Cabin hos and strap ons: Upper Iowa TRIP REPORT

“We came, we saw, we conquered, we played the first annual TT Volleyball Game for All the Marbles, we paddled through rain and a storm, we slept on grass, man, and much more on the Upper I-O-Wanna Float trip June 3-5.

FRIDAY
Friday afternoon everyone started showing up. “Everyone” amounted to, when all was said and done (and roughly in order of arrival):
1. Prosecutor
2. Ruby
3. the lorax
4. Tagalong
5. Mataharihiker
6. lizs
7. spalpeen (thegriz)
8. Dr. Atomic
9. Stovestomper
10. Trekkngirl
11. hikrpaddlr
12. freedom seeker
13. climbmda
14. uff da girl

Hmmm.. I think that’s it, but I thought there were 16. Who am I missing? Anyway, elementary1 and Tom did not canoe, but did show up to partake of Friday night’s imbibing and TT Volleyball World Championship.

Prosecutor and Ruby canoed a short stretch of the Upper Iowa River upon arrival at Harvest Farm Campground (north of Kendallville, Iowa and south of Harmony, MN – in the land of state border freaks, but sure, they are fun, you betcha! Good thing I’m from far enough away I don’t have that accent Stovey and TG talked about in the area. Phhhhhhhhht!!! YOU HAVE THE ACCENTS!! J) Pros and Ruby said, hey, it’s great!! Ruby said later we would have to steal the lighted volleyball court from the Boy Scout troop camped there – and we did/.

It was the sand volleyball game of the century. Somehow it ended up equal sides of six, the men versus the women. And the women had the lowly men cowering for a long, long time. I’ll let someone else tell that tale. Oh and lets just say some of us are no longer in the volleyball form we once thought we were when it comes to spiking, ahem, ClimbMDA? LOL

Oh yes and let us not forget, Stovey rented a CABIN for him and TG. AHEM!! They were greeted with the spontaneous chant of “CABIN Hos!!!!”

SATURDAY
The predicted rain showed up overnight and re-showed up as it was time to get packed, giving a motivational factor of near zero. But the shuttles were accomplished and the canoeing started by um, the bright hour of 11 a.m. LOL!

I had wondered what happened to the long-awaited arrival of Dutch Oven Dave Friday night. Alas, two vehicles pulled into the campground around 10 a.m. and it was the legendary DOD and FOUR more people, lol. So add these to the 14 above for Saturday’s tally:
1. Dutch Oven Dave (DOD)
2. Nick
3. Kent
4. Diane
5. Max (he said it was Max Wellhouse, c’mon now??!?!?!!!!)

Nick and Max were only with the group Saturday, which was around 13.5-14 miles. They went all the way to Bluffton then. Sunday was around 5 miles and took a couple hours.

So we finally hit the water. We had the approximate 3-mile stretch from the campground to Kendallville to ourselves, cuz most day trippers put in at K’ville. We made it there in about an hour from when we left. Figured the river at 2.5 to 3 miles per hour paddling. At K’ville we got to negotiate the trickiest rock section, which amounted to like 3 scattered big rocks. Success!

From K’ville we negotiated past the “old creepy devil-worshipper” house that Spalpeen and I had found while scouting. Skies got all dark there and there was a really odd, old, dilapidated footbridge over the river. (Thought I heard banjos there...

We continued on past another bridge to the Plymouth Rock DNR canoe access, where we ate lunch. Skies again were starting to cloud up. We’d seen no rain though, UNTIL we got back on the river.

It rained nice, which was really neat. The rain was warm and it was just really cool, as in neat! But THEN… It freakin’ poured, and I mean poured, for at least 5-10 minutes. The raingear went on, we all kept on paddling, but did get kind wet or at least damp.

Crazy!! Spalpeen and I had 5-6 inches of rain and splashed water in our canoe. Finally we took everything out, turned it over, had a helluva time getting it back upright, but than hikrpaddlr and Freedom Seeker (ya need a better name, girl! LOL) helped us. DOD later told me we totally need to know how to do that in the river. We did it on a gravel bar – “It” being dumping the canoe to get water out!

The next bridge up, Cattle Creek Rd. bridge, is the farthest upriver point that I’d put in at until this day. Down this stretch we saw at least four cold springs emptying into the Upper Iowa. Very small springs, but they did cause steam to rise where they entered the river.

Also, we ran into other canoe groups here. Interesting to try to get through and by the usually inexperienced paddlers (said often bad paddler/usually off navigation officer lizs, hahaha)

I forget, but somewhere on this trip a bald eagle took off from a pine tree along the river, flying majestically away (from the crew of hooligans coming downriver!)

Speaking of which, ever concerned about me, Beth at one point yelled back, “Do you have your strap on?” I missed it but Friday night she said she was gonna “check herself for tits.” I dunno about Beth. LOL, j/k! (“strap on” referred to the athletic strap on my glasses, ya dorks!)

You others will have to tell what also was heard in camp that night. Hahahahahaa… Really, the ever-tired, always drinking Spalpeen was just trying to put a square-ish bag into his already-full food bag!! J

Pros was in the lead and found my intended spot for the primitive campsite on DNR land. Very primitive. Grass to your chest in height!! Some were not initially thrilled at the jungle-like experience, but once campsites were stomped down, lol, I think everyone had a great time.

It seemed like we were on a savanna or something, or jungle mission. And whether it was the rain earlier and they got drowned, or what, but we were amazingly NOT bothered by either mosquitoes or ticks. LOL, sure, yep, **I** arranged for that, hehehe.

The Lorax got to work right away on the “amphitheater” area, where later that same night a junior ranger program was promised. Wait, wrong, lol! There was a nice campfire built and later DOD regaled us with cherry chocolate cake from the Dutch ovens. Yum!!

SUNDAY
There was lightning and it again rained overnight. But, as ClimbMDA said, the rain basically stayed away from our group camp time. We packed up, got the canoes off the mucky bank (much cursing from Spalpeen and a broken sandal strap [not strap on]) to boot!

He and I took off first. In this section we first saw some nice chimney rocks, free-standing along the bluffs. There were also Canada geese ahead of us on the river, and lots of mud swallow nests on the bluffs.

Occasionally, we saw big splashing at the edge of the river. Found it that it was just carp doing what comes naturally. As someone (Dr. Atomic) yelled, “Bottom feeders!!” (An aside, Dr. Atomic liked his first experience in a kay-ack, as Spalpeen would say, only paddling when absolutely needed, just serenely floating by us.)

We stopped at the bridge near the Winneshiek County primitive canoe campground (small, but with mowed grass, two picnic tables and privy). I got photos from there of the first of the group coming down.

Then we were into the final section to Bluffton. Here Ruby was serving as a lovely figurehead in the Pros’ canoe, painted toes aimed at the sun and her baseball cap matching the boat.

Just past the bridge, on the pines towering over us from the bluffs, which sit maybe 100-200 ft. tall, was a huge eagle’s nest. We all took pictures, but didn’t see any eagles.

On this stretch the chimney rocks become what’s often termed “palisades.” Lotsa cool bluffs on a big, round corner into the town and the take-out at Randy’s Bluffton Store/Campground, which had rented us two canoes and one kay-ack, lol.

We ran shuttles to get vehicles from Harvest Farm and about that time Kent, Diane (the lawn chair queen) and DOD paddled in. We got loaded up and everyone ate lunch at “The Store.”

I came home and slept from 3-6 p.m. Oh yeah, and another thunderstorm came through as I started my nap. Glad we missed that one. (It’s 7:45 p.m. and getting real, real dark now as yet another one comes through!)

It was much fun and thanks to all for coming! Hope I didn’t miss listing anyone in my fried state.”

“very nice...thanks. Wish me and Khatru coulda been there, but I had to do my annual walk for the cancer cure.”

“First, Lizs did a great job planning an organizing this trip, which went without a hitch. The campsites she selected was perfect for the group, and the lenght of the trip was long enough to be interesting, and not too long for the novices. The canoes were delivered before we got there, and the first night campground owner treated us like family. Even though the group on the river numbered 19 people from novice on up, not a single person was a hindrance, and nobody dumped. This was quite an accomplishment as I saw canoes of students from Iowa State dump on the river in two spots.

Second, Tagalong scored the first 8 points of the volley ball game with ace after ace while the guys ate sand just trying to return the ball, which was finally done with her 9th serve. The guys were in danger of getting shut out, but eventually won that game. A lot of fun. Everyone found out they could not jump as high as they could playing volleyball when they were 20.

Dutch Oven Dave cooked up a dessert of Cherry Chocolate Cake in front of the group that if filmed, could have been used in a Food Network Show. He made enough for everyone. Sign me up for every trip he goes on.

Even the down pour was fun, and the highlight of the trip. No headwinds, and warm enough not to care if one got a little wet. In the heaviest downpour, I had to take three stokes of the paddle, then three sponges of water from the bottom of the canoe over and over again. But it stopped in time to allow us to set up and enjoy an evening around our cookstoves and campfires in a mosquito free mild night with owls hooting and turkeys gobbling in the morning.

I met a lot of nice people and enjoyed everyones company. Thank you Lizs for hosting such a nice trip.”

“Hey, nice TR Lizs and prosecutor, shall i be the first to say where's the pics of the "tits"(tics, i am presuming) and strap-ons and ....this i gotta see..."I had to take three stokes of the paddle" prosecutor
9:48:44 PM
6/05/05
i would have preferred to see/participate in your volleyball game, over the nudie v-ball game I sauntered across today on the outer beach, as i slugged across the sand to see the recent cliff cave-in from down at the Atlantic's edge”

“Yes, tagalong rules!!! ;-P”

“I finally got home an hour ago. I will just do one quick comment tonight, more tomorrow.


"You others will have to tell what also was heard in camp that night. Hahahahahaa… Really, the ever-tired, always drinking Spalpeen was just trying to put a square-ish bag into his already-full food bag!! J"

Likely story. All I know is that as I walked past Lizs and Spalpeen's campsite, I heard Lizs in an exasperated voice say, "It's just not fitting in the hole!!!" I thought it best to keep on moving and not disturb the two. ;)





Fantastic trip!!!! I'll post more tomorrow.”

“i thought this was going to be about my response to EBANOTT, lo those many ages ago: you know, SWELL Trailtalkers Rallying Against Purists Of Netiquette”

“and if this thread with its title is allowed to stay up, then i demand that my thread be reinstated!”

“We had a very good time. Thanks, again, to Lizs for all of the hard work.

The campground the first night was extremely nice. The whole place was manicured like a golf course. Highly recommended.

The "primitive" site was a little frightening at first, but once we got all of our crop circles made, I think it was a cool spot. Not exactly LNT, but fun.

For clarification, Beth's comment was a Freudian slip on checking for "ticks". It was funny, though. The strap on was better accidental humor, though.

I think the group consensus was that we would definitely do this one, again. It was great to finally meet a bunch of you, and I'm glad the turnout was so good for this trip.

Here's a few pics:

http://community.webshots.com/album/362687632GqVXbm?11”

“What a great trip this was!!!

Lizs, you did a most excellent job of planning this one. Thank you!

What a treat it was to meet so many new TTers. StoveStomper traveled the farthest. It was good to finally meet ya in person! And Stovey and Trekkngirl were the cutest couple I have ever seen. You cabin ho's, you!!!!!!! Are you two home yet? Come up for air yet??????


As Climbmda said, the first night's campsite was the best. The Iowa River is so beautiful. Trout fishing is fantastic. If only Prosecutor and I had had some fishing gear with us on Friday. We passed people on the river just pulling fish out left and right with stringers of trout.

The downpour that we encountered was something else. What an experience! It was just dumping on us, but it was warm and we were dressed appropriately and there was no lightning, so we just kept on going.

Seeing the bald eagle was very cool! That is a treat to see them in the wild.

The cliffs and bluffs were stunning. Volleyball was fun! Tagalong has a nasty serve (you go, girl!).

Bottom line is that I loved the whole trip. Once again, I am in awe of our beautiful world in which we live. I'm so glad to get the opportunity to see and experience it first hand.

Thanks, Prosecutor, for driving. It was wonderful meeting all the new TTers. Matahari, you are a remarkable woman. Thanks for sharing your stories. And the rest of you, let's do this again. Once again, I would go on a trip again with anyone from our group of 21 in a heartbeat.”

“I think that Dave continued on up to the St. Croix? Is that correct? and as for the cherry chocolate cake...yummy!!! you should sample the pineapple upside down cake, but next time, I'm gonna let him use HIS gloves instead of mine...I'm still licking syrup off of mine.”

“that's UPPER Iowa... there is also an Iowa River, which runs through my lovely college of the University of Iowa in Iowa City.

I'll have tons of photos, but it will probably be Tuesday before I get any up. Some very funny ones, too!! (well over 100... will see how any are "postable." hahaha)

Stikkie, me thinks you should have just donated instead of "relaying" and come up with Dave. I think he was headed home, but I do remember someone saying something about the St. Croix -- cuz I sent that person Matahari's way -- not, umm, that she lives on that river or anything, lol. ;-P”

“Sounds like a great trip! Wish I coulda been there (again, lol).”

“I'm a driving factor on my team, and also a committe member and on the Board of Directors...no, not to show, would have been the wrong thing to do. ya'll didn't need me on the trip anyway..if I was there, you'd all have gotten a whole lot wetter...I have water cannons installed on my boat.”

“Woulda been pointless, a water cannon. LOL! Of course, I didn't take pictures in the downpour but maybe the Cabin Ho's did with their little waterproof cheapo cameras.

Hey and where are they????!? Hope they're to their respective homes safely! Or one home makin' like it's a cabin. hehehehee”

“trying to cut thru the inuendo here...are stove and trekingal an "item". if so, then I think that the inuendo needs to stop and let the 2 of them come out and declare it.

having been a part of innuendo in the past, its a bit childish.

Now do tell more about the cherry chocolate cake or even the rest of the food that was cooked or even the blender action. Thats way more interesting to me at least. Soap opera stuff is none of my business.”

“Hey, I make fun of all of us -- equally. Just callin'em cabin ho's. I say that and keel over laughing. It's a funny term. They stayed in a cabin, so if you can have gear hos you can certainly have cabin hos. No more, no less, :-)”

“Those yankees sure do talk with funny accents up there in MN & IA.”

“First of all......Liz, as always, Thank you for a wonderfully planned trip and an even better time!

I don't know what to say that hasn't been said already. It was truly awesome. The group size was large, but it was more like a voyageurs rondevous, with people checking out each other's gear and food and method of doing things around camp. There was always someone to help grab hold of a boat or whatever you needed. (The second night at camp with the steep boot suckin' mud bank was quite a challenge for everyone...let's just call it a "Man against Royalex mud rasslin' contest, of which we all got our butts whooped)

Of particular interest was the two die hard canoeists, Diane and Kent, who thoroughly enjoyed our lightweight gear and food. They asked meny questions and were eager to learn a few things about the time, space and weight savings of the newer style gear the rest of us had. It opened thier eyes to the possibilities. As far as Mr. Dutch Oven Dave.....I don't think you can improve on his style, and I wouldn't want him to ever change a thing. Any man that says he eats better on the river than he does at home, and routinely makes cinnamin rolls and coffe by Dutch oven, to kill time when deciding what he'll make for breakfast so he can get on the water by the crack of 2 pm and enjoy a nice float in a reclined position in a fully loaded canoe has a good chance of being a hero in my book. Dave rocks! and so does his chocolate cherry cake!

Also, Elementary1 and her BF Tom's visit was nice although they couldn't join us. Tom played guitar by a nice campfire and sang a few tunes for us before turning the guitar over to our very own MHH. Such a talented girl!

It was great meeting everyone new, and of course it's always great to once again, get together with the forum members. Thanks again Liz”

“I believe Dave is a better cook than stikkmon.”

“Wow, really cool! This is mucho bettero than I was expecting. I take back all the "midwest sucks for wilderness adventure" comments. I'll spank myself later when no one's around. I don't believe in humiliating one's self in public, especially with aggressive spanking. That looks like a seriously great place to canoe. Of course it could all be smoke and mirrors and tricks of the mind, I dunno. I can't believe anything I see on the internet, mostly because it came from Al Gore.”

“another thread title that fails to live up to expectations”

“awwww, poor Y2.... ;-P But at least it got you thinking along those lines... and... isn't that just somethin'???!!!! lol

Stovey YOU HAVE THE ACCENT! Glad you made it home safe and sound, and no worse the wear for the trip, although you are a stinkin' CABIN HO! Sure, gear hos prefer gear, but to prefer a cabin to a tent??? Sacrilege, I tells ya!!

Rest assured, I have TONS of photos that will make ya I-O-WAnna canoe this river. Just gonna take awhile to get through the 100 or so. I'm not even on the river, but I've done 30 or so shots. I even have volleyball shots, alas, off the court. One looks like Tagalong is getting just pounded with a volleyball, kinda like some meanie did to me! PHHHHHTTT!!! lol

And the cutlines??? to die for, in the best of Buck's tradition (although, ya could say in the best of the lizs tradition, cuz I write smart-ass cutlines and I was here long afore that young feller Buck, LOL)”

“ya, you betcha!”

“Aaaaaah, man! I'm really sorry I missed this one. Great trip reports and I enjoyed Prosecutor's pictures. Haven't been able to access climbmda's pics yet. I'm looking forward to all the pictures.

Hey stovie, I'm the one who says, You betchya! You and trekngirl should make a trip to the UP. We tok ril coool up here, eh!”

“Aaaaaah, man! I'm really sorry I missed this one. Great trip reports and I enjoyed Prosecutor's pictures. Haven't been able to access climbmda's pics yet. I'm looking forward to all the pictures.

Hey stovie, I'm the one who says, You betchya! You and trekngirl should make a trip to the UP. We tok ril coool up here, eh!”

“lol lizs, well it was entertaining in another way though.”

“Is my webshots link not working? It worked fine when I accessed it from another 'puter. If need be, search webshots for climbmda, and you should get my page. Look for the UIR album.”

“It's working. I have been able to access both links just fine.”

“lizs, get to work on those pictures!
20 is a good start, now quit doing 'work' and get our pictures up! ;-)”

“Stovey -- JUST FOR YOU! -- when I woke up in the middle of the stinkin' night, I worked on photos.

There are SEVEN, count'em, SEVEN pages of photos. Surely something incriminating on EVERYONE!!! LOL! :-)

http://community.webshots.com/album/363010266ulYelR?11”

“Prosecutor, I looked it up in my bird book. That bird we saw was a green heron.


We also saw a pileated woodpecker and a scarlet tanager.”

“I'll take that as a compliment as Dave is really a great campfire chef...a Dutch oven master, for sure. I am only his Padwan.

I'm headin for the river this weekend and hope to recline or swim the entire time.”

“DANG!!!
Lizs broke WebShots!

Service Temporarily Unavailable
The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to maintenance downtime or capacity problems. Please try again later.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Apache/2.0.51 Server at community.webshots.com Port 80”

“Try again. don't know if this had anything to do with it, but remember I renewed it around a month ago and it kept acting like it wasn't renewed.

I logged out and logged back in on home PC which took care of problem. Had never done that on the iMac at work. This a.m. it told me I had like 668 photos, much more than the free 224, or whatever.

I logged out and back in and now it appears fine... **IF** that even was the problem at all.

Stovey, you sure looked like an angel with the Krispy Kremes. You're a doughnut ho, too!! ;-)
last edited: 6/07/05 11:53:36 AM”

“It's working now.
Nice shots, lizsbaby!”

“LOL...you two...

lizs, you are becoming the number one trip planner! Sounds like a great trip!”

“Why, coming from the No. 1 trip planner, those are great words!

Hey twig, ya gotta keep an eye on Stovey if he ever makes it up your way... LOL!”

“Just to clarify that picture of me I was just signaling to liz that she was the number one trip planner”

“glad you had a good time on the river.”

“I just looked at the pictures (complete with interesting commentary, how good are you!) looks like a great trip was had by all!”

“nice pix & report...sounds like lizs did her usual great job of trip planning. Now that I am stuck working 7 days a week until after Labor Day I enjoy trips vicariously through these reports! Thanks!”

“Ohhhhh, that's right omahiker, you've done this river, too. What stretch?

Maybe I'll make it out your way on a trip to Colorado this summer.”

“Finialy got my one use camera to Wally World for developing tonight.”

“Stovey, I keep forgetting that you MET my "special" neighbor David. LOL! He was outside tonight, mumbling to no one in particular. I managed to sneak from Jeep to apt. without the "Hello neighbor" episode. LOL!

And how did you like the trek back to the Twin Cities up the Mississippi -- the RIVER, not your state? lol
last edited: 6/08/05 10:40:35 PM”

“hey we'd love to see you in the metropolis of Memphis, NE some time. Although I am only there on the weekends I am sure omahubby would be glad to show you the bright lights of the town. Oh the excitement! You could see the one bar, one church, and the Post Office! Plus our store of course.

Ummm, the Upper Iowa? We just went to Hruska's & asked them for like a two-hour scenic paddle, we got out at the campground that used to be Johnson's, but I'm not sure where we put in. I do recall that we had to pay extra for them to drive us to the put-in & then pick us up from the take-out. It was fun for a couple of inexperienced paddlers, & very pretty. We didn't see the eagle nest but we heard the baby eagle screeching as we floated by.”

“Weird, the whole time I was in Iowa & MN I did not get an Iowa quarter. I get back home to the MS Gulf Coast and out of the drink machine an Iowa quarter pops.”

“Stovey, did you get to drive up the Mississippi? If so, what did you think of it?”

“Yes, we did.
It was raining most of the drive up so what little we did see was pretty damn nice.”