On Friday June 14th, Kimiko and I went to Devil’s Lake after I finished work. We stopped at my house so I could change clothes and also remove the snow shovel from the trunk of my car: this is how I traditionally celebrate Flag Day. And then we were off to Baraboo.

As always, we parked in the South Shore area of Devil’s Lake State Park. We started on the Balanced Rock trail – it’s good to get the steep part out of the way first! There were a lot of folks out on the lake – fishing and canoeing and even some paddle boards. The climb on the trail isn’t too bad and there are a couple of good places to stop and enjoy the view on the way up.

Once we got to the top, we headed off on the East Bluff trail, heading towards the North Shore area. At a certain point we began to hear music apparently coming from the lodge or cabin or whatever at the North Shore. It turns out that they have live music on Friday nights as well as a catered fish fry.

Kimiko had made a picnic lunch and we stopped near the beach to eat and take a break. Overhead we noticed a fairly large number of hawks circling around. They were obviously riding the thermal air currents but I was pretty amazed at the large number of birds.

After we ate, we headed back along the west side of the lake on the Tumbled Rocks trail. It was good to get moving again – the breeze off the lake felt a little too cool while we stopped to eat. We walked along the highway to the South Shore area as the sun began to set. It was a beautiful sunset.