It’s clear that Iowans, as proud Midwesterners, are starting to wake up to the fact that there is something strange in the water, both physically and metaphorically. I was recently having a conversation with a friend via text, someone who I would call an average Iowan, someone who camps at Ledges State Park and rides a bike on the High Trestle Trail.
It’s been a long week at work; kids have been driving you crazy, and the weather has not been too cold; what would you do? I will tell you what an Average Flatlander does. Call up a buddy and head for that river valley for some Bushcraft Taco Time.
The Driftless Area is one of the very few unspoiled places to explore in the upper Midwest. The rolling plains run into the wide open valleys and drainages that surround the Mississippi. The landscape is speckled with beautiful oak forests and dotted with trout streams; small quant towns are hidden down inside the recesses of these deep valleys.
It’s almost like the Driftless has been able to escape the hands of time, it’s the perfect place to escape for the weekend, to forget the worries of the hustle and bustle of life. Sitting in a hot tent next to a warm fire with coyotes howling out their songs in the cold winter night, you get the same feeling those French trappers and traders had when a few hundered years ago the paddled down that big river and first laid eyes on those giant wooded hills.
You could say there forever. I almost did.
I love the outdoors in our hidden gem, the Upper Midwest; it’s a one-of-a-kind place. Sure, we trick all those unsuspecting victims driving through on I-80 into thinking that Iowa is just a series of undulating and rolling corn fields that go on forever. But that’s ok; it keeps our beautiful state uncrowded and the perfect place to raise a family and enjoy life.
I mean, whatever you do, don’t tell them visitors that places like this exist if they bothered to take a peak just a little ways off the beaten path.
Our beautiful Iowa has plenty of outdoor recreation and public land to satisfy the wander lust of the most adventurous among us. I should know, I’ve spent a lifetime here doing exactly that. Sure, I visit the popular spots that everyone else does, places like Pikes Peak, Yellow Banks, Backbone, Jester Park, and everything in between.
But, I also do much more that that. Most people are unaware, or maybe aware but not interested enough to know that Iowa boasts a massive list of Public Lands that Wildlife Management Areas that could keep you busy and intrigued the rest of your life.
Hiking, hunting, exploring, fishing, wildlife viewing all wait at your finger tips, in the very county you live in no doubt. But, there is something rotting at the core, something that probably explains why many of these Public Lands go unused and untouched, a waste.
I’ve written before about how …
and the problem is only getting worse, not better.
The more I spent time on our Public Lands, walking and exploring that meandering Des Moines River and other forgotten haunts, the more I see why Iowa Public Lands are an embarrassment to us natives. You can literally see the degradation happening before your eyes, it’s impossible to miss.
Case and point.
I spend much of the summer walking or paddling the Des Moines River and surrounding water ways, simply fishing or enjoying the plethora of bald eagles that patrol our blue skies. I spend days with my children biking the myriad of trail systems that dot our central plains.
You know what never changes and get’s worse every year? Disrepair and trash. Piles of trash, mounds of trash, incredible amount of trash.
This picture was taken only a few days ago.
This picture was taken a few days before that, heading out into the woods to enjoy some nature along the river.
Maddening is it not? It’s been like this for years.
You know what else is maddening? This year when taking my children fishing to Big Creek State Park, where …
… and, where I observed the DNR personal driving around in a BRAND NEW massive white Ram Heavy Duty 3500 dually pickup truck. This is a $100,000 dollar machine.
Yes, instead of fixing the playground for the children, picking up trash, fixing some of the bathrooms, no, what I get when I go fishing with my children is a dilapidated and broken bathroom that is closed, piles of trash everywhere, and a DNR who want’s to check my fishing license while I stand next to piles of used trash.
It’s the same everywhere I go. Angry Conservation and DNR employees who are jaded so badly that they have stopped caring decades ago. They don’t bother even trying. It’s pathetic, and it shows.
I’m a realist, and I happen to have grown up in era where we were taught that people are capable of amazing things, especially those who believe in something … nothing can stop them.
Each and every DNR and Conservation worker can either decide to make it their mission to make their park(s) beautiful and assessable to the public, somewhere they would be proud to take their own family … or not.
It’s pretty clear what choice they have made. I’m not interested in some opinion of an “armchair” reader of Iowa Outdoors or Our Iowa who’s never actually gotten off their couch, left Des Moines, and actually went and put their feet in the water or boots in the mud of the trails. It’s bad. It’s getting worse.
People complain about “not enough funding,” that everyone and all those billion of agriculture dollars are against us and our Public Lands. Well, that sounds like a nice sound byte, but this problem is a clear and obvious lack of caring about our public lands by those charged with keep things lands for our public good. This is decades in the making.
They have enough money to buy new trucks, but they can’t be bother about piles of trash? Shame on them.
There are few things better in life than heading out to that wide, deep, and wild river valley for a little bushcraft. When the weather is overcast and grey, a little bit of rain in the air, it gives it all another worldy feel. It’s almost like you transported yourself back in time; it makes you wonder about the old ones who came before and walked those river bluffs thousands of years before.
Take a tarp, string it between two trees, build the perfect campfire, fire up the stove, and cook that hot ham and cheese sandwich. Get the soup boiling, dip the sandwich in, and take a big old bite. This is living life, not tied to a glowing screen.
The eagles soar, the owls hoot, and the wild geese send down their call while they call down their noisy chatter from up high. A person could stay out here forever, disconnected and far away from the troubles waiting for you at home.
The river is something that has been running its course for centuries, the animals find their home on its banks and high hills, and there is just something about a river.
Probably one of the greatest joys that can connect you to nature when you are in the outdoors, bushcrafting, camping, backpacking, whatever … is the joy of cooking your own food under the sky over a fire that you made with your own hands. Nothing better.
Char Cloth, one of those strange and distant terms you’ve probably heard of it you’ve been around the Bushcraft community for some time, yet it’s just on the fringes enough most people have either never used it, and especially never made it.
It’s that time of year again, the Christmas and Holiday season is already upon us, 2024 went flying by! If you’re like me, you might be looking for something new, something different for the outdoor adventure lover in your life, better to order early than wait till it’s too late.
If you’re in mind for some National Parks and you want to escape the crowds, I have the best-kept National Park road trip that you can ever imagine. I’m talking about epic views, plenty to do and see, with nary another soul around for miles, an outdoor adventure lovers paradise and be found in that most underrated of States. South Dakota.
Have you ever been in the backwoods … backpacking, camping, hiking, whatever … and you’re sitting there eating some nasty freeze-dried meal, or a MRE, or another stupid power bar? You start thinking about all the good food waiting for you on the other side of your trip.
Like pizza.