Campground Review:
Lake Farm County Park is in a really cool location. It's just 5 miles from downtown Madison, which on a Saturday morning is a fabulous bike ride. There are trails right through the campground that are on Madison's trail system. There is a daily fee for the trails but I think it was $5 for the day. The annual pass was pretty inexpensive as well if I remember correctly. The park definitely fills up being so close to downtown, people camp there just so they can ride their bikes to the farmers market. The sites are relatively well groomed, mine was a bit shaggy as they were mowing when I was there and didn't want to bother me, which I appreciate because we have had tent lines cut with mowers that have gotten too close. My site was also considerably dirty. It was well marked that it was a smoke free site but there were cigarette butts everywhere and trash as well. That was disappointing. I got in fairly early on a Thursday and there were only a few sites left. I had difficulty at first figuring out how to register as the office was closed but as I was trying to navigate the sign and instructions the host came over and cleared it up for me. I got registered for a couple days and set up camp. Shortly after I noticed that the camper next to me had a car from Colorado, where I'm from and it appeared to be a single lady also setting up a tent. This made me happy and we walked the park and chatted at our sites. The area we were in did not have fire rings. This was very disappointing. Other sites had fire rings but ours did not. One of the first things I noticed while in my site was that it was overrun with mosquitos. I know there has been a lot of rain in many places but it made it incredibly hard to enjoy the area.
There are showers, free of charge and flush toilets with running water sinks. So that part was quite comfortable. They even had a dishwashing station which was also super useful since I did not have a campfire. They had a water bottle filling station near the bubbler. Which was nice as well. Overall, the campground has nice amenities, you can even buy campfire wood from the camp host. There was an air filling station as well as a tiny little library. There was a playground as well for the kids.
I decided that Saturday morning was a good time to hit the trail and head to farmers market. It's a pretty easy ride until you get right up to the square, then there was a big hill to bike up but overall the trail was very easy. I wished I had more energy to bike more while I was there. I would go back to this campground just to hit the trails. They went in about three different directions. I picked up a lovely Amish made apple pie while I was at farmers market and that was quite enjoyable for dessert that night.
Product Review:
As a Ranger for The Dyrt, I get products to test from time to time- today I am testing the Women's Free Rein Parka from Red Ledge. There a bunch of cool features in this rain parka that make it a nice jacket to keep on hand in any situation. It has two large armpit zippers that help with ventilation when it's warm out but wet. It has two large pockets in the normal location with a smaller pocket with some elastic inside one of those front pockets. I'm assuming the little one is to keep keys or ID from getting lost in the large hand pockets. It has adjustable velcro on the sleeves to keep that tight and water free. The hood has an interesting design. I found you have to unzip the front a bit to put the hood up as it's a bit of a tight fit but once it's up it's not tight at all. It is designed so you can turn your head without ending up inside the hood and that feature works well. On top of the zipper going down the front there is also a velcro enclosure so that you know you're going to keep water from getting in. I did notice that if I am out with the hood down and it's raining, the water goes right down the neck. But, if it's raining, just put the hood up. It's form fitting, which I normally don't like but this one is quite comfortable. The fabric is pretty rigid at first, I'm hoping that will loosen up as time goes on. I also found that it is more comfortable with a long sleeve shirt underneath. The material feels weird on the skin otherwise. I also used it just as a coat while out, it didn't rain much while I was camping but it helped to keep me a little warmer as I neglected to bring a sweatshirt. I imaging it would also be a great windbreaker in a pinch. I look forward to keeping this in my camping arsenal.
