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8Xgs_Wqrj5gQcSp67NUtoPs6qM2ANPXw4CNp54HF7AEeTW0ojxxsfhStCD_YrYHmcOlO7NQSfhlalX2TzjIzL2cCIogWcyWkpMg3Nnd3DLnfSZzEJDkha23Uf62qeVy54_plh/s320/hike2.jpg)
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuRFKR37rOaiuTTTFdbDoh9h1AlUF_Alyo6vH6d5XgsmSH1L-zu3fLpLkTcGMRmx18vmARxOBDw8hMPqLrjlFc3IhJdOoXILJDDWnsdAB42GYaGc4zdB8l4nV5HhZS5miLFEyk/s320/hike3.jpg)