Green Apple Campout

This past weekend was the annual campout of the Green Apple Folk Society at Hartman Creek State Park near Wausau, WI. I'm new to the society, so this was the first "real" event that I've attended. I met some wonderfully friendly folks, and the music that was the reason for bringing us all together was marvelous, both for listening and for jamming!

The campout started on Friday night, but I decided to wait until Saturday to go. The weather on Friday was not really conducive to camping...it was very rainy at Hartman Creek that night. Saturday and Sunday, however, were perfect days...the temps were in the 70's during the day, and the sky was clear. The stars on Saturday night were bright, and we even were visited by a Northern Lights display, although it wasn't much more than a glowing stripe across the night sky.

The campfire jam session on Saturday night must have had about 30 folks at it. Instruments were numerous, including acoustic guitars, banjos, mandolins, a banjolin (or is it bandolin?), tin whistles, violins, flutes, rhythm instruments, and bohran(s). Not everyone attending the jam camped the night. The morning brought more conversations while waking up, and then a smaller jam session before we all packed up to go home.

Hartman Creek is a beautiful state park! I checked out the other areas of it as I left early Sunday afternoon. We were camped in a group camping area. The public camping sites are equally as wonderful. I certainly will want to go there again.

I took my old (faithful) backpack pup tent and it served me well once again. (The last time it was used was in 2002 at Bear Butte in South Dakota!) Of course I don't sleep directly on the old, cold, hard ground. I took my old fouton mattress, which fits neatly into my tent. That combined with my thick, Montana cold weather sleeping bag, plus a pillow, and I was set for the night.

The Green Apple Folk Society is a group that serves the Appleton/Green Bay region, with monthly meetings and folk concerts. I'm really glad that I found them!