WHAT THE HAIL??!? Yellow River, Part 2

“More on that later... and photos, too, maybe tomorrow....

On a more-like-June-than-April weekend, I just returned from my second trip to Yellow River State Forest in northeast Iowa in three weeks. Two weeks ago I went with eight TTers. This trip was my second annual with a Chicago area Sierra Club group. There were 15 people.

The group car camped at Big Paint Creek Campground Friday night. I had to go to a play to review it(aaaaaaaack!! Eeeeeeeeek!!), so headed down EARLY Saturday to partake of the excellent group breakfast. There was a trip fee and the group leaders provided a cooked, full meal for both Sat. and Sun. breakfasts and also for Sat. night. Just like last year, all were great!

Saturday proved very hot. It was around 80, or in other words, very unseasonable. But nice in a way, because I could leave cold weather gear at home. However, storms were predicted along with precipitation. So I took what I consider my great “bombproof” Sierra Designs Nightwatch 2-person tent along, as opposed to the one-person Eureka Zeus Exo.

We left from the backpacker’s parking lot around 10 or 10:30 a.m., took the trail as intended and broke for a snack at Brown’s Hollow around 11:30. Then we went up the steep hillside that always kicks my @ss, but it wasn’t so bad this day. We broke for lunch at the top of that hill, just as the trail enters the pines again, where we still had a view.

We then headed to the off-limits fire tower, ditching our packs for the .5-mile walk to it. I guess last year the fence was not up around it. (I couldn’t recall when the fence went up.) Then we headed down the steep, rocky trail that was NOT taken by TTers two weeks ago, crossed the car bridge and headed up to Heffern Hill, where about seven tents were already set up. BOY SCOUTS!! (however, they were a good group. Didn’t hear much noise from them other than cries for Spam Sunday at breakfast: “DO YOU HAVE THE SPAM IN THE CAN??”)

Then we traipsed back down to Paint Creek for a little personal hygiene, as in cleaning up, not pissing in a spring. The cold trout stream felt food on our somewhat tired feet, and very hot and sweaty selves.

We ate a great supper and hung out around the PIT fire ring. LOL! Yes, you TTers remember, the DEEP fire pit where you could BURY someone!! LOL! We never could get a good fire going in it. It had rained Friday night.

A guy named Chris gave a talk on stoves, stressing how he used an Esbit on his Appalachian Trail through-hike three years ago. Said he got tired of messing with white gas. Then I was showing off the lovely Stove Stomper juice can alcohol stove. UH OH!! Ummmm… Mistake No. 1: It was on the dirt, leaf-covered ground (although I tried to clear a spot). Mistake No. 2: I tried to pull the windscreen away from the stove with the tongs, so people could see the tiny size of the stove.

OOOPS!! Alcohol spilled and we had a little mini fire. LMAO!! Sorry, SS, I don’t think I sold anyone on alcohol stoves in that group. LOLOLOL!! (I’m standing there saying, “REALLY, this has never happened before!!!) LOL!

Then we could see lightning and it looked like a storm was fast approaching. I’d kind of wanted to get caught in a storm out in the “wilds" sometime, but didn’t want it to be solo hiking. So this was perfect. But then, since I’m scared of storms, I started stressing it. I headed off to bed when around 8 people were still around the campfire, making sure the tent and rainfly were staked down very well, including the guy-out points. I said to Chris, whom I met last year, “Hey, if it gets bad, you better come check on me.” His tent was a little ways from mine, his tent being a two-person Eureka Zeus Exo. (Yes, like everyone else, he has condensation problems with the damn tent!)

Sooo…. The storm came. Instead of getting way freaked out, I started looking forward to it. There was no wind, which is good. Wind would have totally made me paranoid. So the rain starts. Fine. Lots of lightning. I’m enjoying it. Then… THUD! THUD!! THUD!!! THUD THUD THUD THUD!!!

IT WAS FREAKIN’ HAILING!!! I surprised myself by not freaking out. It was neat, but I kept wondering how big the hail was and what if one would break through the fabric? The tent sits maybe a foot or so above my face, so those “thuds” were pretty darn close at times. Also, I had zipped the fabric portion back, so there was just mesh across the top of the tent under the rainfly.

The hail went on for what seemed like forever. When it finally ended, I opened the mesh door (I had left the fabric door open cuz it was soooooo hot), lifted the rainfly of the vestibule a bit and took a couple pictures of the hail laying on the ground. (It would also later refute the guy who said he saw it and that it was “golf-ball sized.” Phhhhhhhht… More like quarter-sized hail.)

Then Chris yelled at me, “Are you OK?” LOL! He musta figured I was just losing it with the hail. Hahahahaa… I said, fine. Heck, I wondered how his cheapo Zeus Exo had held up. I could imagine the guy buried beneath hail!! He said it held up fine, although a couple places water had been “forced” through. (mind you, he said he had seam-sealed that tent) I slept well after the hail episode.

In the morning, the hail was the hot breakfast topic. A couple people actually slept through it. Everyone’s tent held up. People camped in the area of my tent said, hey, were you talking after the storm?? LOL! Yes, verification no one died!!!! eeeeeeeeek! LOL!

Oh yeah, we got up and had breakfast at an announced time of 8 a.m. For those of you who have noticed I sleep L-A-T-E, this is superb!! I should hike with these people all the time!!! LOL!

We headed out past the horse camps in Little Paint Creek Campground (for cars) and then up the hollow that had tons of wildflowers coming out. One of the trip leaders, Mary, knows the flowers and spotted blood root, Spring Beauties, hepatica, false anemones, bluebells about a week or so away from full bloom and more!! (hope I’m getting the names right). There were lots of wildflowers out. Two weeks ago we had only spotted a couple. This crazy, warm weather has them popping up like wild. (Made me wonder about morels???)

We broke for lunch at the wonderful overlook of the Big Paint Creek campground and stream, then walked along the bluff trail and down that steep hill. We were back at our cars by 1 to 1:30. Then some of the group went on to hike at Effigy Mounds, while I headed to Prairie du Chien to shop at Cabela’s and grab a bite (again!) at Fort Mulligan’s. Today (Sunday) was cloudy and kept threatening rain (with a few sprinkles) but held off. It got hot again later. In P du C, a bank sign said it was 77 or so. YIKES!!!

Another great weekend at Yellow River! Maybe we’ll have to do a fall hike there…… ;-)”

“You should have been sleeping in a bivy . . . that would have been cool with the hail. :) So did you burn your tp? lol!

BTW, great report . . . wish I could have been there!”

“man, there seam to be a lot of trip reports coming in this weekend.

Great report. I'm like you, hate storms when I'm solo...but they don't scare me too much if I'm with company. (notice, I wrote "not too much"...they still scare me)”

“Saw my first tick on this trip. I had left the tent door open, since there weren't that many flies and bugs around (well, there were a FEW, I later found out)

I looked over and OH MY a tick had crawled in to join me. I let it crawl onto my hand and then flicked it outside.

Signs of the season......”

“Hey Lizs, did you convert any of those sissy Sierra Clubbers over to be posters on Trail Talk?”

“Nice trip report, Lizs..sounds like it's starting to green out down there..I think you got the first tick of the season! lucky you..I'm just the opposite of you..I love storms and, I wake up early:D”

“OOOPS!! Alcohol spilled and we had a little mini fire. - lizs

DORK! ;-)”

“Yep, SS. I don't think we'll be selling any of your $35 stove sets to that group, thanks to my zestful salesmanship.

LOLOL!”

“Unfortunately (ummmm FORTUNATELY???!) we got no shots of the inferno.
















LOLOL... tehehehee. phhhhhhhhht!”

“"We then headed to the off-limits fire tower" I guess it wasn't off-limit to the Sierra Club. hmm?”

“IIRC, the fire tower's fence had a tear people could pass through, but there was still no way up the tower unless you bring a ladder. The steps started maybe 15 feet (maybe more?) up the tower and didn't inspire confidence.

Lizs, glad you got to test your bomber shelter. I've found the surest way to guarantee calm weather is to bring my bomber. Its seen subzero temps, but never a good storm. :)”

“What T Mac said (and what is "IIRC?" New one on me there.)

The fire tower is now off-limits with the fence around it. We just went up to look at it, cuz otherwise the trail we were on was one-half mile away. It's fun to see a fire tower for upper Midwesterners who don't see them often.

Alas, no trip to the top. I've never been to the top of it. Like he said, the first flight of steps were taken away a long time ago (I'd never seen it with the first flight of steps.) Some people still managed to climb like monkeys on the frame to reach the second flight of stairs, apparently, and go up it. So now they added the fence as an extra precaution, I guess.

So all we did was look. I wish someone would get on the state forest agency's butt and ask them to remodel the place as a cabin to rent out, or at least as a lookout. The fire tower is a draw to anyone who visits Yellow River State Forest... and it's a disappointment to see you can't go up in it.

...and how ya doing jgeils? Steering clear of stikmon hikes for your own safety?? LOL!

T Mac, it was looking like perfect weather Saturday and I was almost getting ticked, cuz I wanted to test that tent. LOL! I know it can handle hail... and I'm pretty sure with all its stakeouts it could handle wind. As for snow?? Don't wanna find out! hahahaa”

“If I Remember Correctly...”

“Also... back to off-limits. I mean that just because the fence is around it. Actually, the site itself is easily accessible. There is Fire Tower Road, which takes you right to it, a road loops around close to it, where you can actually park by it, and it's kind of a landmark, close to the trailheads in that area. "Off-limits" only referred to the fence.”

“Note to self: Fire lizs as product demonstrator. ;-)”

“huh? Now bitpusher has me guessing what he's gonna say... which I expect will be contradicting something here. hehehe

My guesses:

1. I have posted a photo of the Yellow River State Forest fire tower on my Webshots page. Taken directly from underneath PRE fence.

2. He might be remembering that I did indeed climb a firetower... actually two last year. They were Trigg Tower on the Shawnee Forest in southern Illinois, not far from the River to River Trail... and the other was in the Whitewater Wildlife Management Area, near Elba, Minnesota. Both were open and touted as towers to climb for the view.

Am I guessing right?? lol”

“oh LMAO... you were posting the "IIRC"

LOLOLOL! doh!

Stovey, he's gonna fire me, too!”

“Dork. ;-)”

“/MisterRogers:on

I knew you could do it...

/MisterRogers:off”

“We have a saying in the Ship design business, "Sailor Proof".
Like, design a piece of equipment that not even the greenest sailor can misuse or tear up. Hard to do, but not impossible.
I see I still need to "lizs proof" my stove designs. ;-)”

“Good luck with that, Stove... :)”

“no problem - just bolt the stove to a concrete block so that it won't tip over as easily.”

“I'm doing good Lizs. I didn't get to hike much this Winter. I hope to hit the rivers soon.”

“Based on my weekend with lizs when she only slackpacked, I think the concrete block is certainly an option - since only backpackers have to worry about gear weight. :)”

“PHHHHHHHHHT!!!!!!!!!

lol”

“like THAT's never been tried before.

Jgiles...your NEVER gonna make the river, so stop acting like your gonna. LOL”

“After firewall problems and all... WE HAVE PHOTOS!!

Trip photos”

“Good pics, lizs. I wouldn't have guessed your last shot (the panorama) was a product of multiple shots.

So, was it nice not to have the responsibilities of planning a trip?”

“It was nice. Now I can appreciate what it takes to put on a trip.

It's ore than one might think! With this Sierra Club group they set up assistants to work with group leaders first, so they can get the hang of what they need to do to put on an activity.

So.... when can we expect that JEPC backpacking trip, T Mac? :-) I'm up for stealth camping if you are. LOL! (course maybe that's near impossible there, but could a person put up "decoy" tent?? hehehe)”

“Nice pics lizsbaby. Where are the butt shots?

I'm surprised the travel trailer 'campers' didn't run you hiker trash out of the campground. ;-)”

“lizs: I was thinking of that this am but didn't know if you'd want to drive the 6 hours or so. I'm game if you (or anyone else) is interested. I'll have to give thought to where stealth camping might work... Cars at the trailheads might be a dead giveaway. :)

What weekends work for you? I've got a pending trip to the Rockies in May (pending as in "when can my normal trail partner get his wife's permission..." hehehe). Once he gets back to me, I'll know which weekends I have free. June is pretty open at this point.”

“hmmmmmmmmm... let me check that out.

It also made me think of the Volga River Recreatin Area, between Fayette and West Union, Iowa. Lotsa trail that I know. And a little primitive campground where a person could set up the "decoy" camp. hehehehehe... I do need to check that option out. ;-)

http://www.state.ia.us/dnr/organiza/ppd/volga.htm">Volga River Rec Area (be sure to check the map, upper left, a .pdf)”

“Volga looks like an interesting area. I'd spend a weekend there if there's a trip there. Let me know sometime about JEPC and I'll put something together.”

“great pics. glad you had a great time!”

“Thanks, mapes! I don't think people in this group are used to seeing so many photos. One called it a "documentary." They just don't know us TTers and our penchant for photos!! :-)”

“Just remembered... it's turkey hunting season at Volga RRA. Not sure how long that is. Wouldn't wanna get shot as a turkey (even if true. LOL!) on a "stealth" camping trip.”