Greetings and welcome!
We have a beautiful 62 degree day unfolding this afternoon. It looks like the weather is finally turning around, we are expecting nice days in the 60s right through the weekend.
The spring is springing all over the place. The grass is greening up nicely and some of the trees are starting to show buds. The green grass has the deer up by the roads, and there are a lot of them. You will want to be really careful driving. The spring peeper frogs are really noisy in wetlands and ponds. The whitewater rafting on the Peshtigo River continues to be excellent with water levels in the mid-teens.
It is tempting to get outside and start cleaning up the yard and start the gardens. A couple of words of caution about that.. Usually the fire danger is really high between when the snow melts and the big greening of the land. Combined with the ever present spring wind people need to be really careful with their campfires and brush burning.
My second word of caution comes with the gardening. My rule of thumb is to not plant anything that can’t be covered or brought inside before June 10th. I learned the hard way that at this time of year a cold front can bring below freezing temps overnight and frost kill young plants. Even with my June 10th rule I have been frozen out a few times.
Among other things this weekend is the opening of the fishing season. The lakes are open and have been for a week or more. It should be a good opener.
The ATV trails in Marinette, Florence and Oconto Counties open this weekend. Oconto is a recent addition to the list.
Oconto County Tourism
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
OCONTO COUNTY ATV TRAILS WILL OPEN FRIDAY, MAY 6, 2022.
BE AWARE TRAILS ON USFS PROPERTY ARE CLOSED. This means there is no access to Forest County from Oconto County.
Trails on Private and Oconto County property will be open along with county highway routes North of State Highway 22. The Nicolet State Recreation Trail is open in Oconto County from Valley View Road South to Shawano Line Road.
Please check with individual townships on whether their roads are open or closed.
Please check the County website www.co.oconto.wi.us or the Oconto Tourism site www.ocontocounty.org for the most up-to-date trail condition information.
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the Forest & Parks Department at 920-834-6995
The trails in the Nicolet National Forest do not open until 5/15, so the trail ends at the Forest County line. The Nicolet trail along Hwy 32 will be open.
Last Saturday was the benefit for Carole Walesh at the Silver Cliff park. Even though the weather was cold and rainy a lot of people came and the benefit was a tremendous success. I don’t know how much that they raised in total. I did see that both Allen from Jungle Jim’s and Ed from Rustic Inn lost their beards. The challenge was if they raised 5 grand each they would shave their beards. Apparently the donations blew away the bounty and they both got a shave.
Al and Carole are wonderful people that have helped the community in countless ways. It is great to see the community step up in such a huge way when it was their turn to get a little help. Thank you to everyone that stepped up!
Between the opening of fishing, the opening of ATV trails and people returning to open seasonal cabins I am expecting a busy weekend.
That covers my list for today. Have a good week and thank you for visiting!
RJB