Backpacking UGLY (Yellow River with the G5)

“It's just NOT a very pretty time of the year for backpacking. Nature is great... and I heard packs of coyotes at various locations all night long, a couple howling at each other... and some type of owls, also talking, that screech like monkeys... BUT I still can't wait for SPRING!!!

I'm home early! Details here (with photos) and below!


After not finding a good hike within 4 hours minus mud and snow, I finally resolved to go to my favorite spot in the area (despite what Crazy Mike says!), Yellow River State Forest in Northeast Iowa.

I arrived around 5:30 p.m. Friday. The pack weighed EEEEEK 40 lbs. with two sleeping pads, lotsa food, tons of water (didn’t want to boil yukky, late-season snow) and clothes for two nights. Daytime temps were calling for upper 40s to low 50s. Overnight? Maybe 40-ish. BUT what about the effects of the SNOW on the ground??

I hiked up the steep hill and then took the road the rest of the way, as opposed to the trail. I didn’t want to risk slipping going down a slick trail, especially as night fell. It was neat to see the shadows start to show as the quarter moon came out. And no one was around at all. Nice. It was a 2.2-mile hike in.

The trail into Brown’s Hollow was obviously used by snowmobiles. (None would show while I was there, then again, the trail’s awfully dug up now.) I chose a campsite by the big fire ring, picking snow as opposed to mud for the tent. I anticipated having a great big fire. See, the forest service staff includes convicts from the nearby Luster Heights Work Release Prison Camp and they put a lot of cut logs by the fire rings. However, all the wood was damp, the weather was humid, there was to be no fire. I even brought along those “logs” from the camping section at Wal-Mart that will burn awhile, to get fires going (little 6” long, ½” across logs…… NOT FIREPLACE LOGS!! LOL). They would burn, other stuff burned while they were going, but then it all would go out. ACK!! I ate Mt. House lasagna for the first time. Yummy! There was a grate on one side of the fire ring. I put a log under it and was able to get my Pepsi can stove closer to the grate, and then put the pan on the grate. What would you use otherwise to put your pan on, when you can’t put it on three tent stakes, cuz you can’t put them in the frozen ground?

I got cold attempting to sleep. I had the two pads, plenty of clothes, then ended up putting on my pants over the long johns. My legs were getting cold where my knees touched the top of the sleeping bag. Sheesh! Shoulda brought this piece of remnant flannel fabric that I have, for cold spots. I had a candle lantern going and debated letting it go all night. Then I remembered I couldn’t do that without much ventilation, so I put it out.

I had foot warmer pad thingees, which it said not to use while sleeping, but I did, sticking them on the outside bottom of my socks. They did not work well at all. So much for that.

In the morning, I ate my usual oatmeal. It was actually fairly nice out, but man, sleeping on snow sure made it cold overnight. (And yes, I sleep cold anyway.)

At this point – with the specter of no campfire a second night, the fact that I froze in the tent the first night and barely slept, and the fact I had no good, dependable way to put a pan over the Pepsi can stove to boil water (also, I had a 2-person Mt. House chili mac and no way to boil that much water, or a good way to split it up and still have something to cook and serve it up in! DUH!), I decided to leave Saturday.

I got up slow, hoping the sun would melt some of the frost off the tent… and give me a couple hours more WARM sleep. But it was cloudy. Around 11, things were dried off sufficiently, packed up and I headed out. It was a hike of 3.5 miles back to the backpacker’s parking lot. I stayed on roads and snowmobile trails, which were, alternately, muddy, snow and icy. It was beautiful out nonetheless, but it sure kept me longing for springtime and the green that it brings (did I mention green is my favorite color?) I ran into a couple trout fishermen who had caught a brown trout in the crazy runoff waters. Course, they looked at me like I was crazy, backpack, trekking poles and all by myself walking on a snowmobile trail. J So it goes…….

Then I headed the 20 minutes to Cabela’s at Prairie du Chien and bought backpacking stuff. Aaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!

Oh yeah, I did have a dream during my fitful, cold sleep. All I can recall is a guy and gal, maybe hubby and wife, who were TV spokespeople, sitting in chairs (maybe by a pool), they were in swimsuits. They were talking and her swimsuit top went up so one boob was exposed. It was that way awhile, then the guy finally spotted it and went nuts. LOL!!! Gosh, wonder where that dream came from. LMFAO! (However, I don’t recall any weird nipple toys….hehehe)”

“A nice write-up, thanks lizs. Enjoyed the pictures, too. You look great. Too bad the wood was damp. Dry wood would have made a big difference.

I checked the state road map. It shows the forest as 76 acres with 176 camping sites. Are most of the sites together in a campground?”

“Great report and pictures Lizs.”

“Nice report and great pictures. That camera takes some sharp photos. The stitch feature is really fun to play with too.

Too bad you got so cold, sometimes it just works that way....no matter how cold it really is. What type of bag were you using?”

“Nice of you to take that breast shot for all of us guys. Thanks! lol!”

“Nowslimmer, it's ON HIGHWAY 76 (or off on a county road, no more than 3-4 miles), but the forest is big.

Here's what the DNR website gives for acreage, and I was in the Paint Creek Unit (my second favorite unit is the Yellow River one -- not too many people go there and I know the trails there after a few expeditions):

Luster Heights Unit - 770 acres
Mudhen Unit - 196 acres
Paint Creek Unit - 5237 acres
Paint Rock Unit - 864 acres
Waukon Junction Unit - 209 acres
Yellow River Unit - 1227 acres
Total - 8503 acres

Information on the forest, as in anything you might want to know

If you want to check out the backpacking info specifically, on that same page

It's a great map you can print out at home, although this morning the .pdf document is messing up my machine! PDFs sometimes do that to my system... ack!”

“I think your dream is trying to tell you something about repressed exhibitionist desires.”

“Also, NS, there are four backpacking camping areas. They're off on the trail. You'd need to hike in at least .5 mile to get to one.

Also there are two regular campgrounds, one on Little Paint Creek, and the other on Big Paint Creek. They're nonelectric, no showers, but there are primitive toilets. Water is available at an information kiosk next to the parking area for backpackers (which is not far from the Big Paint Creek campground).

Also, this forest features the only fire tower in Iowa. They've got it fenced off pretty good now, but I've still seen people make it in... and up!”

“Prosecutor and I are talking about a Yellow River backpacking trip on another thread. He suggested April 2-4. So, lets do it! I'll start a thread specific for that and then give a link here.”

“It happened when I was trying to print your picture, lizs.

Your answer did help. The forest has been growing. (Bush will get those loggers in there soon.) The state map, that says 76 for Area Acreage, is the 2001 edition. It is probably the campground acreage, not the forest.

I can't get the maps. My Acobat Reader has trouble with some colors and then just gives me blank pages.”

“Yeah, that damn map locked my computer up and I had to restart. But... then it came up just fine. I've heard at times that the Netscape browser works much better with .PDFs and Acrobat.”

“I'm using Netscape.

My IE is blocked. Every time it opens, a search window with topsearcher.com fills the window.. Can't do anything except depress Cntl-Ast-Delete, which deletes all IE windows.”

“Cntl-Alt-Delete”

“I did copy the .pdf map and take it into Photoshop. I'm trying to mess with it to make it easier to read.

I printed it out once and was not impressed (on my OLD printer... I don't waste ink on the new one on that kinda crap!! lol)

Once I get a pretty good version, then I can mark in what trails the upcoming trip to Yellow River will take. COOL!”

“Good trip report Lizs.


8)”

“CMB.... there's a hike at Yellow River State Forest April 2-4. YA COMING???!?! I **might** even work out a loop that LET'S YOU SEE THE MISSISSIPPI!! *GASP!!*”

“No boob pictures.....
Wait, that last picture was of a boob, wasn't it?
MOOOOHAHAHAHAHA ;-)

Poor lizs, it's a wonder she boiled any water at all with those metal bars sucking up all the heat from the pepsi stove AND it sitting on a cold rock!

The easyest pot stand to make is one from 1/2" welded wire mesh.
Sgt Rock's website shows how to make one.
The thought of lizs with wire cutters is kinda scary. ;-)
I forgot how tall your pepsi stove is lizs. Email me with the measurement and I'll make you a stand.”

“Ahhhhhh, feel the love........ errrr, sympathy! lol

I just checked Sgt. Rock's page. He must just take it that any ole boob would have a pot holder, cuz he doesn't even tell how to make that. And yes, I did see a photo of it!!

The stove is around 1.5" tall. My pan is a little over 5" across on the bottom (if that makes any difference... )

Maybe I need a windscreen, too?? lol... so you can make one out of a heavy aluminum foil cooking bag, with holes around the bottom?

Hey, SS, how much Heet does it take to boil water, tyically? I forget, but you're right, it took a long time on the grate (and the stove was on a log, not rock, like it matters anyhoo. lol)

I just got a couple little 4 oz. bottles at Cabela's for $1.50 each. How many meals (or boilings) should that get me and in what kind of weather? These are good, cuz I won't mistake them for anything else.

Thank you OH GREAT STOVESTOMPER!!! ;-P

**HUGS**”

“Excellent trip report Lizs, and the pics look nice too. Are you happy with the G5? It got brought up on the digital camera thread. Perhaps you can stop over and offer your evaluation of it.”

“Thanks for askin'. Happy so far..... I am sharpening the photos a bit in Photoshop, but that's something I did with the Nikon, too.

Still haven't challenged the instruction book. Ran across the "stitch feature" by accident and figured it out. LOL!

Well, Pennsy, here's one thing that bugged me and it probably has a simple solution. When I went to set the self-timer and was in close, the camera pre-focused on black vest and then over-exposed the shot. WAIT! DON'T TELL ME! MANUAL EXPOSURE, RIGHT??? lol... now THAT I need to read up on. I know where to set the aperture, but NOT the speed. Also, I've seen exposure compensation come up, but don't know where to access that on a regular basis. DOH!”

“Nice report and pictures.
Makes me a bit homesick. I like to hike and backpack this time of year... Everything looks "dead" but if you look, things are really just waiting to wake up. I think it's beautiful!
And I always knew the secret that life goes on beneath the winter.
Great pictures. Like a visit home for me.”

“You evidently like this time of year better than me Cindy Lu... LOL! And now *YOU'RE* in the warm place. hehehee”

“It's mud season here, too! LOL Spring is a great time to hike. No bugs yet! I'll let you know about the April hike. The ex is flying up here so I might be able to finagle a hike into the schedule! :)

Thanks for sharing!”

“Liz - I rarely use manual exposure but I use exposure comp a lot. I depress a button and turn a command dial, fast and simple. I bet the G5 is similiar (if you ever get the book out and look for it). On the shot you're referring to, a 2/3 stop comp to -.7 probably would have done the trick.”

“liz put some rocks around you stove and set pot on it! THINK! Mohaaaaaaaaaa!”

“Ohhhhhh Jer, I did think of that. Rocks are not plentiful where I was at (and I didn't think of it till then). And then to get three the same height??

Maybe I coulda used those nuts under the one tree... upon the ground, which looked all frozen in my shot... and which was soup the night before. Yeah, a few NUTS!!! LOL!”

“nuts!cute”

“Yeah, nuts! (or maybe, had they been along, any 3 TTers could have fulfilled that roll... LOL!)

mtnsteve, I took my Kelty bag that used to be rated for zero, but I think now it's good more for 20 degrees. Geez, thank goodness I didn't take my even lighter weight Kelty bag, rated for 25! And in retrospect, I should have taken the Kelty -15 probably. I'm a cold sleeper. And dang it, the whole not being able to have a fire just put a chill into my soul!”

“lizs - You needed the Master Fire Man, Father Goose. ;-)
His fires can be seen from space.”

“You have that right, StoveStomper.”

“Ohhhhhhh, SS! When I was at Yellow River over Labor Day weekend **I** had a fire that could have been seen from space.

Wet, wet, snow-soaked, wet, wet, fog-soaked (humidity) wood makes all the difference. Had I GOTTEN the fire going, believe me I had tons of wood and would have made it huge. Don't doubt it! lol”

“So... what is the best place to put a tent in this situation? I went for snow, but it was more like corn snow, hard and granulated. It crunched when moving around in the tent. Any advice in retrospect?”

“¡Es mui bueno!

¡Tu es la niña de hiko eccelente!

el o el”

“I'm glad I didn't say that.
. LOL.”

“Ummmmm. hello.... what did he say, exactly, NS? Did he say I was "eccentric?" lol”

“I think he said your hike was excellent.”

“Lizs, no sé. Really, I don't know what he said. It could be a puzzle. It can't be good, since several of the words are not in my dictionary. So, at best, it appears to me that he said you are #&%!$. LOL.

In my post I included a small link to a Spanish/English Dictionary, which I thought might help him. Maybe it's a message from Sarabelle.”