Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

There are a lot of things I remember from my childhood, but some of the events really stand out as though they happened just yesterday. One of these was our pilgrimage to Sugar Camp Lake and Theisenhusen’s Virgin Timber Lodge. I feel safe using the name because I am sure the owners are long gone, in fact I am not sure that I have spelled the owner’s name correctly or that the cabins are even there any longer. It was way up in the North woods - woods so thick you were afraid to walk back to the cabin by yourself for fear of bears, ravening wolves, and the dude with a hook where his hand used to be. Despite the wildlife fun, there was a lot to do and see.

There was a logging museum that had a statue of a Hodag, and another that had a huge saw fish, at least it seemed pretty big to me at the time. Best of all was Aqualand, still there the last I heard.

They had aquariums full of local fish species and a small deer herd, but the best part were the ponds out back. You could buy a frog and toss him into the pond – he thought he was getting away, but his excitement at being free only lasted a minute. The pond was full of Muskies. Hungry Muskies, and number one with a bullet on the Musky chart of delectable things to eat is frog. I remember the water would boil around the amphibian and then the froggy would suddenly disappear. The only thing Muskies like better than frog is chipmunk. Old timers used to actually use chipmunks for bait, putting them in a little harness and tossing them out in the water where they would swim around, but generally not for long. Of course, now a day you can’t use frogs or chipmunks.

Not far from the cabins was a fire tower. You could climb to the top and get a great view of all the trees. Though it is more of a guideline than a rule, you have to spit off the top of the tower. It was a great place for a dangle-spit competition as long as it wasn’t too windy. Yep, nothing like bringing up a real lunger and then snicker-snag over the edge. They could have put a sign up – Sugar Camp Tower, Home of the 3 foot Yo-Yo spit. I think three feet is the limit at which gravity overcomes the viscosity of snot and the dangler breaks off. Too bad Einstein is dead, he could do a paper on that… I smell a Noble prize in Bodily Functions.

Then there was the raft. It was more than a floating platform with a diving board on it, it was a rite of passage. You knew you had arrived at the next stage in your life when you could swim out to the raft and sit there with your legs dangling off the sides, hoping there weren’t any toe eating Muskies nearby. We swam, fished, and tossed huge rocks out into that lake. It will always hold a special spot in my heart and the memory of my childhood, at least as long as I can still remember anything.