Land of Lakes...

We planned to spend the night at Eau Claire WI to divide up the very long drive to Duluth MN. En route, we got lost in Green Bay when the main bridge on the I-45 was closed and our navigator wasn't very enthusiastic with an alternative route. Detour signposting got us back on track, eventually, but we had to back-track quite a way. We hadn't found much to excite us about Eau Claire in the Lonely Planet or on the internet, so, right at the key intersection in Wausau, we made a lightening decision to head to Minocqua, solely on the basis that it (a)avoided interstates and (b)seemed to traverse more scenic roads.

An informal ice skating rink in Minocqua township.

We don't know what we missed in Eau Claire, but Minocqua was a good decision. Minocqua's motto is nature's original water park and claims to be in the middle of 3000 lakes and 160 miles of groomed snow-mobile trails! We have now seen enough to accept both of these representations! All of the lakes are frozen solid, so they supplement the amenity for ski-do enthusiasts, plenty of whom were staying in our hotel in the town, and we saw them fuelling up at gas stations and zooming around over the lakes and trails.

This group of snow-mobilers were preparing to set off along Lake Minocqua.

Gassing up in town.

Like many small snowbound towns, Minocqua is very cute, but this town's unique characteristic is that its CBD is contained on what is effectively a tiny island in Lake Minocqua. One road in, another out, both across bridges. You can walk the roads of the island in about 15 minutes. We enjoyed an evening meal at Polecat and Lace, a popular family owned and friendly bar and grill. It seemed to be the best place in town.

The main street of Minocqua is lined with colourful shops and characteristic architecture.

This shop specialises in colourful letter boxes!