IOU Climbing at Camp Mitigwa...

By Sara Hollerich,

Mike and I had been working up at Camp Mitigwa all day with a group of 6th graders and had invited IOU up for an evening visit. Camp Mitigwa is the boy scouts camp near Boone, Iowa. They have a nice little climbing tower there so we decided to take advantage of that fact and practice some of our climbing moves.

The group experimented with all three walls. Two of which are simply two by fours attached to the wall and very easy to climb, the other wall has actual hand holds and has some overhangs so it is a bit harder to climb. Then there is the repelling wall and the chimney to experiment with. Mike even tried the free repel three times, it was cool to watch. It looked somewhat painful when he awkwardly tumbled off the edge and hit the a couple of times and he even managed to squish his hand once. Owe!

We all had a great time. Mike and I taught people how to belay and repel. Mike sees it as training future climbers so he can go out and play more often. I talked a few brave soles to try the chimney. Wow will that tire you out. Basically you have to walk up a slippery chute – no handholds to speak of. Your legs get quite a workout and so does your core.

We got a chance to visit some friendly bats while we were on top of the tower. It was pretty cool. They looked at us, we looked at them. They twitched their little noses at us using their echolocation. Probably trying to figure out what the heck we were. Then they climbed up the umbrella. There were eight all together. I couldn’t believe that they didn’t fly away after dark. Maybe the lights messed them up.

After a few hours we were all tired and decided to wrap it up. It was fun while it lasted.

Members in attendance: Brady W., Ken H., Stacey S., Mike C., Sara H., Chris H., Delite P., Anna W., and Melissa R.

IOU Zoo Brew...

By Sara Hollerich

The zoo brew was is a phenomenon I was not familiar with until last year. I am not really sure when it started but it was pretty cool. The zoo opens its brew at 5:30. We didn’t get there until a bit later 6:30ish. Next time I will go a bit earlier. The exhibits started to shut down not long after we arrived.

When you first walk into the zoo you have the opportunity to purchase a beer or their drink of the night. Ours was a margarita. They have a band playing near the entrance which you can hear throughout the zoo. Then you’re welcomed to walk around the zoo and watch the animals. It is sort of a unique experience because they are closing down the exhibits for the day and are feeding the animals. We watched the lions tear into their five pounds of ground beef.

If we would have gotten their earlier we could have seen more of the animals and even fed a giraffe. Too bad! Some of the indoor exhibits were open a while longer. The night we were there everyone was invited to watch Survivor on the big screen TV inside a big tent they had set up.

It was fun and I would do it again but arrive closer to 5:30 so I could enjoy the animals. Not just the attention loving Lama in the petting zoo who was searching us for food.

We wrapped up the evening with a trip to Robin’s Wood Oven grill for dinner and called it a night.

Member in attendance. Sara H., Stacey S., Emily V., Doug P., and Chris H.