Jenna and I just got back from the flowage. The turtle flambeau flowage to be exact. It is a body of water in the northwoods of Wisconsin that was formed in the process of damning up the flambeau river. There were several lakes in the area, and when they damned the river up, a lot of the area around was flooded. This body of water is called the flambeau flowage. It is over 200 miles of shorline with hundreds of bays and narrow passageways. If you are ever there, it is a blast to explore with a boat, but be careful because there are stumps everywhere from trees that were flooded years ago. If 200 miles of shoreline doesn’t conjure up any images, just think of it this way (if you are from MN)… lake minnetonka has about 100 miles of shoreline. So, that should give you a clue as to how much water we are talking about. My family has been going up there for years and years. My grandparents have been up there in the summer for a couple weeks every year for about 50 years, and thus I have been a lot as well. However, I haven’t been in the last few years.

Some of the activities that we usually take part in there are: boating to the damn to pick raspberries (which we then eat on cereal or pancakes the following days); taking a trip to lake of the falls to see some small waterfalls and enjoy the views; lots of swimming and watersports; many card games; enough snacks to make you sick; but mainly a whole lot of nothing! One of the other things we often do is to take a trip into Minacqua to see the min-aqua-bats water ski show. This is the longest running amateur ski show in the US, and it is FREE! They do amazing things such as pyramids, a lot of jumps off the 6 ft ski jump, skiing on human skis, or their hands, or bare feet, canoe paddles, you name it…. also a lot of other crazy things. We went there Sunday night and saw the show, and once again….it was quite good.

So, if you ever want to get away from it all and enjoy the northwoods in it’s fullness, take a trip up to the Flambeau Flowage, and if you want…look up Joe Miller’s cottages. That’s where we have stayed every time we go there.