The Curse of Bison

“By buying this cake at the store rather then cooking it on the trail we saved 32.53234 minutes.



Destination: Morgan-Monroe State Forest, Indiana

Attendees: Dub, Ruby, Nigal, TMac, NewgirlSMG

Trip Report: View it in this thread later.

Pictures: Later on my website.”

“Cool, I IDed everyone right in the photo before reading who went, well other than the one I didn't know.... Can there be a second Newgirl??!?!?!? Get that trip report up! :-)
last edited: 12/12/04 2:32:43 PM”

“Is that right to left or top to bottom?”

“lizs, I didn't recongize any of them..they all look like trolls to me”

“They are having troll cake.......and eat it, too.”

“Mmmm...troll cake!

L to Right: Tmac, Nigal, Ruby, NewgirlSMG, Dub

It is NewgirlSMG's second TT trip.”

“Nigal, are those Guinness pants you're wearing or am I happy to see you?”

“Dang, Dub IS alive!
Man, that's a couple of cute 'girly girls'! ;-)
What does this thread title have to do with Bison?”

“Yeah Dub, what gives?”

“Those peeps are to clean to have gone backpacking, and is that a picnic table in the foreground?
Kar Kampers! ;-)”

“love ur pants, nige!”

“when i went to morgan monroe last year, it was coooooooooooooooold”

“Great weekend! I had such a great time meeting you guys. It was funny because Saturday morning everyone had oatmeal and was done eating and there was Ruby, waiting on her Enertia meal to get done. I said, “I can’t tell ya how many times I’ve finished eating and had to wait on someone’s Enertia meal to get done. We should be on the trail by now!”. And so it was that Ruby brought the Curse of Bison to the trip.

I’ll leave the rest of the trip report to Money Shot, er, I mean Dub. :)


And yes, those are my Guinness pants. I was still in my jammies.”

“HA HA! :)”

“I heart Money Shot!





And wait 'til you hear what Slowpack TMac and I did today after the rest of you slackers left.....





We'll tell you later.
last edited: 12/12/04 9:21:33 PM”

“So where's that trip report Dub?”

“Sorry guys, I work nights as you know and was up days this weekend so I had to switch my sleeping schedule back...I'll work on the report and pics tonight!”

“sure...figures...the car camper is still up”

“I'll leave the major report to Dub but I'll handle the best out of context quotes...

"I bet you could only get two fingers in there."

And my personal favorite...

"I feel really bad I'm not going to eat your meat."

My part is done here.”

“I'm glad you saw the obviouse humor in the whole curse thing Bison. :)”

“Mornin', all. Hopefully I can post more later today, but time to push some paper around for now.

Stove - car camping? Us? No way! We carried that picnic table into the backcountry with us!”

“Okay, I'll jump in here with a TR of what happened after breakfast on Sunday. SlowPack and I, after having a hearty carb-filled breakfast at the local diner, decided we were up for even more hiking. So we went back to the State Forest and parked our vehicles in such a way that we could hike 3 or 4 miles of the 11 mile Low Gap loop. We got on the trail and took off. We had such a good time talking and walking in the brisk weather, probably around 35 - 40 degrees. When we arrived at my vehicle, we decided we wanted more, so we kept on going and committed ourselves to doing the whole 11 miles. When we finished, we realized that even though we stopped a number of times to explore a cave, attend to some blisters, and take some pictures, we still averaged about a 2.5 mile/hour pace.

All in all, I want to say I really loved meeting SlowPack, Nigal, and NewGirlSMG. It was enjoyable hanging out with each and every one of them and Money Shot, too. (He does have some very special talents.) The quotes that Nigal mentioned above were hilarious. We ate so well. Nigal, I have never had a better steak. That was to die for.

Even though it was coooooold, it was a great weekend spent with good people! There's nothing better than that.”

“Sounds like fun Ruby! I got hammered Saturday night (drinking and karaoke)”

“I always pictured Nigal as a skeery looking dude.

Does he pack heat in the backcountry?”

“Yep. Nigal's pretty hot. And he drinks good beer.




WoundedKnee: Sir Mixalot again?”

“Ah, I know all about a skinny white boy singing "Baby Got Back" thanks to Ruby! :) I probably talked poor Ruby's ear off.

Nigal's a skeery dude, for sure, especially when he unleashes HoneyDog on newcomers. He cooks a mean mean steak.

Hopefully I can upload some pictures during lunch.”

“Hey SlowPack, I just sent you an email to the address in your TMac profile. You don't have one listed in your SlowPack profile.”

“Well, dang. I thought I filled all that out. Let me correct that.”

“Ruby - did you find the unibomber kind of sexy?”

“No mix alot this time. It was a bad crowd and I did not want to get my ass kicked.

Songs sung:

Twist and Shout
Piano Man
Lola”

“Wasn't that the guy with the hoodie and aviator glasses? Ewwwwww



Slowpack, you didn't talk my ear off. I thought I did. LOL!! I guess we hit it off pretty well, huh?
last edited: 12/13/04 12:16:23 PM”

“I'd say so, Ruby. I was thinking on the way home about the story of, um, bad parenting (not mine!) and how few people I've told that to, yet I subjected you to it after a few days... Strange. :-)

Got the email, btw. Thanks for the link.”

“Holy #&%!$! That does look like Nigal! maybe they got the wrong guy?”

“I even surprised myself with the steaks. I always get nervouse when I cook for others that it won't turn out. Especially when we just ate the best damn chicken/shrimp jumbalaya I've ever tasted. No pressure there! LOL!

Did you find the Low Gap trail to be harder than the 3 lakes trail?

I never knew Dub was so damn funny. He has impecable timing and a quick wit.

"Nnnnuh, pine trees; there my favorite."

On a gear note: I slept directly on my IsulMat Max down (sleeping bag as a quilt) to 30ish degrees and stayed nice and warm. I think this thing really would go down to the teens with no problems.”

“I'm not sure if the Low Gap was harder, but it offered more variety of terrain. We were walking along a dry creek sometimes, around and under rocky overhangs and finally up and down some decent hills.”

“You're right, Nigal. SlowPack's jambalaya rocked! I am thinking of preparing both your guys's meals at home this week. Can each of you tell me again what seasonings you used? I think I remember Emeril-something and cajun-something.

SlowPack hit it on the description of the Low Gap. There is one hill in particular that is a doozy, but it's doable of course.”

“I use Emeril's Steak Rub. Just rub the steaks down with the rub a day or two before you want to have them. Soak some hickory chips for 1/2 hour and then put the chips on the coals. The slower you can cook them the more tender they will be. It also depends on the cut of meat too.”

“so this is the curse of bison why?”

““so this is the curse of bison why?”

Bison was on the Enertia Rocks thread complaining that Enertia foods take 2-5 minutes longer than Mary Janes to cook. That's why I posted the below...

"It was funny because Saturday morning everyone had oatmeal and was done eating and there was Ruby, waiting on her Enertia meal to get done. I said, “I can’t tell ya how many times I’ve finished eating and had to wait on someone’s Enertia meal to get done. We should be on the trail by now!”. And so it was that Ruby brought the Curse of Bison to the trip."

It was a running joke for the weekend.”

“what is a "IsulMat Max"?”

“It an air mattress 2 1/2" thick with insulation on the inside. Packs as small as my TRest UL, weighs the same and is so thick my shoulders and hips don't hit the ground and only $65. I was afraid it wouldn't do well in cold weather but it does.”

“Why are you guys calling me Money Shot? I forgot. Okay, I'll start working on the TR and picture pages right now.”

“WK, that lip hair just doesn't look very good on Ruby, IMHO. ;-)”

“Dang...not finished and I gotta head to work. I'll see if I can finish it at work and upload in the morn'.”

“Please, no photo's of Dub and his money shot.”

“Remember when we stopped for a break and you got rid of your water by squirting it 10' away and Ruby said something about it being wishful thinking? And I said you should change your handle to Money Shot?

Don't worry, I won't call you that any more. That's not a name a guy wants to stick. LOL!”

“Remember? He was shooting his water in a long arcing stream, and I said, "Fantasy of yours, Dub?"”

“Ruby - the jambalaya starts one foil package of the precooked chicken (7 ounces) and precooked shrimp (3 ounces?) lightly fried in olive oil. I seasoned that mess with Tony Chachere's spices and then added it and the Zatarain's mix to boiling water and simmered for about a half hour. I et it cool and then reheated it hoping the spices would mix better, since it seems better to me as leftovers the next day.

Morgan-Monroe pix”

“Nice pix TMac. I liked the one where ya'll let her run off with MY Nalgene bottle! Honey Dog misses everyone a lot. She's been antsy like she's ready to go somewhere again. She was one tuckered pooch.”