We decided to take a short bike trip, because we had not been biking in over a month. Lake Kegonsa State Park was only 25 miles away from home.

It was in the 80s, not typical for October in Wisconsin.

I looked online to see if there were vacant campsites at Lake Kegonsa State Park, and it looked like they were all booked. I called ahead and they said there were a few first come, first serve sites left. I packed in record time after I heard that, and we took off. Halfway through, I needed a break. We stopped abruptly on County Highway B, and had a picnic right on the edge of the road.

Here is one of our first views of Lake Kegonsa State Park. We still had to bike around it to get to the state park on the other side.

There were some very nice homes along the lake. But they looked haunted...

Lucky us! We scored one of the nicest campsites in the park, in a heavily wooded area.

We saw many of these wooly bear caterpillars along the way. Thomas ended up collecting a handful (9) in his empty pepsi bottle.

Bunny! This was on our hike to the beach.

The pepsi--caterpillar container.

We had a nice walk along the lake shore.

It is cool how the stream empties into the lake with waves coming into the stream from the lake.

I wouldn't say Lake Kegonsa looked too much different from Lake Monona or Mendota...

It was windy!

There were plenty of docks for the boaters and fishermen.

Our evening hike continued.

Birch.

This was on the blue bird hiking trail.

This too. It looks wide enough for cross country skis in winter.

It was time to return to camp for dinner.

Here is our campsite, before Thomas spent the entire night burning the leaves in a fire.

We enjoyed salmon with vegetables and pasta.

Thomas was excited that the Kids Activity Page in the park newspaper had a section on the difference between a butterfly and a moth. He could have written it himself.

Good morning.

The ride home.

We took a quieter road than highway B for a lunch break.

Read the full story below:

We went on a hot, summer like bike trip to Lake Kegonsa State Park. Lake Kegonsa State Park was created in the 1960's from a 1 cent tax on cigarettes. It was only a total of 50 miles, but we still found it challenging with the hills and the level of shape we are in. Part of it was on the Capitol City Bike Trail which is a very nice paved trail in Madison. Thomas was thrilled at how many caterpillars we ran into. Megan was concerned that we might not get a campsite, because when she checked online before we left it looked like every single one was booked. I guess that is what happens when it's in the 80s and not raining in Wisconsin in October. Megan called the park and found out they still had a few first come first serve sites left. Megan packed in record time after she heard that, and we made it there in 3 hours. We ended up with one of the best sites in the park, in a heavily wooded area. We went on a hike to the beach and did not run into any people except on the paved lake shore path. There were a lot of boaters and fishermen. For dinner, we enjoyed vegetables, pasta, and salmon. Once it got dark Thomas made a campfire just from sticks and leaves that he found around the campsite, and it provided us with fire for the whole evening. On the way back home Sunday, Thomas collected many caterpillars in a Pepsi bottle. He was excited to see 11 species of butterflies on our trip.