The Journal Times from Racine, Wisconsin • 29

RACINE SUNDAY BULLETIN July 1960 See. 3 in Middle of the Week Is Fun Camping mumvmtmm -mm -r -wr www I V4-, 1 Ji'' 1 Do you go camping to get away from the crowded city life, then wait in long lines for the chance to cram your way into the camping area of a state park that looks as if the GAR had come back to life with the original cast? If you do and would like a little more breathing space in the outdoors, then start your safari during the week instead of on the weekend. That" is a suggestion agreed upon by campers themselves and-, the men who run some of the Wisconsin State Parks. Almost without exception th managers on the west side of the state the last, week, in I June had the same story. There was room in their camping areas despite the cut-back f.

1." arts p. i km, u-a 1. jx 1 'u va -j' a i ri i j. in camp sites ordered by the state this year during the week. And, while it may not seem If in keeping with the reports on the great boom in camping, most weekends thus far this season have brought no huge turn-aways.

This is strictly Journal-Times Photo Trempealeau and Mississippi rivers Is the location of their living this week. Next week It may be Interstate, Devils Lake or any of another score or more of state or national forest parks. These are homes away from home for Mr. and Mrs. Lyle Kraus and their three children from Oshkosh and their camping companions, Mr.

and Mrs. Dale Klemeschay of Fond du Lac Perrot State Park at the junction of the due to 'the weather thus far this spring and summer, the managers say. Friday, the more popular parks, such as Devils Lake, jWar fans will instantly recog were already diverting their schay of Fond du Lac, have set up their tents overlooking the sunny playground in the nize most of the other officers as well for their distinguished records in the war between arrived there soon after noon Friday. Popular Area Swing down with us on a trip along the west side of the state Friday where the breath- overflow of holiday weekend campers to other areas such as Tower Hill State Park, two miles off Highway 14 south of Spring Green. The first of these park's center and are just tak ing off to replenish their sup plies.

The Kraus-Klemeschay fami lies are in their second year of camping, "the only way to vacation with the kids," as i Journal-TlmM Jhota The sunlight of a new day sparkled on the swirls in the Namekagon River behind Area 3 district fish manager Leonard Druschba as he made ready to put in for an 8-mile float trip" down the river to Trego. Acanoe trip Is usual, but the high water in the river enabled the trip to be made easily Via this relatively deep-draft WCD fiberglas boat. Mrs. Kraus says. No Electricity Perrot also is without elec me states.

Park manager Hubert Thompson interrupts his visit with us to sign In two of the advance guard of the turn-away crowd at Devils Lake park. His 'clients, tells are in large part over-nighters, tourists passing by on Highway 14. His registration book for June alone lists tourist-campers from Maine, Washington, California and Virginia along with many other states closer by. Logs 699 Camper-days The Tower Hill park logged trical service but has all other taking Mississippi rolls between flanking bluffs. Earlier yesterday we had run through Interstate Park at St.

Croix Falls, far up above the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Interstate is hat area's most popular camping-outing area and the jam there started with warm weather and won't let up until frost. We were told there that Wisconsin Conservation Department parks workers ran one check on a week that included a three-day holiday and logged in 22,000 cafs, nearly 80 per cent of whih were from Minnesota. Now running down State Highway 35, past Maiden Rock and Pepin, where the river widens into sprawling Lake Pepin, we come to Merrick State Park, some four miles downstream from Cochrane and Buffalo.

Merrick lies just across the Where Are Small mouth in Namekagon River? facilities and boats and motors are for rent if one would fish or cruise the Trempealeau River at its junction with the Mississippi. Downstream, below Prairie du 1 Chien, Wyalusing State Park, close to U.S. Highway 18, is at the filled state or nearly so and some will be sent down to smaller Nelson Dewey Park just north of Cassvilla. Tower Hill State Park, two 699 camper-days during June and in all, 10,800 persons vis 1 3 -K j' V' -1 -1 I I ifim-Timnii fn" iiriiiwfiii.awjtiiii.Miiiiiaii,iifiiitflialoiiiilir av By Pat Dunn Are the smallmouth bass disappearing from the Namekagon River in northwest Wisconsin? The question is receiving extensive study -and a long, hard, look from Wisconsin Conserva-. tion Department Fisheries men right now for the Namekagon Is one of the "name streams" mentioned whenever small-mouth bass fanciers gather.

Oh, they still are there, these miles south of U.S. Highway tracks from the high ited the park during the past month. More space Is the crying need at every park visited. Without funds, it cannot be done. Universal disagreement with the legislature's recent action in refusing to come up with a park sticker fee was met everywhere, even by the.

campers themselves with 14 where it swings over the of half a dozen or more rapids we were to pass through, warmth of the sun was in pleasant contrast to the crisp coolness where the hills shaded the water. A violent wind storm and a drenching rain had hit the area within the past 24 hours and the river was high, Druschba told us. How high we were to find out later when our deep-keeled fiberglas boat scraped many sand bars but was never held up on a one. Normally, Druschba said, water levels at these bars limits floating the way and Ellsworth Korte, manager oil the 133-acre park, Wisconsin River, lacks the watery vistas of its sister parks on the Mississippi, but abounds in historical lure. It is the site takes us on a quick tour of the site.

The 36-umt camping area is not quite two-thirds a meadow land that had even the smell of fish' about it. It cried out for a halt to the trip and some patient working of every lily pad pond and pocket. By then we were running late into the teeth of a strong southwest wind and the motor on the boat was being used to press on where the wind hit strongest. That river in the meadow must wait for another day. From the fish market point of view a bit under three pounds of bass in 11 hours is not a tax-paying proposition.

If one disregards the play of lights and shadows on the water, the sunlight that danced wildly over the rapids, it was time lost. If one does not take into account the quiet minutes that rolled into hours while one fished only semi-automat-ically, dreaming of what these of what is believed to be the first 'arsenal' in the state. It's battling bronzebacks, their full, but by evening he expects to be filled. The Fourth of July holiday crowd is on the whom we" talked. Many improvement projects at the various parks had to be postponed name comes from the shot tower atop a hill where smooth due to lack of funds.

ball shot were made during the river with ease to canoes only. tempers set at short fuse, willing to bust a lure with a vehemence that makes a light rod shiver, but their numbers are down. Why? No one can readily Fish 18 Miles Civil War. The park managers with way and they are braced for it. 21-Day Limit In common with other state A monument near the park We" had our first close-up look at foaming white water boiling between half sunken boulders as we slammed Journal-Time Photo An old iron bridge carrley county truck highway traffic over the Namekagon here in the vicinity ofSpring Brook.

The once-busy right of way also threads along much of the river but now 11 hours on the river failed bring a single sound of railroad activity. manager office tells the visitor it also is historic as the whom we talked had words of praise for the campers. Even the newcomers run orderly, ship-shape camps and leave no parks, Merrick has a 21-day limit on camping and no camp camp site of an Army group may be un-attended for more than 48 hours. Merrick has no last week, 18 torturous the first major rapids, of it, where it spills neither the rocks nor through Washburn P. vJwater came through the boat clean-up problems behind them.

No so the picnickers. They are the bane of existence for the that was chasing Black Hawk. Among the officers listed in the party was a young lieu electricity in the camp area hull beneath us we became I here is a small golf course, putting in for a float trip just Bermuda Race Gives tenant, Zachary Taylor. Civil harried park manager. high hills must have looked! -i.

oleasant believers in thelg' th- strength of modern test-tubeike a century ago, blanketed the whiffiilr.en6ln boats may be rented for fishing the Mississippi which purrs past the park and a swimming rnaH finpprs across waters of one of the river's 'products such as fiberglas. giant virgin pine that ran down to the1 water's edge be- Valuable Boat Lessons area is marked out with buoys. Have No Action' The last Sunday in June the park logged in 800 cars Korte said, however, picnicking and camping thus far are both run race is probably the best known event of. ocean sailing By Wm. Taylor McKeown Editor, Popular Boating NEWPORT, R.

I. (NEA) More than 130 boats carrying 1,000 yachtsmen sailed from Newport bound for Bermuda competition. It is a deep water proving ground for the skipper ning behind last year. "Too While the sun climbed high above, both of us cast a steady stream of lures into the ba'ssy-looking pools and riffles which swam past the boat in a steady and tantalizing procession. Every bend of the stream brought forth a pool, a riffle, an under-cut bank that had bass-home" written all over it.

SROons, plugs, feather-and- fore the lumbermen came and left in their wake today's spindly jackpine and impenetrable tangles of hardwood, poplars and underbrush, then the day was lost. If one dismisses these imponderables and the pleasant sound of water hurrying endlessly, then the float trip was a failure. We considered it a success'. many rapids. Eleven hours later we left the stream at Trego, stiff headwinds that nullified the power of the current having thrown us hours behind schedule.

We approached the expedition with none-too-high hopes. Earlier, at the Northwest Area WCD headquarters at Spooner we had talked with Wallace Neimuth, area biologist. Nei-muth and his crew were fresh much cold weather," Korte and his boat. Lessons learned are passed along as better prod explained. Downstream some 13 miles ucts for boatmen 625 miles away.

Once called "the Thrash to The boats jn the 19G0 affair ranged from 35 to 72 feet in near Trempealeau, Perrot State Park is hidden away four miles west of Highway 35. Here the the Onion Patch," the Bermuda 'X length. Hulls of wood, steel, fi fur devices, almost everything bluffs that line the Minnesota Dergias ana aluminum were 1 Wisconsin shores are several represented No two alike from completing a boom shock- in the two tackle boxes went ing trip on the Namekagon, over the side clipped to an end downstream from Treno dam of a monofilament line. And rv A complicated formula de miles apart with fertile bottomlands sprawling along the 4 vised by the Cruising Club "of to the St. Croix River.

Theirtall came back fishless. Wisconsin side of the river. America gives each boat a time news was not heartening. Five hours of it and the un- Perrot, smaller than introduces us to two The boom shockers turned spoken thought in both our up alarmingly few smallmouth minds was the unhappy report bass. On the tright side, there of biologist Neimuth on the handicap according to its measurements.

All, in theory, have an equal chance. Racing-machine hulls that might be young married couples from Winnebagoland. Mr. and Mrs lower Namekagon. Lyle Kraus and sons Stephen, built more for speed than sea worthiness are penalized.

David and Gary, of Oshkosh, and Mr. and Mrs. Dale Kleme- Once out of sight of land, the skipper and his crew are also being tested. They are up was a snarp increase tne number of sturgeon brought to the surface by the electric shock. Know No Reason But the number of smallmouth, rated by many anglers as the scrappiest battler of any fish speciespound for pound in the world, was way down.

Why? Neimuth did not know. But they were, and boom 4 Then we turned a bend where an island split the stream, swift and deep in our channel, slower and probably two feet deep- in the secondary stream. We laid a crippled, minnow plug we had just clipped on near the bank of the shallow stream; starting a retrieve and suddenly the spinning rod bowed and the crank against the age-old challenge of the sea. This is part of the I I I V. t.

appeal which brought boats, Harvard Crew 1st at Henley HENLEY ON THAMES, England (JP) Harvard Uni lwn Journal-Tlmei Photo this year to a fog-shrouded Rhode Island starting line from the East and West coasts, Great Lakes, Canada, South America, England and Sweden. Though the race this year proved to be slow in light airs, This should be a familiar whirred free. shocking, the most accurate.handle versity's lightweight crew won the Thames Challenge Cup of sight to camping enthusiasts, the information boards of the Henley Rowing Regatta ttmk-frrtwn with- their- gold- her- re-mrre-f)f -ttie-precmri FOR TWO HOURS AND TEN MILES It decisively defeated the De- tions each boat took items every boatman should check if No Snag Snags we had had aplenty before this, but not a snag that ran iipstreanv Th hook -was set, the line snubbed and 20 feet from the boat a bronze back broke watery threshed on his tail and doW. Minutes later our first Namekagon smallmouth bass threshed in the net at our feet. DIAL means of taking a fish census in a stream that conservation circles know, indicated as much.

It was decided that our float trip the next day would cover the upper Namekagon therefore, instead of going in downstream from Trego to the con-Junction with the Totogatic River and, beyond that, the St. Croix. Area fish manager Leonard Bakesfield, schoolboy ican final of a competition in which 39 hopeful crews started last Wednesday. he plans to head off shore. Skippers checked all standing rigging and all hardware fit ME 2-5103 lettering, the small fry playing at the bubbler alongside the shady road to the park manager's home, and the chain Across the roadway which usually signifies a full camping area.

The park Is Tower Hill State Park. tings holding the rigging in Harvard's time over the pla place. Loss of a mast in mid- cid one mile, 550-yards course on the River Thames was 6 MERCHANTS DELIVERY TRUCK RENTAL, Inc. 1215 State St. ocean is serious.

Running rigging was examined and re Then, for half an hour, the fun of floating a wilder- minut'es 47 seconds. Its margin of Victory over the De-troiters was V3 lengths. Con ditions were Ideal. Druschba, who will be remem-hess stream with one picture bered many Racine area postcard scene after another sportsmen as former fish man-j sliding past us gave way to the ager at the Waterford WCDi fishermen's fun. Three small' office, was in charge of running right around Six American crews fell in the long grind to the final of the Thames Challenge Cup newed if worn.

This meant checking many feet of line. Food and water, plus extras for emergency must be stowed aboard. The crew studies how the boat floats to be sure" too much heavy gear is not far forward or aft This affects speed of the ocean sailing yacht. It could cause a small boat owner to end up In the water. Sometimes boating on a competition.

They were; Washington-Lee FLY-aUhe! SYLVANIA AIRPORT Flight Instruction In Modern Radio Equipped Flanrs riane Rentals Sight Seelnr SYLVANIA. AIRPORT INC. On lly. (West of Racine) fhone Sturtevant TUxedo 6-9971 or 6-2517 High School of Virginia, St. operation.

Soon after dawn Wednesday, when hot coffee, had washed the sleep from our systems in an all -night eatery in tiny Trego, we were rolling" up U.S. Highway 63 toward the put-in "point. the one-pound class, were boated, all on the rather gaudy imitation crippled minnow which to be honest we had tried in what amounted to last-ditch desperation. Likely Looking; Above Trego the hills that boxed in the river fell away Paul's School of Concord, N. Eliot House of Harvard, Tabor Academy of Marion, pond can be more dangerous Kent School of Kent, i JoUrnl-Tlmi Photo I.cn Drcschba holds the trio of smallmouth bass, all that were captured In an 11-hour float trip down the ooted Namekagon River In northwestern Wisconsin.

Find River nigh than on the ocean if the skip- and, today's loser, De-per is careless. Itroit, Afloat and through the firsthand the stream snaked through.