[Rhodes22-list] Unexpected Polar Bear Winter Camping Trip

[Steve]

Roger
Next trip, if Brenda & Emily goes and you do the
cooking, I'm willing to go!!!!!!:-)
Steve

PS - Good story, Roger. 
--- Roger Pihlaja <cen09402@centurytel.net> wrote:
> I just got back from a weekend backpacking trip with
> my Boy Scout troop.  We hiked & camped on the Jordan
> River Pathway, which is in the Mackinaw State Forest
> about 15 miles SW of Gaylord, MI.  It's about a
> 2-1/2 hour drive north from my house in Sanford, MI.
>  We had 19 Scouts and 5 adult leaders along, which
> is by far the biggest group we've ever tried to do a
> backpacking trip with.
> 
> Our troop has developed sort of a bimodal age
> distribution in the past couple of years.  We have a
> bunch of 11 & 12 year olds & a bunch of 16 & 17 year
> olds with relatively few Scouts in the 13 - 15 year
> range.  It's hard to find an activity that's
> interesting & challenging for the older Scouts that
> wouldn't absolutely kill the new Scouts.  So, we
> tried something a little different on this camping
> trip.  We divided the troop into Group A & Group B. 
> Group A started their hike from a place called
> "Deadman's Hill"  & hiked about 8 miles + about 1200
> feet of total elevation change + several small
> stream crossings to our overnight destination at
> Pinney Bridge Walk-In Campsite.  Group B drove the
> vehicles to another trailhead & hiked about 3 mostly
> downhill miles to the same overnight campsite.
> 
> I hiked with Group A along with 6 Scouts & one other
> adult leader.  We hiked about 4 miles & stopped for
> lunch on the trail.  We covered the entire 8 miles
> in about 4 hours.  The trail conditions were pretty
> tough for hiking.  The area got about 3" of snow the
> night before & we got occasional wet snow flurries
> during the hike.  The temperature was right at
> freezing.  The ground was still warm enough to melt
> some of the snow on the trail & there was freezing
> cold water dripping off the trees.  The trail was
> slippery from the snow, mud, & wet leaves.  You had
> to be really careful of your footing, especially on
> the hills, or your feet would go right out from
> under you or you'd twist an ankle.  This was the 1st
> time I've ever parallel "skied" in my hiking boots! 
> Did you you know you can "hockey stop" a pair of
> Sorels in the mud if you edge them really hard? 
> Without the heavy backpack making me so top heavy,
> it would actually have been kind of fun. 
> Fortunately no one in our group got hurt, all though
> we were all pretty wet & muddy by the time we made
> it to our overnight campsight.  The fall colors were
> just past peak & the scenery from the high
> ridgelines along the trail was great.  I saw an 8
> point whitetail buck, an easy 50 yard standing
> broadside shot with a rifle.  But, it ran away
> before I could get my camera out of my pack.
> 
> Group B got into camp about 2 hours ahead of us &
> had the campfires burning when we arrived.  All the
> younger Scouts had done just fine on their 1st ever
> backpacking trip.  Nobody in Group B had gotten hurt
> either.  We all said a little prayer of thanks for
> that blessing.
> 
> One of the adult leaders in Group B was Brenda
> Acklin.  Brenda wasn't able to find a babysitter &
> had her 12 year old daughter, Emily, with her in
> Group B.  This was also Emily's 1st backpacking
> trip.  Emily is kind of a whiner & a fussy eater.  I
> knew Brenda would have her hands full taking care of
> her.  So when we were planning the camping trip, I
> promised Brenda that I would cook dinner & breakfast
> for the 3 of us.  For dinner, I made Polynesian
> chicken over rice, green beans with lemon-butter
> sauce, hot fudge brownies for dessert, & all washed
> down with hot spiced apple cider.  Emily was a
> little slow eating her dinner &, in the freezing
> temperature, the food got stone cold before she'd
> finished half of it.  I warmed up Emily's whole
> plate of food at the same time as I was warming up
> the brownies in my double boiler.  Waving the
> dessert in front of Emily did the trick & she soon
> finished the rest of her dinner.  I've found that
> when you camp with women, you simply must bring
> chocolate!
> 
> Saturday night, the temperature got down to about 23
> deg F.  After dinner, I started feeling pretty tired
> & cold.  I was in my sleeping bag by about 7:30 PM &
> slept straight thru to 7:30 AM Sunday morning.  I
> think most of the troop was in bed pretty soon after
> dinner & nobody got too cold overnight.
> 
> Sunday morning, I made breakfast burritos + fresh
> baked honey cinnamon sticky buns for Brenda, Emily,
> & me.  The last of the new Scouts was finally packed
> up & ready to leave by 11:00 AM.  We all hiked out
> together via the easier Group B route.  Hiking out
> from Jordan River level to the ridgeline was uphill
> almost the whole way, about 450 feet of elevation
> gain in 3 miles.  Some of our new Scouts were
> hurting bad by the time we reached the trailhead.   
> 
> For some reason, the tailgate on my Chevy Astro
> minivan wouldn't open when we got back to the
> vehicles.  I think it was frozen shut.  It made
> loading backpacks into the rear cargo area thru the
> side door & over the 2nd & 3rd row of seats a royal
> PITA!
> 
> We drove a short distance to another scenic overlook
> to have a look at the site of an ancient landslide. 
> Then we hiked about 1-1/4 miles to the headwaters of
> landslide Creek.  The headwaters turned out to be a
> spring that bubbles up out of the hillside &
> cascades down the hill in a pretty neat little
> waterfall!  Yes, that's right, this stream starts
> out with a waterfall.
> 
> On the way home, we stopped in Gaylord, MI & had
> lunch at Taco Bell.  We arrived back the SUM Church
> in Sanford, MI at 15:58, two minutes ahead of
> schedule.  I love it when a plan comes together!
> 
> The Jordan River Valley has quite a history in the
> lumbering industry in Michigan.  There used to be a
> log flume on Deadman's Hill.  I imagine getting in
> the way of a 5 ton log going down a 450 foot log
> flume would just ruin your whole day!  There were
> some fatalities at this site, hence the name.  Our
> campsite at Pinney Bridge Walk-in Campground was
> originally the site of a lumber camp around the turn
> of the century.  The Jordan River Valley was
> reforested during the 1930's by the CCC's. 
> Nowadays, it is managed by the Michigan DNR as a
> working forest.  Along the trail on our 8 mile hike,
> there were signs pointing out the sites of
> relatively recent wood harvesting operations.
> 
> I'm really proud of the way our troop handled this
> backpacking trip in fairly tough conditions.  Nobody
> got hurt or hypothermic.  They all managed to cook
> their own meals & slept thru the cold night without
> any problems.  A few of our new Scouts got cold wet
> feet & I'm sure they all learned a few things.
> 
> I wish I'd brought an extra pair of fleece pants. 
> The pair of fleece pants I wore on the 8 mile hike
> in on Saturday was pretty soaked by the time we'd
> reached our campsite.  I really missed having a dry
> pair to wear after dark on Saturday night & Sunday
> morning.  I had to make do with light weight
> polypropylene long johns & nylon wind pants.
> 
> We're calling this our 1st Polar Bear Winter Camping
> trip of the year.  It didn't start out that way, but
> that's Michigan weather for you.  Our Scouts will
> certainly have bragging rights at school tomorrow.
> 
> Roger Pihlaja
> S/V Dynamic Equilibrium
> 
> 
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