Lost and loss of Peeps: Return FROM Yell ow River

“What can I say? Superb weekend at Yellow River State Forest, including perfect weather – in fact, perhaps a bit on the warm side; little in the way of mud; new people to meet, including brothers superbee and killerbee (Iowa wrestlers and coach, ya gotta like that!), Flasher (he used to have a different name here…), Spalpeen and Firebug; congenial happy hours; the massive Peeps slaughter; and the reality show episode of “Lost” filmed as the weekend ended.

Lizs and Elementary1 arrived around 6 Friday afternoon and made the hike of around a mile up the big hill to find the guys had a fire going and had pitched their tents in the pines at Camp John Schultz.

Lizs hauled in her big Nalgene of margaritas and everyone was real happy once she got her tent pitched and happy hour started. As we all sat around the fire “the newbie formerly known as jrohner78” earned his new trail name as, when he went to show us his excellent 35 mm Nikon camera set up, he proceeded to flash us all. We were all blinded and couldn’t believe how bright it was (take that as you will!) So, we decided henceforth he shall be called “Flasher.”

It got fairly cold Friday night. Predictions had been for 28. It was frosty and cold in the morning. A few people slept cold or chilled. Yes, who would believe it – even winter camping hater lizs in her –15 sleeping bag, with TWO mats, hat and appropriate clothing was, yes, cold!

The group probably hiked around 6 miles Saturday. The Bees and the New bee. (lol, that would be Flasher) wiggled through a fence, shimmied up a pole, took life and limb in hand (not the only time for the weekend) and climbed to the top of the fire tower. EEEEK!!! Then we trekked a short haul to Cedar Point Overlook, where the Bees had us all shaking in our boots as one stood precariously close to the edge and the other freakin’ hung from a branch over oblivion at a scenic overlook (yes THIS is why we don’t allow 15-year-old boys to go on our trips. LOL... well, and the Peeps incident)

Into Heffern Hill camp around 2:30, tents were set up. Lizs and the firebug hiked the old railroad bed trail back to the parking lot to shuttle her Jeep over by the camp, for easy access to, uhhh, happy hour. Flasher and his new friend, whom he affectionately called Spleen, whipped by us. The dynamic duo decided to run to a nearby town for even more happy hour concoctions.

We all ate while it was light out. Earlier in the day we’d passed a group of around 10 boys and leaders in Venture scouting group from the Twin Cities (that’s Minneapolis/St. Paul for Stovey). We were glad we got into Heffern early because we got the best spot, with the D-E-E-P firepit. Later, an outdoors club group of around 20 students and leaders showed up from the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls.

Much later, the poor, quiet college kids were probably appalled by the shrieking sounds of Peeps being mutilated and roasted in the fire!!! In all, 10 Peeps were sacrificed in the ritualistic post-Easter ceremony/slaughter. Spleen, errr, Spalpeen, seemed to be enjoying it much too much.

Much, MUCH later, as the firebug got cozy with his Hennessy (and we’re not talking hammocks!!!!), someone yelled at him across the fire. His lazy eyelids opened and he slurred something like, “What, who me, I’m awake,” which only the young Flasher could accurately understand and relate.

Many in the group went to bed and, suffering through another cold night (although not as cold as Friday), had to make the happy-hour-related dash outside. Brrrrrrrrr!!! But the stars were brilliant in a dark, dark sky, if anyone cared to look.

Sunday morning camp was packed up and the group had taken a fast pace for perhaps a mile or two, when the fast-moving Flasher and Spleen (sounds like a new TV show title eh?) moved ahead on a road walk. So did firebug and the Bees. Right past the spot where the trail turned off the road, going on to turn the corner at the top of the hill.

Perplexed Lizs said, “phhhhhhhhhhht,” and elementary1 whistled and yelled at them to come back and then they both headed back into the woods. As the trail came back up to cross the road, they looked for the guys, didn’t see them, shrugged their shoulders and figured the guys had a map and were headed to the next overlook. The girls hiked on the trails lizs has gone on many times.

Reaching the scenic overlook, the expected lounging-and-eating guys were not there. UH OH! Lizs and elementary1 ate, took pictures at the overlook and waited…. And waited…. And waited. They told the couple in the red car that if they saw five guys in backpacks, to tell them we were at the western (or was it northern?) overlook of the campground.

Lizs then remembered, geez, she had gotten phone numbers for all. Elementary1’s cell was used to call Flasher’s cell, “hey Flasher, we’re heading to the overlook above the campground, where the trail goes downhill… and then we’ll go back to the parking lot.” (A message he later figured he MUST get off the phone, before the girlfriend was wondering just WTF was going on, lol)

lizs and elementary1 took the trail as stated, and as soon hit a road stretch. There were firebug and Spleen… errr, Spalpeen… in a car. All the guys were out looking for us!! AAAACK! Then we felt bad. Cuz we did have a nice hike, ate our snacks at the overlook (that they got to see in photos) and poor Spalspeen even ran up and down the hill twice!!!

Anyways, soon everyone was back together. We had a good laugh, after we all finished pummeling each other. LOL! ;-) We then drove behind someone going 45 MPH, keeping the group together, lol, to go to the traditional post-hike feed at Fort Mulligan’s. Again, good food.

So we had superb weather conditions and good company all weekend. I just wish I could remember all the out-of-context material for the “Quotes” thread. Holy sheeyat, there were some doozies!!! Photos to come.”

“Great trip report Lizs. Makes me wish I lived closer.”

“cool report. hurry up with those dang pictures.”

“Sounds like a great trip, Lizs! Glad you guys had fun.”

“Do Peeps burn or just melt?”

“You make me wished I would have skipped the door to door campaigning for the local candidates for tomorrows elections and joined your trip instead.

Iowa has a great wrestiling program and it would have been great to backpack with those wrestlers.

Lizs sleeps cold? Not what I hear.”

“sounds like a great trip!
looking forward to seeing the pictures...”

“Just to let everyone know I'll be changing my screen name to my new trail name "Flasher". This will most likely be my last post under jrohner78”

“prosecutor wants to backpack with the wrestlers and liz wants to wrestle with the backpackers.”

“;-)”

“Same here flash,From Spalpeen to Spleen(thanks pal)to the griz”

“lizs would kick those silly wrestlers' a$$es.

Where are the PIXS!!!!!!!!!”

“Close. they are VERY CLOSE...

Uploading from home, while I sit at work. mooohahhahaha, ain't technology great.

and GEEZ, doesn't spalspleen seem almost normal in that post???

%-)”

“Isn't spalspleen, mohawkman?

I can't look at the pixs at work anyway, but I will tonight.”

“ummmm, he's got a lot of names, but NOOO! lol, I presume you're referring to the real person I know that seems to be a troll to others. lol...

NOOOOO... and that's SPLEEN to you! ;-P

Here are the photos. CAUTION: Horrible things are done to Peeps. BUT no Peeps were actually hurt in the filming. :-)

http://community.webshots.com/album/314350774DQBdnq”

“What fun pictures, lizs..hm-m-m, looks like firebug and Elementary1 made friendly..and, I like Spleen and Falsher's new name..but, I expect the later will get many sideways looks from ladies who don't know the history behind the name..muah-ha-ha-ha-ha! da Flashah strikes!”

“Hey mata, I read about your birding trip. Sounds very cool. We heard owls and saw lotsa birds. Heard sand hill cranes while at the campground Saturday night. I remember theLorax heard them last fall. But I still haven't trekked down to find them.”

“I repeat one last time it is not spleen”

“Nope, it's Spleen..capital "S"..eh eh eh eh eh..don't hurt me!”

“OK, here's the true story. The blitzed firebug was heard to say by the fire, "Ish (my) pal spleen."

Some people just go with "Spleen," while others go with Spalpeen (which I can only speel right LMAO, I just typed "speel," LOL... maybe half the time)”

“If you look at the peeps pic. you will see my blade is held outwards against the carnivorous throng that were intent on exterminating the poor peeps.Hence I am a hero”

“Yeah, the throng was calling for "Death to Peeps!!" And did a mighty fine job, might I add. But... at least we don't just kill Peeps for sport. They are used to feed our families and given to the poor on holidays. You'll see no Peeps heads mounted on our walls!!!

LMAO!! Peeps POPPING stick. :-)
Hmmm... I guess I had a hard time telling the right side of the knife whittling my Peeps-pooping stick, didn't I? As whichever bee was helping (superbee??) would attest.
last edited: 4/04/05 5:49:18 PM”

“Cute pixs, lizsbaby!

Where was your new TarpTent, turkey?”

“Thanks for the Awesome Trip Lizs - even if you tried losing us by actually following the trail.
Hills are so fun to run up and down, what did you expect us to do?

And your accusing me of being blitzed - it was less then one liter of Hennessy I had - must of been those beers...by the way, mmy pronunceocations bee very goob when I bee drinkeen”

“omg! I edited my post above, twice... and the edit appeared BEFORE the error! LMAO!!! ...picked a pence of Peeps POPPING sticks (or POOPING, whichever you prefer for stick placement)

Stovey, Stovey... I *still* have not set up the Tarptent outside, nor have I seam sealed it (especially those strips on the floor to prevent the rolling around ;-)

Also, I did not want to get my nice new tent muddy its first time out. How are those for lame-o excuses, yet all with a smidgeon of truth??? lol

fiershgub... nice to hear from you. *hiccup!*”

“Just wanted to let you all know that now Jrohner78 is dead and his evil self flasher has now taken over.

Inside joke for those on the trip he he...”

“Nice meeting you Flasher - any funeral plans for Jrohner78 ?

Speaking of Death...

!! Death to Peeps - Death to Peeps!!- shove a stick up their "pooper" and make them burn - burn burn....... :)”

“Well I, flasher, really didn't like jrohner78 to much. So I left him up at the top of the fire tower. Besides he was to chicken to throw seats into the fire just for the fun of it.”

“You burnt my seat that I desperately searched for and cut just right - I forgot about that..

and that part of you that talks about yourself in the third person has us all concerned.”

“Ohhh... and will flasher share this thread and the photos with the gf, OR DOES HE DARE????!? (you have to imagine that is a big, booming, god/wizard of oz sounding voice)”

“I will for sure share the photos. Also if you wanted to see what she looks like go to the Glacier National park trip and go to jrohner78's photo album”

“So what does she think about flasher? Is she rolling her eyes and groaning? Is she falling for our story that it has to do with a camera, wink, wink? ;-) LOL!

And where's our "hero" today? I want to hear how the experiment is playing out.
>8-O (”

“Hey I forgot about the seat burning,but Flasher do you and the GF communicate in the third person”

“Morning Lizs,non commando today”

“LMAO... Morning spalpeen... and... why? :-)”

“something to do with an old scotch proverb my grandma once told me.thay wear kilts over there ya know”

“yup, they do... and... why? (oops, broken record this fine Tuesday morning)

Ya know, if that hike had been over Sunday and Monday nights, I wouldn't have slept cold. It was 57 outside an hour ago. yowsa!”

“Sounds like a good weekend. I stayed home to cheer on my Illini versus Louisville (have mercy and don't remind me that my efforts fell just short last night).

I know the tree on the overlook all too well. I won't be swinging from it anytime soon!”

“LOL, yeah, good idea T-Mac. Say, are you the REAL T-Mac? Or that troll Slow Pack T-Mac? ;-)

We missed the REAL T-mac. LOL!
last edited: 4/05/05 12:01:12 PM”

“One and the same, lizzy. Just got tired of seeing such a long name next to my posts, so I looked up my old password. :)”

“Hanging over a bluff? Guess it ain't such a risk in the frontcountry. Heaven forbid they conduct themselves in such a manner in the backcountry. Did they finally settle down? Gizmeaux usually acts kinda like that for the first mile or so...


I'm glad to read that y'all didn't hafta contend with too much ice/snow/slush.

You should prolly change yer trail name to "Nalgarita" or something like that. LOL!”

“Well I think she bought it. If she doesn't she should have came with. As far as talking in the 3rd person to the GF it can't happen anymore since jrohner is now dead. But I can't really recall doing it before.”

“Lizs - Thank you for organizing this trip. From the margaritas on the first night to the after hike lunch at Mulligan's, it was a thoroughly memorable and enjoyable experience. Great company too; Lizs, Spalpeen, Firebug, Elementary1, and Flasher, I hope we can do this again sometime. A person couldn't ask for better partners in adventure!”

“Hey superbee, glad you checked in!! And get that brother of yours to register and check in, too, would ya? I gotta add all youse guyz to the my "Who have you met?" list. (Yeah, gulp, I'm one of those)”

“Hey superbee back at you.You and killerbee were a blast.whats the buzz at the hive”

“Does anyone other than me find it a bit ironic that the only one who did not participate in the peeps slaghter was me? Live and let live I say, what did those Peeps ever do to any of you? (I hate s'mores almost as much as campfire singing.) Thanks for organizing the trip, Lizs. I learned a lot of new things. For starters,who would have ever thought that Hennesy cognac could have that effect on one's speech center?
last edited: 4/06/05 5:55:45 PM”

“Hey, flasher. I went to the Glacier trip and checked out your photos (to see your GF). I was a little worried as all I saw was a baby mountain goat, until I got to the next to the last pic! Nice photos, nice GF.”

“lol thanks. But the goat wouldn't be a bad option as I could strap my pack to it and let it handle all the weight of my 40 lbs pack and leave me be with the 11 lbs of camera equipment.”

“But the goat wouldn't be a bad option "

I won't touch that.”

“Ok, so I'm finally checking in... It took me a few days to recover from the weekend. My sides hurt a little... from laughing so much! I came home on a Yellow River high that lasted or a couple of days. Don't you love trips like that? And just to set the record straight, I had no part of any peeps slaughter... unless sitting by and watching while innocent little peeps got tortured counts as participating... Is that considered a crime in Iowa???”