Bolder Junction Wisconsin was the small town near where we stayed on Fishtrap Lake. So we drove into town for supplies, wandered around, went to events and shops. Bolder Junction is home of the musky, a dinosaur like fish.
The gas station is also the grocery, which when we went was still in the midst of construction, so we had to step over construction material to get to the produce. However later in our stay it was finished, and actually turned into a rather nice little grocery store.
One of my cousins and I spent a day exploring downtown, her mostly interested in food, and I just to pop into every shop I could find. There are maps up around town that tell you where all the shops, services, and restaurants can be found. We went in the Blueberry Patch that had clothes, and christmas ornaments, and gifts, and blueberry things. Near it was the Cranberry gift shop that smelled of cranberries and had cranberry foods and items, as well as fun gifts, and food samples. There were also art shops, and galleries. Most of the shops seem to be more for tourists and people’s summer homes, rather than for people who live there all year long.
One of the places my uncle and I spent a long time at was Mad Dog Jakes. We went about three days in a row because they were one of the places in town with wifi. Over the time we were there I ordered their horchata ice cream which was light and creamy, the Ultimate Oreo and Mint Avalanche which was a mint ice cream with andes candies, grasshoppers candies, and a chocolate fudge swirl, the Ultimate oreo was a oreo crumb base ice cream with larger bits of oreo crushed into as well. I enjoyed the combo of the ultimate oreo and mint avalanche. The last ice cream mix I got was a chocolate which was rich and creamy mixed with a malt ice cream. We also sat outside at one point with Max and they brought him out a puppy cup. (A puppy cup is a cup of soft serve vanilla ice cream, most ice cream shops will offer one for your dog if your dog is with you). The first time my uncle and I went it wasn’t very busy until we had sat down, then over time it became steadily busier. There isn’t a lot of seating, and the wifi didn’t work as well outside of the shop, so sitting in their tented outdoor seating didn’t work well. They were also one of the few restaurants in town that did quick non sit down food.
Northern Lattes coffee shop:
I ordered a tea latte the Paris dream which is a fruity black tea with a touch of vanilla, it had a ton of foam and a light fruity taste that I enjoyed. It did burn me and it was probably silly to order hot tea in the summer but sitting outside in the nice breeze was enjoyable. They didn’t seem to have any air conditioning inside. Later when we went to the fourth of july parade down town I ordered a strawberry italian ice that was refreshing and delicious and my cousin ordered their iced chai latte which we all tried and loved.
The fourth of july parade included old cars, all of the fire department and forest fire prevention cars, the clubs for the area, a ton of candy, and a celebration for Smokey the Bear’s 70th birthday. There was also a farmers market going on while we were there and we stopped by one evening to listen to music downtown.
We had dinner at the Aqualand Ale House which is a gastropub that was suggested to us by another aunt as she researched the area before we left. Aqualand Ale House is named after Aqualand which was founded in 1955 and was a popular animal park in the area. Pictures from the original Aqualand can be found on the walls. I ordered the chicken, spinach, and cranberry flat bread pizza. I also tried their Point Premium Orange Cream gourmet soda. I enjoyed both.
For dessert we were told they had chocolate chip cheesecake, which we ordered, however when it came it didn’t taste like chocolate chip. Instead it tasted like blueberry which confused our palettes.
We also went hiking. Max loved it. There were tons of beautiful plants around and buzzing bugs that scared one of my cousins. The grass was rather high, so I was glad I was wearing jeans.
We also enjoyed the fireworks which were held on the lawn by the airport. Several of the cars around us also set off fireworks before the show which we found interesting, especially as the black bits that came off floated down to us.
Before we left we stopped by the local bakery for donuts, it was rather busy.
I ordered a glazed blueberry cake donut.
Boulder Junction was filled with friendly people and was definably a dog friendly area. Since I saw a lot of people with their dogs out and about. Except for the parade and the fireworks I didn’t see a ton of people around downtown when we were around. If you go to Boulder Junction stop by the welcome center. They’ll happily tell you about everything going on in the area, all of the upcoming events, as well as give you directions on places that might suit your interests such as fishing, swimming, hiking, biking, ect. As another note the bookstore doesn’t really have a lot of books in it, it’s more of a gift shop.