Welcome To Fall: Finding Joy On Wisconsin Trails

Devils Lake in October 2025

🍁Welcome Fall🍁

There is a specific kind of quiet that shows up in Wisconsin the first week of fall. The light changes first. It gets lower and gold, and it falls through the trees differently than it did even a week ago. Then the air changes too, that first cool morning where you actually reach for a flannel instead of just leaving it on the hook by the door out of habit.

I love this season. I think I love it because it asks something different of you than summer does. Summer says go, go, go, fill the days, chase the long light. Fall says slow down and notice. Notice how the trail smells different, that mix of damp leaves and woodsmoke. Notice how quiet the woods get once the bugs are gone and the crowds thin out.

Since I got back from Africa, I have been taking small steps to get back to that noticing myself, one trail at a time, once a week, with Wisconsin women. Every single outing has given me a conversation I did not expect and did not want to end. It is amazing to hear how women out here are exploring our state parks, going on solo adventures, backpacking for the first time, pushing past what they thought they could do alone. These are the women who inspire me to get up and do this work every day. They are the reason I keep showing up to help other women find this same joy, this hidden treasure we get to experience right here at home. I am so grateful for every woman who shows up on these hikes.

If you have been following along with Wisconsin Adventure Family for a while, you know I did not grow up with this season. I grew up in the Free State in South Africa, near the Drakensberg mountains, where our seasons run the opposite direction entirely. Fall still feels like a gift I get to unwrap every year, something I try not to take for granted.

So here is what I want to say to you as we start this one together. Let this fall be the season you try something new. Not something big or expensive or complicated. Just something you have been putting off. The trail you keep driving past. The campground everyone talks about that you have never actually been to. The hike with your kids where you let them set the pace instead of yours. The morning you get up early just to watch the fog sit on the water before the sun burns it off.

I am not asking you to do it alone either. This fall I am hosting two chances to get outside with a group of women who get it, no experience required, just a willingness to show up.

The first is a camping and kayaking weekend by the river, October 2 through 4. Slow mornings, time on the water, a fire at night, the kind of weekend that resets something in you.

The second is a camping trip in Marinette County, October 23 through 25, where we will spend our days exploring what is genuinely known as the waterfall capital of Wisconsin. If you have never stood in front of one of those falls in full autumn color, it is worth the drive. P.S. These are free events to join.

If either one is calling to you even a little, do not overthink it. Just email me back at wiadventurefamily@gmail.com, and we will figure out the rest together.

Whatever your fall looks like this year, I hope you get outside for at least a little piece of it. I hope you notice the light. I hope you try the new thing.

Hike local. Travel global. See you out there.

Dini