Top 3 Reasons you Like to Climb @ the Lake

3. Ten minutes away
2. Fabulous Setting
1. Camaraderie with locals

My favorite thing about climbing in general is the movement over stone and there is no place better in the Midwest than the Lake!

Top 3 for the Lake
3. Easy access - 15 minutes from home and short approaches
2. Quantity and Quality of the stone (bouldering and climbing)
1. Pulling down on small crimpers with friends (Wednesday nights)

1. Drink to puke
2. Puke to Bleed
3. Bleed intensely

One of the nicer places to climb if you lived in Chicago.
Good lines, great history.
Snorkeling/scuba diving in the lake (with a submerged plane) minutes away when you get hot.

Miss Devils Lake; spent many thousands of days climbing there.

1. some of the best technical climbing of any area,
2. Beautiful area, plus it was easy to find people climb with,
3. hanging out by the lake with friends, and a cold beer.

3. The run around the lake (counter-clockwise, of course).

2. It will always feel like home.

1. The challenge, the success, the failure, the fear, and the enjoyment all found on a lifetime's worth of the most technical rock in the world.

3) the medium
2) the friends; parking lots,& beer
1) its home!

Regarding the Classic Run Around Devils Lake. I agree with Jay that the standard route is counterclockwise. Although I would begrudingly acknowledge that other variations (though inferior) are possible.

This Five Star Route starts on the North Shore at the Chateau. Click watch and start running west towards tumbled rock trail. Be sure to have sunglasses on to better "babe scope" the beach. Tumbled rock trail gives good movement and tests your technical skills in dodging hiker/tourists as you twist and turn. Humid conditions in July and August give the runner a fine opportunity to slime the aforementioned tourists as you scream by. If you are running with a partner I recommend that you lead so you may control the pace. A very short incline past the South Shore Cottages and you are out of the technical stuff and on the wider service road. Launch down the hill and past the historic Koshawaga Springs Lagoon on your left. Then on to the South Shore Road. (I check my watch about half way down the road heading east at the exact same spot each time)

Now this next portion or the route description is critical! The wooden board walk constructed a number of years back that hugs the lake is OFF ROUTE. You certainly can do this substandard variation but it is NOT the Classic Five Star Route that the LOCALS pioneered and repeat time after time. Stay on the road and give one fingered salutes to speeding cars that almost clip you. Make your way onto the South Shore Picnic and Beach Path. Do some "stylin" here as the tourists are checkin you out. Smooth and focused!!

From this point you may have to do a little "route finding" but a thin short trail will take you up to the Chicago Northwestern rail line or as the locals call "the TRACKS". (This is the only other time i will check my watch.)

The tracks can be a real test and perhaps the CRUX of the route. Early spring or summer and you may experience larger railroad ballast that slows foot placement. Late summer and the "the TRACKS" can be an oven and is comparable to the Bataan Death march. You are truly on the "sharp end" here and you are "running it out".

The Chateau will appear closer and closer as you run north. As soon as you arrive on the North Shore cut west (left) and dig down deep for that last dyno sprint for the finish at starting point in front of the Chateau.

I've done this route a hundred or more times. I have claimed to own the speed record though some scoundrels seem to think they have it. Upon investigation that used "AID" in the boardwalk.

I will be happy to share my time but in true Devils Lake ETHICS you will have to tell your first.

Route: "The Lake" FIVE STAR
Rating: 5.8 (Devils Lake 5.8 that is)
FA: unknown (perhaps some rock hopping Native American)
Length: just short of 4 miles (3.85?)
Pro: shorts, shoes, and watch (perhaps some crazed DLFA'er did it naked, drunk, and on acid)

More Beta for THE RUN (5.8). An ascent is made more difficult if the following objective hazards are encountered: biting dogs, flooded roads, and oxygen debt.

The first two hazards are contingent upon the season. Dogs are more likely to occur in the summer, when tourist activity is at its highest and most dangerous level. Flooding, though varying from year to year, is a springtime occurrence. Any detour into the woods to avoid the flooded road by the cottages makes a time-keeping effort irrelevant.

Oxygen debt can be encountered when the aspirant decides to PUSH IT and finds himself lacking. This can happen anytime and with little warning.

1. World class climbing 1 hour away.
2. Perfect rock surrounding a beautiful lake
3. Calming and peaceful, you can always find a spot that no one is around and keep to yourself.

3. Closest quality rock to where I live. (2.5hrs)
2. World class climbing without the crowds (excepting east bluff)
1. The technical and commiting nature of leading.

uhh cuz its the lake of the devil....

Chris treggE wrote:I'll temporarily hijack this thread: What is the best place to get a burger in Baraboo after climbing at the Lake? Preferably 1) good beer on tap and 2) non-smoking, although I realize #2 is probably impossible. Something akin to the Apline Inn at Grandad's in LaCrosse.

No "real" climbers bar. God I yearn for the Silverdale. Best Burger in Baraboo is between "Monks" and the "Square Tavern". Both located next to each other on the square in downtown Baraboo.

Monk's is on the lines of a "Sports Bar" while the Square Tavern is more on the lines of a "shot and a beer" joint. Both can get rockin but don't expect many people to even understand climbing in either.

I failed to mention that Monk's has a "smoke free" section.

monksbarandgrill.com/baraboo

I checked out Monk's this weekend, and enjoyed a "monster burger". It was great, and the homemade potato chips with ranch were great too. Root beer on tap in a frosty mug. Great pick Coach!

Coach - Sendfest this weekend? I have Friday off.

yeah monks is great. I had like loaded cheese fries there one time.. delish. Are we all talking about the one in the dells right off the highway? Or is there one closer?

sweatpants wrote:yeah monks is great. I had like loaded cheese fries there one time.. delish. Are we all talking about the one in the dells right off the highway? Or is there one closer?

ohh ok gotcha

Is the go cart track still there on the way in? We went there once and pretended we didn't notice the operator yelling that our time was up. We got a few more laps in before he started throwing tires from the tire barrier at us. We were 18. Oh, it was also the second climbing area I ever went to and Brinton's Crack was my first lead. Loved climbing there in 1976!

3. Boy Scouts throwing rocks (who says toproping is free of objective hazards?)
2. People from Chicago
1. I hate friction