Monday, 27 July
It was stormy when we left to pick up the trailer, but fortunately, there was a break in the weather when we arrived, allowing us to hook up without getting drenched. We had started the refrigerator on propane the night before to give it a head start on cooling down, and it seemed to work well. Since we were concerned about driving with the gas on, we turned it off before hitting the road. As soon as we left, the rain began to sprinkle again, but luckily, it didn’t worsen during our three-hour drive to Milford State Park.
Upon arrival, we quickly found our campsite, which was somewhat unconventional. The lakeshore was lined with paved spots, divided into three sites, with a fifth wheel already occupying the middle one. To get into our site, we had to circle the loop the wrong way and back up into our spot. The site had a sheer cliff on the lakeside, so the trailer faced away from the water towards a small green space with a fire ring and picnic table. I had chosen this site because Google Maps indicated a tree that might provide some afternoon shade, but it turned out to be dead and leafless.
To make the most of the water view, I set up our grill and chairs on the pavement in front of the trailer. While this meant we couldn’t use the awning for shade, it felt silly not to take advantage of the lake view. One of my regrets about our trailer is that it only has small windows, so we couldn’t fully appreciate the views from inside.
The picnic table was in a puddle of water, so I tried to drag it out, but the wet wood made it too heavy to move far. To make matters worse, the air smelled of rotting fish, which Lisa discovered was coming from two large, filleted fish floating below us. After setting up the camper, I used my trash stick to push the fish away from the site.
After setup, we cracked open a beer, but just as we enjoyed it, the rain started again. We were lucky to have had a break in the storm for our setup. We finished our beers, had lunch inside the trailer, and then decided to explore the state park.
We were surprised by how many campers there were for a Monday; many seemed to have been there for a while. We also discovered several trailheads, most of which appeared well-maintained, likely because of the park’s equestrian area. The abundance of trails in the park was something we hoped to explore further.
After touring the park, we stopped for gas and explored the Corps of Engineers (COE) parks around the dam. On our way out, we took a photo by the State Park entrance sign and left one of our #ShryockRocks there.
Our first stop was at the Overflow Park area. Here, the dam released excess water through a large pipe, and there was a tower on the lakeside to regulate the release. Unlike other dams we’d visited, this pipe had a significant water flow, and at least a dozen people were fishing nearby. We also noticed a fish hatchery on the backside of the dam, but it was closed for the day.
Next, we drove to an overlook near the overflow tower and took pictures. There was an informational board detailing the dam’s construction, including the staggering $78.8 million cost to build it in the 1960s. We also dropped off another #ShryockRock at the overlook.
When we returned to the trailer, I finished putting away my clothes while Lisa cooked up sausage and potatoes for dinner. Afterward, we relaxed outside, enjoying the lake view and watching the sunset before the bugs drove us indoors. In addition to the usual flies and mosquitoes, there were many Mayflies at the lake, which added to the bug-filled atmosphere.
Later, I installed a new Amazon Firestick to replace the Roku, which had stopped working. With only a couple of TV channels and spotty internet, it wasn’t long before we decided to call it a night and head to bed.
Tuesday, 28 July
The following day, we drank our coffee overlooking the lake. Many fish were jumping, and some fishermen floated by in their boats. One was using a net to fish.
Dogwood Trail
Before we ate breakfast, we decided to hike one of the smaller trails in the park. The 0.8-mile Dogwood Trail was a nice walk despite plenty of spiders. We had to continuously sweep our walking sticks in front of us to knock down spider webs, and we were not always successful.
Kayaking
When we returned, we had French toast and sausage for breakfast and decided to go kayaking. Though we were right next to the water, we decided to drive around to the boat launch so that it would be easier to get in and we would get less mud on the kayak. There was a little wind, and the weather was mostly cloudy and in the lower 80s, making it very comfortable. We kayaked for over three hours because I kept trying to find the marina, which I thought was just around the next bend. Eventually, I gave up trying to find it and had to fight a little stiffer wind on the way back, making it slower. It was a nice trip, though, with views of painted cliffs and limestone rocks. We saw plenty of jumping fish, some herons that were sometimes indistinguishable from sticks until you got closer, and one shiny beetle stuck on its back in the water. We did get attacked by several swarms of flies, and I had about a dozen dead bodies around me for my efforts.
Lunch
We took showers to remove the lake water and any possible blue-green algae we may have encountered. This lake, unfortunately, was under a blue-green algae warning. We enjoyed some lunch and a Mike’s Hard Lemonade before deciding to try geocaching.
Geocaching
Our first attempt was next to the park office. We almost gave up trying to find it until one of the park workers gave us a hint and told us to look again at the spot we were at because “not everything was as it seems.” In the middle of a rock garden was a plastic PVC pipe that looked permanent, but instead, it was the cache.
The next couple of spots were in heavy scrub, and I was wearing shorts, which made locating the caches very uncomfortable. It quickly became evident that long pants, hard-soled shoes, and possibly gloves are appropriate for geocaching next time. We found a total of three caches before heading back.
Crystal Trail
We had a few hours before dinner, so I wanted to hike another trail. Lisa did not want to join me, so I chose one with a geocache called the Crystal Trail. It was a nice trail, but it started to rain heavily as I was near the cache location. I had a tough time finding the cache, but it is so hard to miss once you do find it. In this case, it was an ammo box that was 90% covered in flat rocks. It rained back to the truck but cleared up as I approached the camp. I was soaked, but Lisa said it hadn’t rained at the trailer.
Evening
We had corn on the cob and ribs for dinner and enjoyed the evening outside before heading inside. The forecast called for a lot of rain the next day, so I tried to put away our chairs and loose items. I had also put away our kayak, figuring we would probably not be able to get much floating in the next day.
We watched a little Shameless on Netflix before heading off to bed.
Wednesday, 29 July
The sky was completely cloudy when we woke up, and there were signs of an overnight shower, but there seemed to be a break in the rain, so we could enjoy a cup of coffee and some scrambled eggs and sausage before a light rain pushed us indoors.
Geocaching
We took some showers, and the weather cleared up again, so we decided to do some touring and try some more geocaching. I found a couple of easy spots around Junction City, and though we could find several of them, we did have a couple of failures. One of the geocache sites was at the Spring Valley Historic Site, which had an old cabin, barn, and schoolhouse. All the buildings were locked, but it was fun to explore them.
Geary County Historical Museum
While driving around, we also saw a sign pointing to the Geary County Historical Museum. We called them to see if they were open when we stopped for lunch. They said they were taking appointments and we could come. The museum was in an old limestone high school building, and although it was on three floors, it was not very big. Most of the displays were on the first floor. The third floor had a reconstructed classroom but was mostly a large meeting space, and the basement had the research library. Some of the displays I found especially interesting were the information about the frequent flooding of the Republican River and the eventual building of the dam, the small display on the 1918 pandemic, and the story about a local world-renowned doctor who inserted goat testicles in his patients to cure multiple maladies include sexual dysfunction.
Fort Riley
After leaving the museum, we decided to find some ice cream. Surprisingly, there were no local places in Junction City, so we had to open up our search pattern. Eventually, we settled on Call Hall Dairy Barn in Manhattan, about 40 minutes away. So we set our Google Maps to avoid highways and headed that way. Without realizing it, Google Maps had routed me through Fort Riley, but luckily, we had our military ID cards with us, so we enjoyed driving through the base and seeing the changes that have occurred since I was there almost 16 years prior.
Call Hall Dairy Barn
Along the way, it started to rain so heavily that we could barely see the cars ahead of us, but as we got closer to Manhattan, the rain lightened up a little. We discovered that the ice cream place was actually on the campus of Kansas State University and was a component of their Agriculture School. Luckily, the school was not in session because the small store looked popular. I ordered a milkshake, and Lisa got a sundae. They also had meat and other dairy products like cheese curds, milk, and 101 flavors of quart ice cream containers. It’s too bad we have such a small refrigerator.
Evening
It was still raining when we left Manhattan, but as we returned to our campsite, we broke out of the rain clouds and into mostly blue skies. Behind us was a wall of black raining clouds and in front of us a beautiful day. We got some gas and relaxed at the trailer before putting some things away to jump to our state park the next day. We had a nice dinner of pork burgers, potato salad, and fresh tomatoes before heading inside and watching a few episodes of Shameless again.
Thursday, 30 July
When I woke up, there was a heavy mist, so I drank my coffee inside. When Lisa woke up, the rain hadn’t improved, and the forecast predicted increasing rain throughout the day. Lisa prepared some yogurt with fruit for both of us. During a brief break in the rain, we quickly hooked up the trailer and set off for Lovewell State Park.