This Summers Top Five Drop-in Outdoor Activities at the NLDC

By Peter Rebholz

All throughout the fall, winter, and spring months most students are anxiously awaiting the start of summer and freedom from school.  This is because summer brings warm weather, longer days, and a whole new arsenal of fun activities that we cannot do here in the lovely state of Wisconsin because of our changing seasons.  Unfortunately though, with summer coming to the half-way point there is an increasing number of parents who are just starting to hear their child say those dreaded three words, “I am bored”.  Here at the Discovery Center we want offer you a free remedy for your child’s boredom that will hopefully be a fun, enriching experience and put a smile on their face in the process.  Summer is the best time to swing in to the Discovery Center because we are an ideal destination for anyone who is looking to get active while enjoying nature.  We offer many great summer programs for youth and adults here that can be accessed on our website but we want to highlight this summer’s Top Five Drop-in Outdoor Actives.  

• The first cost free activity is hiking on our 12-mile trail system that is open to everyone from dawn to dust.  If you come hike our beautiful 12 miles of trails you can explore a variety of habitats and terrain through woods, along a lake, bog and Manitowish River.  
• The trails are also a great place to go biking, all 12 miles are accessible to bikers and this is a great way to cover more ground and explore each of the habitats in a couple hours.   
• Summer in Manitowish Waters would not be right without some time spent out on or in the water, if you have always wanted to take your family canoeing or kayaking but you do not have a boat, we offer variety of free rentals of kayaks, canoes, paddles, and lifejackets to be used on State House Lake located on the Discovery Center grounds.  
• State House Lake has a beautiful grass beach front and three new peers that are great if you want to drop in and go swimming or if you want to use one of our new fishing poles to try your hand at catching one of the monster largemouth bass or northern pike that call Statehouse lake their home.  
• The last drop-in activity on this list is the GPS geocaching, where you go out with one of our GPS systems and hike the trails in search for the five hidden boxes located in the woods. 

The Discovery Center is open seven days a week and we offer all of these drop-in activities and more, so if you are interested stop in at our visitor center’s headquarters the Nature Nook from 8:30am-5:00pm.