New MidWEST (not Mideast) thread...

“I'd like to find some fellow hikers in the Midwest.... that'd be IA, WI, MN, ND, SD, NE, MO, IL.... sorry Wolverines, you're "Mideast" to those of us from the Hawkeye State....
Anyway, I'd like to do a 3-4 day winter hike... Dec, Jan, Feb... because...
A) No bugs.
B) I'm booked through November because of work and family.

Anyone else got what it takes to camp in the cold?

Peace, thenerd”

“I would, but I am in debt and have no gear for that kind of trip. Another year maybe.”

“The Midwest must be kind of like an oil spill. It just keeps spreading. When I grew up in Iowa, it seemed pretty clear that the midwest stopped at the Mississippi. Then I moved to Ilinois and I found out it was in the midwest also. Then I moved to Indiana and found out it (and Michigan) were part of the Midwest also!

Rick, I think there is an historic trend here that you cannot reverse by fiat. The Midwest clearly includes Indiana and Michigan!!!!!

Besides we have a group in Michigan that does winter camping/hiking/skiing trips. Last year they went to Nordhouse Dunes on Lake Michigan and became known as the Hiking Vikings.”

“I still maintain that Texas is both mid and west, therefore midwest. Winter trips to Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas require no special gear and the poison ivy is dried up.”

“Gosh and I just got the 0 degree bag on sale from Outdoor Outlet on the Net. Am just hoping it keeps me warm to, let's say, 25 degrees in Utah on upcoming trip.

It's a Kelty Arete--I think it's an older bag, but hey, that's cool (or WARM...hehehee). Cut from $199 to 129. 600 power goose down fill. Two zipper adjustments to air out those feet in warmer weather. A huge hood (who needs those "flex" bags? I can put my arms above my head if I like.)

First I ordered their Kelty Sonar or Pulsar or some such thing. A 0 degree bag that was $229 or so to start with and also at $129. 650 fill power. 10 oz. lighter than the one I got. (mine is 3 lbs. 13 oz -- probably heavy to you guys, but hey, I don't have $500 for a sleeping bag!) But it sold out in a day (I called the second day.)

Anyhoo... so far so good. We'll see. Liberal return policy, too. :-) (Thanks for listening to me drone on and on and on about my new bag!!! hahahaa)

Well, Rick, I bet Cindy Lu and some of our Minn. and/or Neb. friends (where's Pig Ob/Gyn?? And OmaHiker??)) will be checking in ........ Oh and I think SNOWMAN in Wisconsin does winter camping already.

Heck wintets are hardly even cold any more. I went canoeing on Dec. 5 two winters ago and started the trip in shorts!! (Can you say "global warming??" lol!!)”

“lizs, you write equipment reviews for Backpacker mag? (LOL) Or sale ads for the CRGazette? (LMFAO) :))”

“oldie, can you spell r-e-n-t? hehe... Maybe not, I've heard about the tutors at GopherU... (LOL!!)”

“Here I am. :^) I might be up for it. Just got to test my 0 rated bag out in Colorado. I should be nice and toasty.”

“hawkeye, I'd be interested in hearing about the Hiking Vikings, being Skandenavian and all. Did I spell that right? Can you send me some information on that group? Do you keep to the lower half of the state? I have to keep things around the holidays and school breaks do to the kids. I'd be interested in hearing more about it, though. Thanks!”

“Hawkeye: I'm in the GLH group. I missed the hiking viking trip but made the Jordan one this spring. I'd be interested to know what handle you go by there.”

“I might be interested, it all depends on the where and when. Oldie if you want to borrow some gear I might be able to loan you some (don't know what you need). Depending on where we went you might not really need any special gear anyway. It hasn't been all that cold the last few winters around here (Nebraska).”

“Hawkeye, nice point about not rolling back history. My alma mater's fight song - Michigan - has a line "champions of the west" because they were then considered a part of the American West.

Of course, we just kept right on moving farther. Nearer areas became Midwest. So, eastern fringe midwestern states - Ohio, Michigan, etc. - probably have been midwestern longer than the rest.

But I've lived in Illinois before and there's enough room for us all - as long as we don't allow those god-awful easterners into the club.

What is GLH?”

“Sorry if I offended any Wolverines, Illini, or Bobby "who can I pick on today" Knight fans... Just wanted a thread to round up some hikers closer to home. (See my first post.) Have a nice weekend everybody.
UCLA 48 Wolverines 7(just kiddeeeen)”

“I know an alternative version to the Michigan fight song, but I'll spare you RL.

Omahiker, I don't think I'll be doing any winter hiking, unless I make a ton of money this fall and can get somewhere warm. Thanks for the offer tho.”

“Rick...good post.

I've done quite a bit of snow camping...
tent...sans tent...just a bivy bag...

In snow caves...in igloos...a friend out
out a nature call fell into a snow structure
Guess what the inhabitants said?

"Ig! This is no loo!"

I would be interested in a return to Crater
Lake to do the ski around the Lake. It is
AWESOME...Cloud notch can really throw
you off...easy to become disoriented...]
gotta trust your compass...let go of
"intuition"

Rick, Read Minus !48 about the first
winter ascent of Denali. Title comes
from a wind chill chart (temp v wind
velocity). Chart bottoms out at -148F.

Excerpt from the book. A party of
three are weather bound at 17, 000ft.

Things are pretty grim...they are low
on food, really low on energy...

One guy needs to take a dump. He
inquires of the others,

"How did you do it?" (temp REAL cold).

Their reply:

"We just did it in the bag."

A few minutes later...

"Guys, what did you do with it?"

Their reply:

"DIDN'T YOU PUT DOWN THE TOILET PAPER?!"

His reply:

"Oh sh_t."

Let me know about Crater next April. I
have friends in Klamath Falls a couple
hours from the CLNP. We can invite
Bonzai down to join us...I know there
are other Oregonians on TT...anybody
else?

Highcountry”

“FYI: GLH = Great Lakes Hiking (or Hikers?). Its an e-mail list with something like 100 or 150 members. Most are from Michigan, but there is a strong smattering from other GL states. Go to oneslist.com or elist.com and do a search for the Great Lakes Hiking List. Also, we have the IndianaOutdoors List and the Midwest Trekkers List. (BTW the latter was started by a guy form Ohio! Rick, you'd better watch out!) The latter two are pretty inactive lists, but GLH goes pretty strong.

Sunshine, I think the GLH group mostly does events in the LP, but I've heard some talk of going to the UP. They did a long weekind trip to North Manitou and there is talk of a weekend in October on teh Manistee River Trail.

Le Subtil, I'm Hawkeye on GLH also. I just haven;t been posting a lot lately.

Rick, no offense taken. BTW, in case the news hasn't gotten to the Register yet, you don't have Bobby Knight to kick around anymore. (And without him, you probably wouldn't have Alford.) I'm not a Knight fan as a Cyclone/Hawkeye, but then I can't seem to remember anything about UNI except the dome collapsing. (NOI)”

“None taken, Hawk....
Knight may not be at IU anymore, but I can still kick him. Nixon's no longer in the white house and I still write jokes about him, too. As for the UNI Panthers, ever hear of Kurt Warner?

Anyway, more to the point, thanks, Hawk, for the info on GLH & others. Thx, hc, for the book idea.

See ya all later, I gotta football game to go to.”

“The UNI dome! HAHAHAHAHA! I was there for the last UNI R.A. conferences. That dome isa joke. I was told that they often cont have games there because whenever it rains the thing leaks. It's kind of an eyesore too. he rest of the campus is nice though.”

“But they're replacing it with a solid roof. Right, lizs?”

“Ricky,
Let's keep that Feb. camping idea afloat. I haven't winter camped in 20 yrs.
Liz,
You are one of the "Wintets"? I love that band...Winter and the Wintets! They rock! LOL!
And, By The Way....we folks in KS don't consider ourselves Midwest, since all you Easterners are fighting over the title. We just happen to be in the actual middle of the original 48. The undisputed center!”

“good one, Dunadan!! I caught that reading back through the posts later. Will you be my full-time editor? hmmm??? I need one on forums, geez, I type rotten, type wrong words, leave out words. OH MY GAWD... you'll be thinking I'm NIgal/PoopyPants/Mr. Brown!!!

Rick...right..new roof, no longer inflatable. Awww... I'll miss that getting blown out of the building. Wasn't the UNI-Dome in that one music video by the group Journey.... "I'm Forever Yours, Faithfully." Their tour bus goes rolling by some big, domed arena (amid cornfields, I think) Sure did resemble the UNI-Dome and I think they played there in that era.

Speaking of which, when was the Dome put up?

Oldie... YOU'RE A GOPHER, for Gawd's sake. Bad overbite, burrowing animal. 8-) hehehee”

“I'm not making any arguments concerning the ferociousness (or otherwise) of the gopher. And the only part of UNI was making fun of was the dome. Like the rest of the campus was very nice.”

“?My alma mater's fight song - Michigan - has a line "champions of the west" because they were then considered a part of the American West.?

I always thought it was because they always play (sigh, played) the big game in the Rose Bowl?

How do you get an MSU alum off your front porch?

Give him the $10 for the pizza!”

“Hail, hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm
Hail, hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm
Hail, Hail to Michigan the cesspool of the west.

Michigan Anti-fight song edited for those who don't care for profanity.”

“Liz, Rick, Hawkeye, et al,
Hey, we have your former award-winning football coach down here. A Mr. Terry Allen, to be specific. I wonder how often he dreams of being back @ UNI? At least Kansas State whupped up on some Hawkeye boys.
As far as editorial duties go, I don't think I would cut the mustard, although I am highly judgemental. Thankyou, Miss L for the offer.”

“So, where is this winter hike gonna be? Let's get something planned... midwest, mideast, who cares, MIDWINTER!!!!”

“lizs, construction started in '75, first events in '76, I think. I know I saw a "Chicago" concert there in while I was in school (1974-78, yikes!) and also Steve Martin.”

“Thanks, cindy lu, for getting us back on track. I'm open to ideas. We could really get crazy and do the BWCA in January! Aren't there some good spots in Central or Southern Wisconsin? Or Southern Illinois? In January or February I could take a week! Other ideas?”

“Getting off track again ... hehehee ... I saw The Cars there...and... AND... hey I think I saw you during the "King Tut" dance!! LOL!!! I was there, too!! Made that "long" trip up from Ioway City. It's hard for me to remember how they set that Dome up for concerts. Was the band at one end of the floor and then did they let people sit in the sides at all?”

“Oh Please, Mr. Steadman! Wisconsin and Illinois are directly South of me and *I'm* not considered Mid West?!? What's up with that? :oP”

“Good point, Sunshine, the UP is in, but not the mitten. 'Kay?

lizs, this is a lo-o-ong time ago, but since I'm a professional, I have a good memory. Both Chicago & Steve Martin were near the North endzone with seating on the floor and along the sides.

Winter bp'ers, how about some of the wilderness areas in the Shawnee Nat'l Forest. Unless there's a good place in Wisconsin. How about weekends of 2/10, 2/17, or the week between those two?”

“And, Sunshine (or, sunshine), "Mr. Steadman" a is just a bit formal, don't you think?

My friends just call me R. Or thenerd.”

“Rick, perhaps I have been out of school for too long. But I swear I never heard of a region called Mideast. Upper midwest yes...”

“hyperpacker, There was a year (some time ago) when the NCAA hoops tourney had an East, West, Midwest, and Mideast regionals. Not that the NCAA has any experts on geography. They have enough trouble trying to regulate the world's only professional sports league with unpaid athletes.”

“I'm not familiar with Shawnee National Forest; where is it located?”

“oh yeah rick... i have a friend whose friend said BLAH BLAH BLAH . Michigan IS midWEST like it or not. The ncaa oughta worry about their coke head,drunk driving,raping,kick back taking "atheletes" and leave the geography to Rand McNally. Please dont misunderstand me. This is NOT personal. It just seems that you excluded Mi. specifically.Which is silly cause for better or worse, we are midwestern.”

“Dunadan.. KSU, huh? Do you remember a player named Mitch Running on the football team? Geez, probably 10 years ago now. He played a little pro ball I watched him in high school.

And as to former Hawkeye coaches elsewhere (I'm talking Iowa here), heck they all go elsewhere and win (Alvarez, Snyder ...even McCarney [when did that happen??!?!]) (did I mention too-bad-he-got-away Bobby Stoops? And now isn't the one coach who had cancer somewhere? Is he a head coach? Hmmm.. the name Bob -- or Randy -- Elliott comes to mind...) Yes, Allen, too....one-time on Fry's staff.

Everyone wins but the coach AT Iowa. Hardly fair, do you think??”

“Well. Yahoo names these states as "Midwest":Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Now, can you get a much higher authority than that? HMMM???”

“hyper... as a detroit tiger fan who lived in MI 2 yrs, no, i didn't exclude it specifically... also excluded Indiana & Ohio... Merely looking for a hike closer to home...

lizs, the bubblebees got what they deserved. (kiddeeeeeen)

Omahiker. Shawnee is in Southern IL. Ironically, after looking at the maps again last night, it seems that Michigan might be closer! (LOL!)

What about Wisconsin, lizs?”

“Or Loess Hills, Omahiker?”

“Rick, although I am very fond of the Loess Hills, I don't know of any areas that would be conducive to more than a one-night trip (not that there's anything wrong with that, but if I was traveling a long way for a trip I would want to stay more than one night). Most of the public land areas are pretty small. My favorite place, Preparation Canyon, has no campsites further than one mile from the trailhead parking, and total trails in the park, although fairly rugged in places, only total around six or seven miles (they loop around a lot and run parallel to each other in places). Indian Cave, in Nebraska near Brownsville, has a lot more trails and back-country campsites than any place I know of in the Loess Hills. It is a beautiful, very hilly area, near the Missouri River. I don't get there more than a couple of times a year because it's about 90 miles from Omaha - too far for a one-nighter. We usually camp/backpack on Friday nights only, because my boyfriend and I both have responsibilities in our church that require us to attend regularly.”

“That was my fear about the Loess Hills. I hoping to take some vacation in Jan/Feb/Mar to bp for 3 or 4 days.

lizs... i meant "bumblebees," not "bubblebees!" (red-faced tee-hee... i'm usssually suck a good spiller!)”

“Hi Rick,

Btw, I am game for Loess Hills. We would
not "need" to camp in at bc sites. If
we are lucky we should have 1'-2' of the
white stuff to camp upon and could
camp just about anywhere.

Great vistas w/good weather!

Let me know...

Highcountry”

“hi highcountry. (hehe)
This thread will die by then, but I'll start a new one when winter hits. Until then I'll have to be satisfied with day hikes and bike riding.”