A Postcard from the Moss: May 2025

My friend's first camping trip!

I love sending postcards when I travel, so once a month I share photos with a postcard-length blurb about a place I’ve recently visited.

A pretty, but somewhat sloped campsite in the Kettle Moraine State Forest

There’s a natural urge to want to share our hobbies with our friends. After all, we like our friends and we like our hobbies, so wouldn’t our lives be better if we could combine them? However, not all of our friends enjoy all of our hobbies, so there’s a fine line between inviting someone to try a new activity and steamrolling them with invitations until they agree.

In early March, a friend told me that her sister would be running a 50 mile ultramarathon along the Ice Age Trail in the Southern Unit of the Kettle Moraine State Forest and invited me to join her to spectate. I immediately put her on the spot, saying, “Oh, we should camp! There are campgrounds really close to the race route!” She tentatively agreed and two months later she joined me for her very first camping trip. And apparently I made sleeping in a tent sound appealing enough that her husband decided to join at the last minute for his first camping trip in about thirty years!

Highlights of the camp menu

I’m not usually one for elaborate camp meals¹, but a first camping trip is a milestone to be celebrated! Plus, I figured that rehydrated refried beans is an acquired taste that is better saved for a wet day on a backpacking trip when the only criterion for a successful meal is that the food is warmer than the ambient temperature. On Friday, I baked brie in a tiny cast iron pan over the campfire and served it with crackers, a drizzle of hot honey, and a side of grapes while we waited for our foil packet meals of sausages and peppers to cook amongst the coals—a big step up from my typical fare², but without that much added work! Of course, the evening ended with s’mores.

I’ve had both good and bad nights camping, so I went into the weekend prepared for my friend to hate the experience and never again venture into the woods with me. I had even prefaced the (two night) trip by saying that there would be no hard feelings if she decided to bail after the first night! However, when I checked in after dinner to make sure the regrets hadn’t already begun before bedtime, the preliminary review of the experience was, “So far I think I like camping! It’s just sitting around a fire eating brie.”

Imagine the near constant song of a Rose-breasted Grosbeak in the background of this photo

We spent Saturday hopping from aid station to aid station around the Kettle Moraine State Forest, cheering on the runners and waiting for a glimpse of my friend’s sister, until ending up at a brewery for dinner and then collapsing into our respective tents before 10pm. Since we were too tired for a campfire when we returned to camp, we used up the remaining firewood on Sunday morning with one of my favorite camping activities—s’mores for breakfast!

Best of all, the final review from my friend has left open the possibility of a second camping trip in the future!

How to visit:

The Southern Unit of the Kettle Moraine State Forest is about 45 minutes from Milwaukee and just under 2 hours from Chicago. In addition to more than 30 miles of the Ice Age Trail, there are dozens of other trails for hiking, biking, and cross country skiing, multiple lakes for boating and fishing, and several campgrounds and backpacking shelters. The nearby towns of Whitewater, Eagle, and Palmyra offer food and drink options for those who aren’t interested in cooking meals over a campfire.

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