IOU Backpacking 101...

By, Sara Hollerich

7/30/05 - Backpacking 101 at Yellow Banks

Yellow Banks is a Polk County Park just east of Pleasant Hill and it was the sight of our hike in camping trip in late July. Four IOU members are going to head out on a backpacking trip to Rocky Mountain National Park in a couple of weeks and we wanted to give them a test run. So we chose a local place for them to hike in and test out their packing strategy and a couple of recipes.

We all met earlier in the day and hiked back into the woods and set up our camp. Most people brought their tents but I thought I would try my hammock. I have used it for camping before and really enjoy sleeping in it outdoors (on nights when mosquitoes are not an issue).

Then we headed off to Chichaqua Bottoms (Polk County) to float around for a while in our canoes or kayaks. Chichaqua offered a maze of backwaters to navigate through and floated around for a while. My dog Brody sat in my lap watching closely for the frogs to jump out of our way. He caught me off guard a couple of times when he decided to go in after one. By the time we got back to the takeout he was covered in mud, duckweed and very cute, as always! All in all, members Stacey, Melissa, Mike, Sara, and Doug along with four dogs (Lacey, Maggie, Biner, and Brody) enjoyed the lazy float through the backwaters.

We caught up with Emily back at Yellow Banks, helped her set up her tent then started cooking supper. After a few experimental dishes (mainly various kids of noodles with caned chicken, yum), we enjoyed some cake. Emily turned 26! Happy Birthday Emily, your getting to be an old lady! It was the second year in a row she got to go camping on her B-day. The first time involved a bit too much wine and a drenching rainstorm – but that is another story!

The night was cool and crisp and the sky was gorgeous. We decided to head down to the large open field and lay out and star gaze. Emily had enough foresight to bring a star map so we could identify different constellations. We found a few but had trouble locating others. NOTE: a flashlight with that is able to make a solid beam works well for pointing out different constellations.

When we tired of looking at the stars we headed back to start up our campfire. We told stories (the Man Who Killed People with a Butter Knife and the Hobo Jim or something like that). We were all so terrified no one could sleep – yeah right! Lets just say we had trouble remembering the stories and no one was really all that scared. About that time something interesting did happen. I went over to the wood pile to get a few pieces of wood for the fire and noticed that a piece of wood was glowing. And no, I hadn’t drank anything that night! Later I found out it was caused by a fungus called foxfire that can grow on rotting wood and leaves. No one knows for sure why it glows. It may be a way to get rid of otherwise harmful energy or for some other reason, but it was really cool! Or that could just me my geeky side showing again ;-).

As the night passed on clouds began to build in the sky and we could see lighting. It didn’t seem like we were in any danger of getting rained on, but just before morning the rain started to pour. I had given up trying to sleep in the hammock anyway, because my dog kept growling at deer that were snorting warnings at us or each other and the mosquitoes were buzzing in my ears and biting my face. I need a different type of hammock. One with a nice bug screen and a rain fly. My next big outdoor purchase! They are great to sleep in otherwise and light to carry.
I crawled in with Emily for a couple of more hours then broke camp and headed home. I had to work that morning. Needless to say I didn’t’ get quite as much done at work as I had hoped. Two hours of sleep leaves much to be desired, but it was worth it.