After my delicious meal, I had to ride on a major paved road for a few miles to Raspberry Hollow. What a buzzkill. The little 200 cc Yamaha air cooled thumper has all the grunt I need to stride through the toughest trails, but it’s not geared for highway speeds. I can do 55 Mph but when it’s doing so it’s screaming. I keep it under that speed whenever I can. No need to fry the little engine. It’s not fun at high speeds anyway. There was no traffic so I sauntered; 45 Mph in a 60 Mph zone. Safe enough if you’re the only one there.
Raspberry Hollow was gorgeous and completely empty. I was shocked at how nice it was. How did I not know about this place? It’s right there! Handily adjacent to pavement. Flat wide campsited. Super easy access. You could park a fifth wheel the size of France in there! The trees were nice, there was an outhouse, there was a hand operated water pump. Why was it empty? My staging area of Nondescript State Park was about 2/3 filled up. The only attraction I could see was that you could reserve a spot at the Park. That’s why I was there.
The plywood kiosk here had a “no fires whatsoever” warning still stapled up. I suspect State Park campsites allow fires but the big metal fire rings at Raspberry Hollow are still verboten for a few days while the rain percolates through the bureaucracies mind. Either that or it was rescinded but nobody bothered to drove out here to rip the sign down.
I’m pretty careful with fire on a dry year like this one. So I follow the rules reasonably well. I also prefer wood fire to propane burners. I appreciate brats cooked over wood enough to pay $20 to do it legally. So, no regrets about the State Park… this time. But I’ve at least learned that Raspberry Hollow is completely adequate. I will go back and camp there as soon as the fire restrictions are definitely lifted (which may be next year).
It was positioned in an interesting geographic spot. It’s on a big paved road and a snowmobile trail. In winter, you could roll your Ski-Doo off the trailer and lickety split zoom right into the wilderness. (I don’t own a snowmobile.) Alas, there was no “land trail” to the forest; only a winter trail. I had to roll back on the paved road. I’d need to go back past “The Crown” and from there return to the forest.
Back on pavement, I wound up to a buzzy 50 MPH just in time to see a bear come tearing out of the forest just a few hundred yards from the campsite. It jogged up the mowed brush adjacent onto the paved road and took a good look at my tiny bike in one lane and a semi coming in the opposite direction. We all braked; bear, semi, and me. The bear blinked at the truck and the buzzy little bike. For a minute I thought I might be the lesser of two challenges to a freaked out bear. Then it noped out. It did a u-turn and crashed back into the brush. I pawed at my camera but failed to get a video.
I dunno why, but I like bear pictures. Bears aren’t really rare… just uncommon enough that I enjoy seeing them. This was a black bear. I wasn’t in grizzly country.
Seeing the black bear go back into the forest I flipped a quick U, zipped back to Raspberry Hollow and jumped on a little trail that went adjacent to the road. Maybe I’d get another view? The trail was only a short one.
Wrong! The trail went several miles… all within earshot of the main road. It popped out at a cell phone tower within sight of “The Crown”. I’ll remember that if I camp there. Who doesn’t like a campsite with readily available bar food and a trail to access it? I never saw the bear again.
Five minutes later I’d passed The Crown and was heading back into nowhere. I stopped to look at my map. The next “target for exploration” had an ugly name. Call it “Mud Ditch”. It didn’t sound appealing, but it was a dot on the map in a place where dots were rare. The dot had free campsites, parking, and… a rifle range? Worth examination.
Honestly, Mud Ditch seemed well situated for snowmobiles but a bit odd for land vehicles. Then again, it was on a major forest system road (dirt of course, but well maintained) so who knows?
As I was standing there reading the map, two UTVs in caravan came roaring out of the forest. Possibly en route to The Crown? Then three other UTVs in caravan blew by me the opposite way. Those were the three that had been at The Crown. Apparently everyone knows about The Crown. Now, I know too.