Month: April 2016 (Page 4 of 10)

Along the Loess Hills

April 21, 2016 / Bruce "Buck" Nelson / 0 Comments

I heard that most of the area got 2″ of rain. My guess is it rained at least that much at my camp in three hours. No wonder it wasn’t soaking in!

Since my sleeping bag stayed dry I would have been fine camping last night, but what a luxury getting getting all cleaned up and everything perfectly dried, and to simply relax, surf some TV and not worry about putting in a full day’s hiking.

I got breakfast and then I went to Wendy’s and got several burgers to eat later. Sure looked like it was going to rain, and as a matter of fact it did a little bit, but the forecast was essentially correct, it didn’t amount to anything.

Not far down the road I was somewhat surprised to see one of the first walkers since I left the Katy Trail. He was walking along the edge of the field which seemed somewhat silly to me since it was so muddy. As I passed him he hailed me and came on over. Like most people, one of the first things he asked is where I was heading. When I told him, he said that he had been traveling for three years. We talked briefly and I wished him well and headed down the road.

He caught up with me as I turned on the side road and started heading north with me. From that point on I was mainly thinking about the best way to politely extricate myself from the situation.

For a couple of hours he told an endless series of stories of living on the road. He didn’t appear to be a drunk or a druggie, he seemed to be a fellow with mild mental problems who simply found it easier to live the homeless lifestyle than to deal with a more conventional existence. He had no belongings that I could see other then a nice waterproof jacket, long shorts, and sandals. Apparently people would give him various things: clothes, a sleeping bag, a tent, and he would either lose them or just simply get tired of carrying them and throw them away. His favorite story was trying to befriend a seal on the coast in California and the seal nipped him. He went and got a fish from a fisherman, gave it to the seal and then the seal let him pet him. He had stories of jumping freight trains, sneaking on greyhound buses and on and etc.

Happily we parted on good terms and he headed off down the road on his own, no money, no belongings, no real plan, just relying on fate.

All day long I walked between the Loess Hills and the Missouri River, the two maybe 5 miles apart. Apparently glaciers ground vast amounts of powdery soil, and when they retreated, winds created vast dunes east of the Missouri River area, the heaviest materials forming the Loess Hills, about 200 miles long north-south in Iowa and Missouri.

As I have on other adventures, I listened to recordings of “This American Life” including two of my favorites, one entitled “Break Up” and the other entitled “Separated at Birth.” I highly recommend downloading and listening to them both.

Somehow today I got separated from my neck shade that hangs down from my cap and protects the sides of my face and back of my neck from the sun. I used sunscreen today but I definitely want some kind of replacement.

It’s a beautiful evening and I’m camped a along the Missouri River, across from the L&C camp of July 20. The low sun is glittering off the fast current. Sticks are floating by. Countless frogs are calling and occasionally a bald eagle flies past.

Missouri River Camp

Clark

July 20th Friday 1804…I went on Shore took R Fields with me and went up this Creek Several miles & crossed thro the plains to the river above with the view of finding Elk, we walked all day through those praries without Seeing any, I killed an emence large yellow Wolf-The Countrey throu which we walked after leaveing the Creek was good land covered with Grass interspersed with Groves…

From this evenings incampment a man may walk to the Pane Village on the S bank of the Platt River in two days, and to the Otteaus in one day all those Indians are Situated on the South bank of the Plate River, as those Indians are now out in the praries following & Hunting the buffalow, I fear we will not See them.

Trip overview and route map with position updates:

https://bucktrack.com/Lewis_and_Clark_Trail.html

Deluge, 500 Miles

April 20, 2016 / Bruce "Buck" Nelson / 2 Comments

The forecast called for an inch of rain, most of it in the morning. My plan called for waiting for it to diminish before packing up quickly. Usually it’s not a good idea to set up or take down camp when it’s raining hard.

It started raining before dawn and then rained harder and harder. I’d expected it so I had the hatches battened down pretty good and when it began raining I turned on my little LED light, looked around, and everything was in fine shape. As a reminder my shelter is basically just a tarp with bug netting, with one side mostly open, so it has to be set up carefully and used properly to keep you dry.

It was raining harder and longer than I expected but I was still staying dry and the wind was blowing from a good direction. But then I noticed that it had been raining so hard that water was beginning to pool on the flat, grassy ground, and the wind was beginning to swing around to blow in the 2/3 open door of my shelter. Now the netting would keep out most of that rain and I could’ve put up a plastic bag to block it but I was going to get flooded out regardless.

Downpour at Dawn, from inside my tent

So here’s the deal: if I try to sit up my butt would immediately squish down into standing water so I stayed horizontal, packing up all of my dry stuff in the plastic bags that line my pack. I rolled those bags over to keep the inside of my pack dry. I put on all my rain gear, deflated my air mattress and rolled it up tightly putting it on top of my pack, then did the same thing with my tent.

It’s been about two weeks since my last day off so I decided this would be a swell day to take that next (partial) one. I knew there were motels at the I29 intersection. The bad news was that I had to backtrack a couple miles, and then walk three more miles to get there.

I got to Motel 6. They could not possibly have been nicer. They let me check in crazy early, like at 9 o’clock in the morning. I got my laundry done, ate a bunch of food and hung up my tent and air mattress and pack and everything else to dry, and had a nice relaxing day.

I looked up the local rainfall. Looks like about 2″ this morning!

I’ve come nearly 500 miles so far. That’s the bicycle route mileage, and with extra miles I’ve added for groceries, water fetching, campsite finding, etc, my mileage will be close.

Clark, July 19, 1804

…Small butiffull runs Come from the Plains & fall into the river, a Deer lick on the first, above those two Creeks, I found in my walk on Shore Some ore in a bank which had Sliped in to the river 3/ 4 me. above the Creeks, I took a cerequite around & found that those two runs mentioned contained a good proposion of wood Surrounded by a plain, with grass about 18 Inchs. high, (Capt Lewis walked on Shore after Dinner) in the first bind to the right above those Runs passed a Small Island opsd. is a Sand bar I call this Island Butter Island, as at this place we mad use of the last of our butter…

Trip overview and route map with position updates:

https://bucktrack.com/Lewis_and_Clark_Trail.html

Race on the Trace, IOWA!

April 19, 2016 / Bruce "Buck" Nelson / 0 Comments

I got up early today to make sure I maximized my time to make it to the Lewis and Clark visitor center in Nebraska City no later than 2 PM, as it closed at 4 PM.

I still can’t believe that I actually spent the night at an actual trail shelter. It made packing up quick and easy with no tent to take down and all my gear nice and dry.
Most of the day’s hike was on the Steamboat Trace and it was some of the most pleasant walking of the entire trip.

Steamboat Trace

I didn’t run across another person on the whole trail. After about 8 miles I did run across one person next to the trail, his name was John Crook and he was a farmer. We had an interesting conversation about farming and flooding (lots) and pioneering. His family had pioneered that area in the late 1800s. I told him that this stretch of trail from Peru had the richest looking farmland I’d seen on the whole walk.

I saw the first black squirrel today and also the first butternut trees. It was 16 miles to the visitor center and I only sat down for a break once, arriving about 1230.

It was a beautiful visitor’s center with some very interesting displays showing the boats, medical equipment, animals they saw along the way, a full size Indian earthen home, and many other fascinating things.

Lewis and Clark boat model

I had a long conversation with the museum director, Doug Friedli, who was another knowledgable and intelligent fellow with a wealth of information about L&C.

Shortly after leaving the museum I crossed the Missouri River once again into yet another state, Iowa. Another big landmark on the journey. As I crossed the long bridge I saw a boat going down the river which landed on the Iowa side. A Chesapeake dog jumped out into the water and started running down the bank. A half a mile later when I was in Iowa he came charging down the trail straight towards me, wild with enthusiasm. Last I saw he was running wildly back to the boat again, his tongue streaming behind him.

Later I was laughing at myself for my poor map reading skills when I realized the confusion was a new road which didn’t appear on the map at all. It didn’t cause any serious difficulties and today I’m camped several miles into Iowa at the end of a good day. I did however have my tent completely set up and when I crawled inside discovered there were sand burrs on the ground, which were likely to puncture my inflatable air mattress. I took down my tent and moved it several hundred yards onto some grass. Less of a hassle than repairing a leaking mattress.

Lewis, July 16, 1804

…proceeded untill a little before noon when we came too On the Lard. Shore opposite to the center of good Island where I observed the meridian altitude of O’s L. L. with Octant by the back observation, wich gave me the Latitude—40 ° 20′ 12″ N. I now set the Chronometer as near noon as this observation would enable me…

Clark, July 16, 1804

…Saw Some hand Som Countrey, the Creek near the high land is rapid and nearly as muddy as the river, & rising Gutrich caught two verry fat Cat fish G Drewyer Killed 3 Deer, & R Fields one, a puff of wind brought Swarms of Misquitors, which disapeared in two hours, blown off by a Continuation of the Same brees…

Clark

July 19th after breakfast which was on a rosted Ribs of a Deer a little Coffee I walked on Shore intending only to Keep up with the Boat, Soon after I got on Shore, Saw Some fresh elk Sign, which I was induced to prosue those animals by their track to the hills after assending and passing thro a narrow Strip of wood Land, Came Suddenly into an open and bound less Prarie, I Say bound less because I could not See the extent of the plain in any Derection, the timber appeared to be confined to the River Creeks & Small branches, this Prarie was Covered with grass about 18 Inches or 2 feat high and contained little of any thing else, except as before mentioned on the River Creeks &c, This prospect was So Sudden & entertaining that I forgot the object of my prosute and turned my attention to the Variety which presented themselves to my view